aphid control
Cathy Craig (Wed, 12 Feb 2003 11:29:16 PST)

I spent much time trying to spray aphids off plants with water. This never
worked for me and I resorted to other methods. However it has come to my
attention this year that I just didn't have the right hose end sprayer. I
bought a few of the cheaper (blue colored here) ones that have about 7
choices of spray pattern. The customary green ones I was buying did not
remove aphids no matter what pattern I used. The blue ones do. The 'shower'
pattern on the blue one seems to have smaller and fewer holes than the green
type and seem to spray the aphids off without damage even to open rose
blooms.

I was using Safers Insecticidal Soap spray from a plastic bottle followed by
clear water, this too worked. But if I can leave one step out, I'm happy.

I just hope it's true that once you spray them off, they can't climb back on
the plant. Personally I have my doubts about this but am having problems
identifying individual aphids for test purposes.

Cathy Craig President PBS
Maritime zone 9b