Aphids of Doom II: The New Batch

Controlling pests of bamboo

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foxd
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Aphids of Doom II: The New Batch

Post by foxd »

I went down to water the bamboos in the basement yesterday and discovered an aphid outbreak attacking the various Phyllostachys. They were quick considering I saw no sign of them a few days before. They also appear to be a different species than last year. The ones this year appear to be flightless.

I began dousing the plants with an insecticidal insect spray.

I'm still in shock about how quickly they showed up. Didn't see any sign of ants.
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RE: Aphids of Doom II: The New Batch

Post by foxd »

They're back!

Sprayed and I'm mixing up a systemic insecticide that should take care of them with the next watering.

One would think that with all the warnings on the insecticide, they would design the container to be drip resistant when pouring. :?
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RE: Aphids of Doom II: The New Batch

Post by foxd »

This seems to be turning into a sign of the approach of Spring. :? Different type than last year. Flightless and sort of a brown color. These went for tomatoes and rather sickly papayas.
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RE: Aphids of Doom II: The New Batch

Post by dudley »

if i let thistles grow in my garden aphids attack them and dont bother the other plants.
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RE: Aphids of Doom II: The New Batch

Post by dependable »

I tried overwintering a large P Nigra inside a few years back. Also had a big P S Japonica and some Fargesas. They all got aphids and whitefly from a gifted Christmas plant. I keep all my potted boos outside for the winter, either just leaving them out or tarping them over for the worst months. The only time I have had a pest problem so far was when I tried to move them inside.
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RE: Aphids of Doom II: The New Batch

Post by marcat »

With small plants a good drenching with incecticidal soap works, not sure the insecticide is nessesary because the soap sufficates them.
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RE: Aphids of Doom II: The New Batch

Post by foxd »

I've come to really appreciate systemic poisons for the ability to treat only the potted plants I want treated.

I'm now watching for the yearly millipede outbreak which usually occurs about this time. :evil:
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RE: Aphids of Doom II: The New Batch

Post by ghmerrill »

foxed,

I have a huge problem with slugs here... not wanting to use anthing toxic to the kids or the critters, I have been fighting the things for the last couple of years..... I recently remembered that diatomaceous earth is supposed to be a great non toxic insect killer.... I ordered some to sprinkle around my strawberries, and around the potted boos. you would have to really dust the plants to work for the aphids, but sprinkled around the pots should take care of the millipedes.
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RE: Aphids of Doom II: The New Batch

Post by Alan_L »

One type of diatomaceous earth is nasty if inhaled, so use with caution indoors if you have the "wrong" kind!

I've found websites that refer to this "bad" kind as "pool grade", and the other non-bad type as "organic". I haven't found any authoritative site that explains the difference though. Apparently there is also "food grade" that you can eat (for some reason) too.
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RE: Aphids of Doom II: The New Batch

Post by ghmerrill »

I dont think that either kind is OK to inhale.... it would be like inhaling glass shards- wether organic or not, that cant be good for you!
from what I have read on the two types, the pool grade DE, can have contaminants in it, where the food grade DE is pure DE, nothing extra in it. Supposedly, DE is another one of those miracle cure alls......
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RE: Aphids of Doom II: The New Batch

Post by foxd »

I tried diatomaceous earth on the millipedes. It didn't seem to do much to stop them.

I have read that slugs don't like to crawl across charcoal.
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The legal issues that will arise when the undead walk the earth are legion, and addressing them all is well beyond what could reasonably be accomplished in this brief Essay. Indeed, a complete treatment of the tax issues alone would require several volumes.
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RE: Aphids of Doom II: The New Batch

Post by dudley »

how about beer?
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RE: Aphids of Doom II: The New Batch

Post by Alan_L »

For slug barrier around the potted plants you could create a copper ring and place it on the ground around the pot. The slugs won't crawl over copper because of the electrical charge that develops (something like that).

Not the cheapest solution, but long-lasting, safe and no mess.

For the plants in the ground, may not be practical.
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RE: Aphids of Doom II: The New Batch

Post by foxd »

Hmmm...how about two closely spaced concentric copper rings hooked up to 220Vac? Slugs on Fire!
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The legal issues that will arise when the undead walk the earth are legion, and addressing them all is well beyond what could reasonably be accomplished in this brief Essay. Indeed, a complete treatment of the tax issues alone would require several volumes.
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Re: RE: Aphids of Doom II: The New Batch

Post by dependable »

dudley wrote:how about beer?
I Like beer just fine..

So do slugs, as we all know, if you have a small scale opperation, using beer as slug bait works great.
Old skunked beer and the remenents of old party beers works. or the stray 30 pack of crap the youths threw on your driveway when they hit your tree and panicked.
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