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Aphids on roses, solutions?

RuthmshawRuthmshaw Posts: 45
in Problem solving
Hi, has anyone any good solutions for controlling aphids on roses? I have used Rose clear in previous years but this year it seems to have no effect, so I have been squishing them by hand which is very time consuming and they keep coming back. Few birds visit the back garden as we are on a fairly new development and the trees and shrubs are too small as yet to provide much cover. Any advice would be appreciated.
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Posts

  • RuthmshawRuthmshaw Posts: 45
    Only got a few ladybirds which seem to make no noticeable inroads in the aphid population.
  • rossdriscoll13rossdriscoll13 Posts: 234
    edited May 2023
    @Ruthmshaw take 2 teaspoons of crushed garlic or chilli and add to 500ml of water.  Leave for a couple of days, strain and spray your roses.  You need to repeat once a week and respray after it has rained.
  • nick615nick615 Posts: 1,487
    Boil rhubarb leaves.  Once cool, drain off liquid.  Fill a cast off household spray and apply to the aphids.  The aphid season is longer than the rhubarb's, early and late, so I always keep a containerful in the shed for off season application.  If the aphids stray on to food products, wash such food thoroughly as rhubarb leaves are poisonous to humans, but I use on both.
  • debs64debs64 Posts: 5,184
    @Marlorena I agree, if you kill the aphids the predators will go hungry and you will have less of them. I occasionally wipe off a few from very new buds but otherwise leave them alone. It’s interesting that there are almost no aphids on my roses this year, I have increased my bird feeding and I really think it helps. 
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    I agree with @Marlorena and @debs64 … I do exactly as they do and it works here. 

    The birds won’t come unless there’s food for them … our roses and other shrubs are full of busy bluetits feeding their young with aphids 
     😊 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • RuthmshawRuthmshaw Posts: 45
    Thank you for all your ideas, lots to try out!
  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 970
    I leave mine alone as well. Birds and other predators including ladybirds, earwigs etc will clear them. You sometimes have to wait until they arrive but a balance will be achieved eventually.
     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    Like debs, I do squish the worst of them off tender new shoots and buds because it can cause distorted growth, but am learning to relax about aphids - sawflies are a much greater menace here. We have tonnes of mature cover but the birds don’t come near because they have enough food around and are probably scared away by the cats.

    You can also use companion planting next to roses to deter aphids, anything strong-smelling like herbs and alliums, or sacrificial plants such as nasturtiums. Anything you can do to encourage natural predators such as ladybirds, hoverflies and lacewings will also help, so plants they and their larvae like to feed on, messy areas to nest and overwinter etc.
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited May 2023
    I was looking at wild roses in the field hedgerows the other day … not a greenfly to be seen … the hedges were full of birds.  I realised that in all my long life in the country I’ve never seen a mass of greenfly on wild roses. 
    😊 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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