Aphid control

[AKmark]

I had a massive aphid out break in one of my greenhouses. You can see in the pics the blk slime, aphid poo stuff, and leaf damage. I released parasitic wasps Ervipar, and they turned the plants into the killing fields. I show a pic of a leaf that was covered, and show the back side which is clean except for a few ramaining cocooned aphids. The eggplant leaf is just covered with aphids who are now hosts/ cocooned and dead, and it has very few live ones left. Anyway, it is kinda interesting to look at up close under a microscope, almost as interesting as microbiology class in school. Notice how the plants now have clean new growth that is healthy. Sorry about the pic quality. The damaged leaves have to stay put, I don't want to reduce the wasps population by removing them

[RootLoops]

i love parasitic wasps! they decimated the tomato worms last year, to the point where i didn't have to do anything about the worms after the wasps showed up(wild). one day those white egg looking things appeared on a tomato worm, then not long after that every worm i'd find had them on it

[AKmark]

The parasitic wasps have done a great job stopping the aphid attack, the aphids are almost all cocoons now, very few remain.

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by AKmark

I released parasitic wasps Ervipar, and they turned the plants into the killing fields.

Where were these wasps before you released them?

I have a couple of wasps hanging around my tomato plants; mainly the old foliage. It's really weird b/c I move them in-out of the sun and the wasps just follow along.

For me:

Aphids - go for mainly for the tomatoes (but I've never seen cocoons like that).


Catepillars - this year are preferring the eggplant over the tomatos, but I have found tomato plants stripped from catepillars; I rarely will see an aphid on an eggplant. Catepillars are so obvious on an EP, I find them in the rolled leaf, and pick it out, throw it on the deck and immediately a lizard eats it.

Catepillars love the squash, melons, cukes but I yanked them all out. I have one one young tall cuke plant surrounded by EP and so far so good; it looks like Jack and the Bean stalk.

Whiteflys - love the peppers, but leave the EP and mature tomatos alone.

Hornworms - I find them here and there on tomato plants and pull them off; and watch the lizards go for them.

Lizards hang around a lot by the plants; they need to be more proactive. They will grab a moth, but are content with me getting the caterpillar for them. I don't think they acquired a taste for aphids or whiteflys.

I only sprayed a few peppers this year with castle soap (for whiteflys).

[AKmark]

You can order them online, they are for greenhouse pest control

[RayR]

Barb, the female parasitic wasps (Aphidius colemani) that lay their eggs inside aphids are very small, you probably wouldn't even notice them.

You can buy them or in my case they just showed up in my garden. One of the advantages of not using any toxic insecticides unless absolutely necessary.

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=23646