The War Against The Aphid Army

[@HansQuistorff]

I keep paper wasps in my greenhouse. They control a wide variety of soft bodied pests. There are also some praying mantis patrolling the premises.

[@IllumTheMessage]

Didn't know ants helped the aphids like that. Really good to know!

[@stevehei8035]

If you have any wood ash you can spray that around. Helps plants and discourage aphids

[@RobsAquaponics]

Thanks for this Rob. Will definitely try the traps next time we get the ants farming the little buggers. Cheers mate

[@zestynotions]

My aquaponics is on an open terrace space with 50mm netting around to avoid feeding my produce to crows, while still allowing bees to come and help pollinate. I often have ant and aphids problems but I would be too scared of borax getting to the water. Also it is my understanding that soap will destroy water surface tension and you wont be able to contain the oxygen in the water and your fist will die. One summer 2 praying mantises had found their way to my terrace and was hanging out, and there very 0 (zero) other bugs (that could not fly) seen on my terrace it was amazing, so if possible introduce a couple of those :)

[@breadlowry]

I don't believe surface tension significantly impacts oxygen diffusion. Oxygen in the atmosphere is often at a higher concentration than in the water. This means it will diffuse into the water.

[@zestynotions]

hmm.. I dont pretend to know the answer but if it is the case that atmospheric oxygen always diffuses into the water, there would be no need to ever manually oxiginate your water, no? I think we might both be right and it just happens at sufficient levels the more we disturb the water surface but the soap just lowers the ability of the water to retain a sufficient amount especially with many large fish? @@breadlowry

[@stevehei8035]

If you had some crawfish in your floating beds they would eat the aphids washed off and clean any dead roots