Re: Aphids and soapy spray

David in Normandy wrote:

> Yesterday for the first time I tried spraying a big lupin with warm
> water and wa****ng up liquid. The plant was absolutely heaving with
> thousands of aphids and starting to look quite poorly and wilting.
> Today 99% of the aphids are black, shrivelled and dead. I'm really
> impressed how quick and effective it has been.
> 
> I sprayed the plant in the full heat and blaze of yesterday afternoons
> sun which probably helped kill off the little buggers. I'll spray again
> this afternoon which also looks like being a scorcher to see if it will
> kill off the remainder. I used about twice the amount of wa****ng up
> liquid as I'd use in a wa****ng up bowl for wa****ng dishes but this
> amount was only in one of those little plant sprayers. The concentration
> seems to have been good.
> 
> I'm very impressed with this "non-toxic" approach. :-)

The only question really is the "non-toxicity" of this non-toxic approach.
I've heard that the soapy water treatment will kill any predators of the
aphids as well as the aphids. Might be worth checking to make sure there's
no ladybird or their larvae, or lacewing larvae around before spraying.

Duncan