A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Star Jasmine

I have a star jasmine.... Pix
that is prone to aphids on all the new growth..... I now have the jasmine trained up the main beams and starting to cover the trellis before it flows over several edges.....it is so high now that I cannot get on top of the trellis to power spray etc. to rid the little suckers :rolleyes: .....(keeping the wood wet is not good....and there are windows directly below). I spray with the soapy solution and rinse....it works for a week or less but I was looking for some kind of systemic solution I can use to rid the aphids for several months. Anyone know of a systemic solution that will kill aphids but not the jasmine????

well my thought is that you would be better off with a biological control (i.e. ladybugs) the problem with spraying is that you kill the good and bad bugs, but the bad bugs are always more resillant. Biological controls take some time to work (you have to recreate a natural ballance) but in the end its a far more effective method. Good luck.

Thanks for the reply....I try and use biological means whenever possible but the problem is I have ants(which milk the aphids)....not just ants but those argentine ants who are very aggressive and kill the lady bugs when they land on the plant....if the lady bug spends more than a couple seconds on the plant...the ants are stinging and biting the poor thing. Those ants will literally eat up a struggling huge moth in a matter of a several hours....I go out the next morning and all that is left are the wings.....they will devour a good sized gopher(the cat got) in three days. (I have personally seen all three situations). I use diazanon powder/bits periodically to kill the ant explosion.....it puts a dent in them but they will never be gone. I am not looking for a spray to cover the plant but rather something systemic...poured directly into the soil just around that one huge plant.

I understand your difficulty. My understanding of the aphid and ant relationship is as follows: the ants "tend" or "heard" the aphids, that is they do protect them but to aquire the "honeydue" secreted by the aphids (that is the partly digested plant sugar <aphid crap>) sorry to go scatological) lol. At any rate I know how horrid the ants are, but I stand by my contension that chemicals are a stop gap measure that in the end is not a sollution. But as to your direct question about a systemic, I am unaware of any such product. Sorry I can not assist to any greater degree, good luck.

Thank you for your time responding, as well as, the lesson in aphid~"scatology"!LOL Catlover