Are aphids a problem?

My second year Nugget hops have large numbers of aphids growing, especially on the youngest leaves. By large numbers, I mean some of the leaves look black from all the little aphids. I've been rubbing or spraying them off fairly regularly. Do I need to? Will they hurt the hops?

A nearby neighbor is also growing hops, and his plants seem largely aphid free.

Thanks!

Im having this same issue ...Im not sure what to do

Insecticidal soap works great for aphids and is safe for food crops.

Most nurserys and hardware stores carry it. Be sure to double-check the label, making certain the particular brand you get is food-safe.

Yes, aphids are a huge problem! They will destroy the plant and leave nothing left. The cheapest way to get rid of them is to spray the plants down with a high powered water hose. A pressure washer is *probably* overkill though. If that doesn't work, then carbon111's advice will work.

Water can knock them off, but it won't kill them or keep them away. I find they just keep on coming. If you see ants on plants with aphids, they're there to farm (their nectar) and protect the aphids in a symbiotic relationship.

Beware, I've used this organic insecticidal soap on my hops once and it left blotches on the leaves. I haven't tried it on my hops since. I use it for my herbs and other plants with success.

Indoor Pharm :: Pharm Solutions Inc.

I've successfully ridden aphid infections with ladybugs.

Go down to your local greenhouse and they'll probably have packs of hundreds of ladybugs. Nature's way of dealing.

I would still try to keep the population down some with spraying, but eventually if you have ladybugs around you should hit an equilibrium that keeps the aphids to non-noticeable levels. Whenver I have aphids, I get some ladybugs so that I dno't have to keep killing 'em. It kinda restores the natural order...

killerhertz said:

Beware, I've used this organic insecticidal soap on my hops once and it left blotches on the leaves. I haven't tried it on my hops since. I use it for my herbs and other plants with success.

Indoor Pharm :: Pharm Solutions Inc.

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Try a different insecticidal soap formulation, it shouldn't hurt your hops.
Here's a good article from Zymurgy that touches on this:

In the Back Yard: Article from Zymurgy® 1997 Special Issue

LADYBUGS!!!! They will do the trick- lots less work than soaps, less difficult than spraying. I am lazy.

kaiser423 said:

I've successfully ridden aphid infections with ladybugs.

Go down to your local greenhouse and they'll probably have packs of hundreds of ladybugs. Nature's way of dealing.

I would still try to keep the population down some with spraying, but eventually if you have ladybugs around you should hit an equilibrium that keeps the aphids to non-noticeable levels. Whenver I have aphids, I get some ladybugs so that I dno't have to keep killing 'em. It kinda restores the natural order...

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quickerNu said:

LADYBUGS!!!! They will do the trick- lots less work than soaps, less difficult than spraying. I am lazy.

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+3

First year for hops but a couple years back I had BAD aphids. Oddly enough, they were all over my chives. Ladybugs had em gone within a week. Neem oil had failed.

It's kinda looking like I need to get another pack of ladybugs this year but last year they kept aphids and such in control with no intervention on my part.

Do note that if you want them to stick around you do NOT want to continue spraying - you'll poison or irritate them.

I have four first year plants and I have aphids. My don't seem to be that bad but I had been warned and was on the lookout. I am using a combo of the soap spray and good old fashion pick and squish. It seems to be working, even the spiders I had when I first notice the aphids seem to have moved on.

Good luck with your plants.

Yeah, aphids are no fun. I had a few plants last year that I didn't even bother picking the cones because they were packed full of them(youngins' look like mites).
I spray once a week now(1.5 hr chore) but aphid free hops:rockin:
I use a mix I got from the store that contains 50% Malathion. Only 2 tsp to one gallon of water....strong stuff. But the aphids are gone the next day.
Just a reminder, I use this BEFORE cone develoment. After that, I use a nicotine-base spray.

I just took a close look at one of my hop leafs and it has about a thousand bugs on it. One freakin leaf...small white ones and even smaller white ones, some yellow medium sized ones and a ton of black ones...I did notice about 3-4 ladybugs on the plant. I think I need about 100 more

What do the black ones look like? Are aphids black? There's a beneficial little black beetle known as the "spider mite destroyer". I think I've seen a few on my plants. No spider mites so far this year, but we haven't hit the dry days yet.

I've got some aphids, but not nearly that bad, but bad enough. I just figured out my Hallertauer are beginning to burr, so I wanted to do something. It's amazing - for being "out in the country", there are few places with a decent choice of insecticides, etc. I picked up a couple bottles of soap at Wal Mart. Went through 1-1/2 in one spraying. Might have helped some, but now a few days later the population is growing again. I put together a mix of 2 TBSP of Murphy Oil Soap and about 1/2 a TBSP of garlic powder in a gallon of water and sprayed the plants. I figured out that I didn't have fresh garlic, so I used powder. Not sure if it matters, but I figure it won't hurt. We'll see how it does. Might have to order some Ladybugs...

FlySpargeVorlauf said:

I just took a close look at one of my hop leafs and it has about a thousand bugs on it. One freakin leaf...small white ones and even smaller white ones, some yellow medium sized ones and a ton of black ones...I did notice about 3-4 ladybugs on the plant. I think I need about 100 more

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Are you kidding me?!
And to think you gave me **** about all of this

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/bugs-121332/

I have some damage on my lower leaves also. I looked pretty closely to many of the leaves and found 0 bugs. The damage on the few leaves was in the center of the leaves that have the problem. One thing that I now realize that could have caused this is the amount of heavy rain and hail latetly. Im going to keep an eye out for bugs but keep physical abuse in mind also.

Sounds like slugs to me...


Pour em a small beer in a tuna can buried up to where the rim is even with the dirt. If ya catch some slugs (ya will), then put out a kid/pet safe (iron phosphate) slug bait..

xpoc454 said:

I have some damage on my lower leaves also. I looked pretty closely to many of the leaves and found 0 bugs. The damage on the few leaves was in the center of the leaves that have the problem. One thing that I now realize that could have caused this is the amount of heavy rain and hail latetly. Im going to keep an eye out for bugs but keep physical abuse in mind also.

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Hmm, its kinda hard to hate an animal who likes beer so much, he would rather drown in it than to leave.

Thanks for all the advice. I'd noticed a few ladybugs around, and now that I've read up on them - Coccinellidae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I know what the ladybug eggs & juveniles look like, and I have hundreds of eggs & many juvies, so I'll just keep picking aphids off the young leaves and let the ladybugs take over.

+Lady Bugs ... Just bought a package of LB's for $5.99 .. They claim 1500 in the package although not sure how they can count them out. Did not look like that many but they have swarmed all over my hop plants and seem to attack the aphids in a very methodical army like way. The climbed the rope, they put a bunch of sentries on top of the fence post to block off any attack. Amazing thing to watch. The hop plant I have on the deck which had no insect problem was quickly abandoned by the LB's as they had nothing to eat. Not sure where they went but I can't complain for $5.99 if a few LB's are slackers.

Malathion works well, but if you want to avoid chemicals, try ladybugs: Beneficial insects for organic pest control in an Integrated Pest Management program. Regards, GF.

Well, the aphids are starting to win the battle, laying hundreds of eggs per leaf, and the ladybug growth cycle seemed a little slow.
So I bought a packet of 1500 ladybugs and set them loose last night. The ladybug army launched very impressive assault this morning, moving up the bines en masse. However, by the time I got home from work, most of them had flown off, some had moved over to our blackberries, and more had "stranded" themselves at the ends of bines, missing out on the top 10 feet or so of growth.
The battle may have been won, but the war is not over.
I'm assuming that all the little eggs are aphid eggs, I'll post some pics for confirmation.

Give your ladybugs some time, They'll find their way around. You could augment them for a multipronged attack by adding some green lacewings, parasitic wasps, or aphid predators to your garden/yard. Regards, GF.

you guys with ladybug experience:

i have some aphids (maybe an average of 1 on every 4th leaf or so), so decided to get a pack of ladybugs before the problem got worse. 2 days later, when i water the plants after work, there are only like 3 or 4 of the supposed 1500 ladybugs still around.

are they noticeable during the day or do they go into hiding when the sun is beating down (it's been low 90's the past few days)? do I not have enough aphids to keep them interested yet?

I had a big aphid problem last year, this year not so much havnt really noticed any. I have bought 1 bag of lady bugs so far this year. There are a couple of tips I can give you on how to apply them.

1. release them at night
2. spray them with sugar water before
3. release them at the base of your plants

The whole sugar water thing from what ive been told is to coat there wings and not let them fly away 5 minetes after you walk away. After a few days you might see the larva and that is really what your shooting for. My plants are covered with close to 50 Larva and they just munch away on aphids before they cant attack.



Happy hunting!

When I left town this past Thursday, I was starting to get worried about the aphid onslaught. While I've watched many ladybug eggs hatch into ladygators, there were still 100+ aphids and eggs per leaf, and I'm not exaggerating.
Got back today, walked into the garden, and the aphids are gone. I could only find a handful of aphids across all the plants. So 2 weeks, and the ladybugs have won.
Yay Ladybugs