Aphids in garden - use DE??

[sadies chicks]

Hi all,
I had a random thought and wanted to run it by you....I am getting loads of aphids in my carrots, green peppers, etc. and was wondering if anyone has ever used Diatomacious Earth to get rid of them? I am doing the ladybug thing, but there are so many! I am thinking that since the DE is used for chicken coops to keep out mites, fleas, etc, it may work here as well?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

 

[flgardengirl]

Since the aphids hang out mostly on the underside of the leaves and just sit there and suck all the juices out it would probably be hard to dust them without turning the entire plant upside down or one of the puffer dusters that I haven't seen around in a while lol. I usually just use a soap and water spray on them.

 

[Dawn419]

Last year was our first year for gardening on our new property (in the woods) and to the garden pests, well I just laid out the best buffet for them!

Aphids were all over my peas and I mean all over. I tried waiting on the lady bugs but by the time they arrived, the aphids were even worse. I put food grade DE in a shallow pan, placed the pan under the pea vines and shook the aphids from the plants into the pan of DE. Once I'd gotten what aphids I could that way, I made a tea from oregano and mint (a handful of each), strained the tea, let it cool and then sprayed the entire vines.

This year, I've added alot more lady bug/beneficial insect plants (cilantro, dill, yarrow ) and have hardly seen any aphids. What few I did see, I just hand mushed and left the rest for the lady bugs, lizards, garden spiders, frogs and toads.

Hope this is some help!


Dawn

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Got one of those Miracle Grow hose sprayers or a spray tank?

Mix 1 Tablespoon PINK dish soap (not dish detergent)
1 oz. Lysterine
1 oz Tobacco tea (2inch pinch of chewing tobacco into a gallon of hot water, let it set in the sun for a day)

Put it all in a sprayer top off with water and spray away. Will take care of all "soft bodied" bug such as aphids.



Jerry Baker--- http://www.jerrybaker.net/Garden/Information/TipsAndTonics.aspx

 

[sadies chicks]

Ok, thanks for everyones tips! I basically threw out my carrot crop since it was failing with all the bugs and will start over. This is in my green room so I *fortunately* don't have large crops and can just play with the veggies till I get it right.