Aphids on my roses, time to wage war
 

"ant" writes:
Farm1 wrote:
Ants don't "harvest" aphids but they may eat the honeydew. Rose
aphids don't live on other plants except perhaps pyracantha.

That's interesting, I didn't know that. I grow Basil inside, and sometimes
end up with horrible aphid infestations on it, nasty green ones. I always
assumed the sneaky buggers were coming up from the roses.

I read where milk thistles, the common ones that budgies and other caged
birds love to nibble on, are a gardening menace. Aphids will over-winter
on thistles to then re-infest your valued plants next spring. So I checked
on the roots and under the lower leaves of thistles during winter, and sure
enough those regions were thick with aphids. I also discovered that fennel
is a winter host for aphids, the winter foliage of some I inspected before
eating was seen to be chock-a-block covered with aphids. So there are two
sources that you might want to eliminate from your immediate surroundings
to minimise the chances of re-infestation by aphids.

Here I'd been encouraging thistles 'cause they at least provided some green
colour in a fallow winter bed of straw mulch. :-(
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

Aphids on my roses, time to wage war
 

g'day john,

hmmm interesting that one hey? i encourage the milk & sow thistles as
i find that the othe bugs would rather chew on them than me vege's
etc, also the thistles flower profusely and bring in the pollinators
for better tomato and capsicum pollination.

i haven't had a lot of problems with aphids in my gardens all the
same, i'm currently encouraging m.t's to grow in this garden for the
same above reasons, but will take note to see if i get more aphids or
not.

for me but i would be assuming that if the aphids are happy on the
m.t's then they may leave the other plants alone??? initially if i
found that i would be going along the lines of the m.t being a good
companion plant to have, wonder but??

currently but still only got aphids on one rose and as the m.t's are
new as well they most likley didn't over winter on them i'd be
thinking.

but suppose if the ants are doing the farming then again that could be
the lynch pin, or do suppsoe that the aphids move themselves from the
m.t to the roses say?



On Wed, 30 Aug 2006 00:27:06 GMT, John Savage
wrote:

snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.gardenlen.com

Aphids on my roses, time to wage war
 

"Farm1" please@askifyouwannaknow wrote in message
...
"Ms Leebee" wrote in message

Have never noticed ants in connection with my roses, but will keep a
sharper
lookout.

I've been wondering about this since Len and others kept reporting
that they have both on their roses.

I know that I do a fair amount of scratching around and managing the
soil and the plants under my roses and the ant nests in my garden are
all in drier places where I do not ever disturb them.

I had one bed which did have ants harvesting from scale insect from a
bush but as soon as I started working up that bed and improving the
soil and improved my general sol management practices, they
disappeared and haven't been back since.

How do you grow your roses and manage the soil?

I always thought that cultivating the soil around a plant is bad for it's
roots. Anyway the ants that I have are coming from under the house and in
the mortar of the bricks.

Jen

Aphids on my roses, time to wage war
 

John Savage wrote:
"ant" writes:
Farm1 wrote:
Ants don't "harvest" aphids but they may eat the honeydew. Rose
aphids don't live on other plants except perhaps pyracantha.

That's interesting, I didn't know that. I grow Basil inside, and
sometimes end up with horrible aphid infestations on it, nasty
green ones. I always assumed the sneaky buggers were coming up from
the roses.

I read where milk thistles, the common ones that budgies and other
caged birds love to nibble on, are a gardening menace. Aphids will
over-winter on thistles to then re-infest your valued plants next
spring. So I checked on the roots and under the lower leaves of
thistles during winter, and sure enough those regions were thick with
aphids. I also discovered that fennel is a winter host for aphids,
the winter foliage of some I inspected before eating was seen to be
chock-a-block covered with aphids. So there are two sources that you
might want to eliminate from your immediate surroundings to minimise
the chances of re-infestation by aphids.

Here I'd been encouraging thistles 'cause they at least provided some
green colour in a fallow winter bed of straw mulch. :-(

Bugger. I do have a lot of those big, squeaky thistles. Keep spraying them
and the pattersons, and am making inroads, but never quite get on top of
them. And there's a giant patch of both within sight of the house. And, it's
quite warm up here, compared with down in Canberra. Sigh. Now things are
becoming clearer. Well, I'm going to get the biggest, giantest bag of Borax
EVER and hit those mongrel ants for a start.

--
ant
Don't try to email me;
I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy

Aphids on my roses, time to wage war
 

"Jen" wrote in message
"Farm1" please@askifyouwannaknow wrote in message
"Ms Leebee" wrote in
message

Have never noticed ants in connection with my roses, but will
keep a
sharper
lookout.

I've been wondering about this since Len and others kept reporting
that they have both on their roses.

I know that I do a fair amount of scratching around and managing
the
soil and the plants under my roses and the ant nests in my garden
are
all in drier places where I do not ever disturb them.

I had one bed which did have ants harvesting from scale insect
from a
bush but as soon as I started working up that bed and improving
the
soil and improved my general sol management practices, they
disappeared and haven't been back since.

How do you grow your roses and manage the soil?

I always thought that cultivating the soil around a plant is bad for
it's
roots.

Depends on how close you get.

Anyway the ants that I have are coming from under the house and in
the mortar of the bricks.

Yes that makes sense. A nice dry undisturbed spot rather than in an
area of cultivation.

Aphids on my roses, time to wage war
 

"ant" wrote in message

Bugger. I do have a lot of those big, squeaky thistles. Keep
spraying them
and the pattersons, and am making inroads, but never quite get on
top of
them.

Doing both of these at the rosette stage (ie now) is the best time to
knock them off. My husband has got rid of nealry all the thistles on
our place by doing it at this time of year but it took a good 5 or so
years but we proably have more land than you.

Aphids on my roses, time to wage war
 

gardenlen writes:
hmmm interesting that one hey? i encourage the milk & sow thistles as
i find that the othe bugs would rather chew on them than me vege's
etc, also the thistles flower profusely and bring in the pollinators
for better tomato and capsicum pollination.

That's a logical-sounding line of thinking, Len, but ....

for me but i would be assuming that if the aphids are happy on the
m.t's then they may leave the other plants alone???

Possibly you are right -- but your explanation relies on thistles being
an around-the-year crop, and are they? I think of milk thistles as being
a winter/spring plant, and if so then the aphids will have to move on to
something else in your garden when their thistle hosts disappear during
summer. If my theory is right, then this would give rise to the reputation
of milk thistles giving overwintering hosting to aphids.

but suppose if the ants are doing the farming then again that could be
the lynch pin, or do suppsoe that the aphids move themselves from the
m.t to the roses say?

I haven't studied aphids closely enough. (Maybe I'll get out the paint
pallete and put a few red crosses on some aphids so I can monitor their
movements?) But I'm sceptical that aphids have evolved to be totally
dependent upon ants for locomotion. It is stretching my credulity that
if an aphid wants to get from Rosebud #1 to Rosebud #3 it must flag down
a passing ant to taxi it around the plant. My experience with aphids is
that there are lots of aphids AND ants on the red tips of my prize lemon
tree, but I don't object as there is plenty of juice and sap for everyone
to have a share! On minature roses I've seen every bud covered with aphids,
but I doubt that an ant (or even a hundred of them) could have assiduously
carried equal numbers of aphids out to each bud and with such care as to
not miss even one bud.

I just spray them with my metho+water mixture and say good riddance! The
ants must be fast learners if they are responsible for backpacking aphids
around the garden--they make no attempt to replace those lost to my metho
spray!! Maybe baby aphids being so small and lightweight can hitch a ride
with butterflies and bees and on the beaks and feet of birds? I think that
might be quite likely. But I reckon aphids probably have their own little
legs to propel them around. I will investigate this question more closely!
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

Aphids on my roses, time to wage war
 

"John Savage" wrote in message

But I reckon aphids probably have their own little
legs to propel them around. I will investigate this question more
closely!

The rose aphid goes by the Latin name of "Macrosiphum rosae" if you
want to google it.

Aphids on my roses, time to wage war
 

Every now and then Aphids produce a generation of winged creature to help
spread their population around.. They also have some funny reproductive
processes, including females being born pregnant !! There's an interesting
article in Wikipedia on them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphid

Geoff


"Farm1" please@askifyouwannaknow wrote in message
...
"John Savage" wrote in message

But I reckon aphids probably have their own little
legs to propel them around. I will investigate this question more
closely!

The rose aphid goes by the Latin name of "Macrosiphum rosae" if you
want to google it.

Aphids on my roses, time to wage war
 

Geoff & Heather wrote:
They also have some funny
reproductive processes, including females being born pregnant !!


Sounds like some religions and their beliefs.

--
ant
Don't try to email me;
I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy

Aphids on my roses, time to wage war
 

Spray with a natural product like the one at
http://www.natural-ant-killer.com

It won't harm your roses or the environment. In fact a side benefit to
this product is that is also works as a natural fertilizer!

I have personally used it on my lawn and no longer have any pesty
pests. And my lawn looks terrific!

They tell me that the way it works is that it contains an natural
surfactant that breaks water molecules in molecules that are so tiny
that they penetrate the waxy coating of critters and it drowns them
instantly!

Because it breaks down water into smaller molecules, it gets down into
the soil better and as a result my lawn and plants flourished!

I am estatic!