Re: CULT: aphid control

LOL - if you saw my 'garden', you'd realize that I'm not after total
pest control.  I do want to elminate pests as much as possible on these
little seedlings indoors, but certainly not on the outdoor iris rows,
where there are plenty of aphids year round.  I just wondered if there
were any winter predators that I might encourage.  Not to eat all the
aphids, just to slow down the population growth a bit.

I did notice while updating/replacing labels after one of our warm
spells that there were literally thousands of baby spiders running all
over the place.  I wish I'd paid more attention to where they were in
the garden.  Since one whole section of garden seems to be aphid-free, I
wonder if that's where all the spiders were.

The aphid free section is where there was dense bird sown millet last
year that made a nice mulch after I trampled it down and killed it with
Roundup.  This area was vegetable garden at one time with lots of
mushroom compost used for mulch (about a foot thick in places), so it is
much higher in 'fresh' organic matter than the gravel parts of the
garden.

Lots of self-sowing Matricaria (wild daisies) in the aphid infested
section provide plenty of ladybug habitat later in the year.

  <                 "Bill (if you've waded thru all this) can you
recommend winter predator habitat
                   creation? If these aphids can be out flying around,
surely there are some predators
                   out also."

                   I did, and the problem with natural control of pests,
is that as gardeners, we are
                   often unwilling to accept all that comes with
natural. It is natural for aphids to be
                   active before their predators, and to reproduce
faster, so that the predators have
                   plenty to eat. A good "natural' aphid/predator
balance never drives the prey
                   (aphids) to zero, or all your predators will starve.
                   Bill>

--
Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8
East Tennessee Iris Society <http://www.korrnet.org/etis>
American Iris Society web site <http://www.irises.org>
talk archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-talk/>
photos archives: <http://www.hort.net/lists/iris-photos/>
online R&I <http://www.irisregister.com>

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index