Supposedly, they can't crawl back up on the plant. The ones that are doing the damage are the hatched out babies and I guess the theory is that they starve to death on the ground. If you see more after washing them off, they are most likely newly hatched eggs. In theory.

Thanks Lin for the tree-mail.

OldGardener, you have now 'met' me. I usually hang out on the Plant ID forum here but I have a cubit on 'cubits'.

I use a dual approach. I initially used a hard stream of water to spray down the plants every day or two and I released beneficials into the garden 10 or so years ago. The beneficials have really taken off and now it is rare to see an infestation (I think the last time I saw aphids were 2 or 3 years ago??). The downside is that it takes time to get the beneficial population high enough to make a difference and, in the mean time, you have to spray your plants down with water or else your plants get eaten as you cannot use pesticides. However, once you get a population of beneficials started, they tend to be self-perpetuating and their population will rise and fall within a few weeks of the pest's population. I currently have a garden full of Praying Mantis, Ladybugs and an occasional Green Lacewing - a new batch of Praying Mantis appear to have hatched within the past month or so.

I personally did not find that soapy water worked any better than the plain water but I know many people who swear by the soap. Because I live in Southern California and I have to water every day or so due to our lack of rain over the summer and fall, it wasn't any additional work to spray down the plants.

Oh - and Hi, Deb! I am so glad that you found us!

Hi, Janet, I am so pleased to meet you! I hope you'll come and join us when you have the time

Any one know if the beneficial bugs will survive nasty cold winters?

I inquired at the garden center about buying ladybugs for my garden and I asked how long they would stay in the garden, the guy said maybe a day or two, so I wasn't about to spend money if that's the case.

LOL, I've purchased Ladybugs at Home Depot a few times over the past couple of years ... released them in my yard and within an hour they were gone to parts unknown. I can't fault them ... apparently they needed more food than my garden supplied!

Same thing happened to my neighbor in SoCal, except they were preying mantis eggs that she forgot and let hatch on her back porch...

We buy fly predators every year because we have goats and ponies as well as dogs and cats, but they have to be replenished every month because they don't reproduce as quickly as the flies. A bit expensive, but they surely do keep the flies down!

With the ladybugs, I released them in the sections where the infestation was greatest. Also, if I remember correctly, I released them at dark fall as per the instructions. By morning, I believe only about 10-20% were remaining but that was enough for them to reproduce every year and we definitely have more of them than we did before. We also have a population of Praying Mantis that lay eggs every year. I found this guy about 6 weeks ago among the daylilies:



I didn't notice him at the time (he was maybe a quarter inch), but when I uploaded pictures, I discovered him. Since then, I have stumbled across about a dozen babies or so and I have not been looking for them.

woofie said:Any one know if the beneficial bugs will survive nasty cold winters?

I'm sorry but I don't know. I hope someone will chime in.

It's an interesting question because we occasionally find the odd Mantis here, so they must survive somewhere!

I would think it would depend on which insects/bugs they are.

OldGardener said:With the ladybugs, I released them in the sections where the infestation was greatest. Also, if I remember correctly, I released them at dark fall as per the instructions. By morning, I believe only about 10-20% were remaining but that was enough for them to reproduce every year and we definitely have more of them than we did before. We also have a population of Praying Mantis that lay eggs every year. I found this guy about 6 weeks ago among the daylilies:



I didn't notice him at the time (he was maybe a quarter inch), but when I uploaded pictures, I discovered him. Since then, I have stumbled across about a dozen babies or so and I have not been looking for them.

Way cool! Praying Mantis, my favorite insect ever! Love the pic

It depends on which insect it is if it will survive the winter. Some overwinter then lay their eggs, others die but leave their eggs or larvae which will keep the cycle going. Any insect which is native to your locality will have developed in order to survive one way or another.

I have never seen praying mantis here, maybe too cold, just lady bugs and once in awhile green lacewings.

They are too cool, mcash. Once I watched one up close, and it turned its little head like a dog does in curiosity. Too cool

Woofie, there'a a plant called shoo fly, also nicandra. Once it starts blooming, it really does keep the flies away. An annual. I had some around a barn, no flies!!!

Hmmm, wonder if that would work for cluster flies? They are just dreadful in the very early spring, covering the east and south sides of the house! As well as any other flat warm surface. They're only a problem for about a month, but it's really obnoxious.

I see you have the same sort of cluster flies in the US as we have, Pollenia sp. I don't see many, when they are about the wasps come along and take them to their nests. I have Mellinus arvensis, a wasp which appears around August and makes nests in the ground where they put the paralysed flies for their young to develop on, they take other flies too but Pollenia seem to be easier to catch. For every pest there is a predator, the amazing food chain which given the chance can solve all your pest problems.

Great information.