Aphids on my roses, time to wage war

 Today I noticed on my roses out the backyard that most of the bud sites are
covered in aphids. Now before i go on I should warn you that i put the "um"
in greenthumb and ive never tackled aphids before.

They all seem huddled up together in groups on the bud sites - i can't
really see any on the stems or anywhere else as such, so it seems like I
could get rid of most of them just by chopping off all the bud sites. I did
notice a few Ladybugs which is cool, but there's only a few of them and
perhaps thousands of aphids so the Ladybugs cant do it alone

So I want to kill the aphids but not the Ladybugs, anyone know any tricks?
other than breeding Ladybugs :P
Thanks

 Dave -Turner wrote:

My iceberg has had half-hearted buds and flowers all winter, and the buds
have been completely covered in aphids. fricking birds get their seeds right
over the roses, but they haven't et the aphids. I might cut back their seed
ration.

You can rub off the aphids, make up a bowl of soapy water. Won't kill the
ladybirds that way.

Or you can just nuke them with slayaphe.



--
ant
Don't try to email me;
I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy

 
??? i didnt think birds ate aphids - arent they a bit too small for their
liking?  i know Ladybirds love em tho


That's how it seems at the moment because they're all clusterd together on
the bud sites - perhaps i can dunk each budsite in a bowl of water and shake
them off into the water to drown the little bastards


Why soapy? and should it be neutral temperature, or cold or luke-warm or hot
or ... ?


Never heard of it but i'll google it - I'd prefer a more biofriendly/natural
solution tho

 that's correct jan,

that is why i can't understand the statement made by a previous
poster.

in 25 years of gardening i have listened a lot i've seen a lot of tv
shows and read a lot of text online in the past 10 years but have
never heard of ants not farming those thript type bugs.

On Fri, 25 Aug 2006 12:49:51 GMT, in aus.gardens you wrote:

snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.gardenlen.com

 So if i destroy the ants nests at the bases of my roses bushes that would
have a significant effect on the aphid populations (by allowing other
predatory insects in that the ants wouldve otherwise kept away) ?

Thanks for your insights Len, its very much appreciated