
Last July, when sheltering indoors from the heat, planning next winter and spring’s hoophouse crops, I researched and wrote up Controlling Aphids in Early Spring
I also have a post (another July information-gathering project!) about Insectary Flowers to Attract Beneficial Insects outdoors and in, at various times of year. At the end of April we sow several plug flats of different flowers to plant out in Insectary Circles at the ends of our outdoor raised beds. We hope to find a similar approach that will work earlier in the year for hoophouse and greenhouse aphids.

Poster from the Lost Ladybug Project
Aphid predatory insects such as ladybugs, lacewings, aphid parasites, damsel bugs, braconid wasps, rove beetles, syrphid flies, and spined soldier beetles are attracted to plants with small flat open flowers, like alyssum, dill, yarrow, buckwheat, sunflowers, and cosmos. This is a rather loose and general statement. On a big scale this is known as Farmscaping, and you can read about it in a publication from ATTRA; Farmscaping to Enhance Biological Control . You can use this publication to make a specific plan to tackle particular pests. Ladybugs are a good general help because they eat the eggs of many different pest species. Organic Integrated Pest Management from ATTRA gives wider information about managing pests organically.

Lost Ladybug Project
eOrganic has many articles on Insect Management in Organic Farming Systems, that explain ways to tackle pest problems with ecologically-based practices, starting with actions chosen to reduce the chances of the pest ever getting a grip on your crops.
Aphids can get out of control in early spring in our greenhouse and hoophouse, as they become active before their native predators, such as ladybugs, emerge from hibernation. We have a particular problem in our hoophouse and in our greenhouse on the eggplant, pepper and tomato transplants from mid-April to mid- to late-May depending when we manage to get them under control. We are implementing our plan that we made in the summer.
Insectary flowers against aphidsMeanwhile in January we got bad aphids on the lettuce and, of our flowers to attract beneficials, borage was the only one flowering. It was not enough. We did three sprays of soapy water at 5 day intervals to kill the aphids.

There are many kinds of aphids. The lifecycle of aphids starts in spring with eggs hatching into wingless females that give birth via parthenogenesis to more females. Within a week, one female can produce 100 clones, which can repeat the process at the age of one week. This continues until adverse weather or predators trigger production of a generation of winged female aphids that moves to new plants. Later in summer male aphids are born and females lay fertilized eggs that overwinter on host plants, to hatch the following spring.
This week, I want to give a progress report on the flowers we are growing. The chart gives details of the ones we chose, where we found the seed, and which months we decided to plant them in.

The first planting, in September, was of borage and shungiku (Chrysanthemum greens) only. We hoped these would give us early flowers to start the program. Those plants became big enough to transplant in the ground and in 8” (20 cm) pots. We thought having some in large pots would enable us to move them to the trouble spots.

Photo Pam Dawling
What I have noticed is that plants in pots dry out very quickly in both the hoophouse and greenhouse! The shungiku have looked close to flowering several times, and the accidentally dry conditions should have helped them to panic and bloom, but they haven’t. The borage flowered with pompom-like clusters, much more compact than spring outdoor borage does.

The second planting, in late October, consisted of Meadowfoam, Tidy Tips, Phacelia and Yarrow. Those plants are still small, as I write this at the beginning of February.

They have been potted up from cells to 4” (10 cm) pots, and some are ready for bigger pots. No flowers, no help against January lettuce aphids.

Photo Pam Dawling
The third sowing has just happened, on February 1, and includes borage, shungiku, Meadowfoam, Phacelia, Tidy Tips and yarrow. I forgot to sow alyssum, so that will be a little later.

The September-sown borage and shungiku both had some troubles with cold temperatures during January. We had a mild December, then a January with three non-consecutive nights at 10F (-12C). In our double-poly hoophouse, we roll out rowcover at night if it threatens to be 8F (-13C) or lower outdoors. That was about 6 times so far, but 10F (-12C) has been our coldest. Some of each of the borage and shungiku got cold-damaged, and some got rowcover-damaged (hasty pulling!)
So far, no beneficials have been seen on the borage flowers, and no aphids have been killed as a result. We’re still hopeful, especially about reducing aphid numbers on the peppers. More progress reports to come!

Thank you for another sterling post! Your thorough explanation of aphid lifecycle, plans to address problems, and the documentation of insectary plants with pictures is so helpful, Pam. I appreciate that you acknowledge places at which the plans didn’t work so well – that’s at least as helpful as knowing what DID work. As a Californian, I was pleased to see meadow foam, phacelia, five spot and yarrow, all native here, on your list, and that in turn reminded me of beetle banks, especially when combined with hugelkultur. Can’t beat beetles killing more than they can eat, especially when they overwinter and come out early. Here’s a quote from Beebettercertified.org: Beetle banks invite natural pest control into your fields. A beetle bank is a berm planted with native grasses and/or wildflowers which attracts and supports predaceous ground beetles and other beneficial insects. Decomposing wood may also be added to beetle banks to enhance the habitat opportunities for beetles and above-ground nesting bees. The predaceous beetles attracted to beetle banks are known to kill more than they can eat, providing heightened control of pests like slugs and potato beetles. The beetles are mostly active at night, so you might not see their armies at work, but you can easily see the results: fewer crop pests. Beetle banks are typically planted within or around crops, as the predaceous beetles tend to forage only a limited distance from them.
Thanks Barbara,
I just learned (at the Pasa Sustainable Agriculture conference) that I have been under-estimating the role of ground beetles in controlling larvae of striped cucumber beetles, another of our main pests. We’re not going to give up space in our hoophouse for a berm, but we could do so outdoors. And find other ways to encourage ground beetles in our hoophouse. Thanks for this remeinder! Pam
Isn’t too cold for the predators to be around, Pam? unless they hibernated in the greenhouse.. but even so, it’s still cold in there at night. We have some aphids too in the tatsoi and some of the lettuce, so thank you for all the tips, and the life cycle. I had not quite realized that the cycle was so short. I grow borage in the hoophouse but in the ground – the plants get large and gorgeous with clouds of blue flowers in march and April – much bigger and healthier than anything I try to grow outside. The honeybees absolutely love it and they attract are a lot of other insects too.
Hi Sylvie, yes still working on this one. Our bolting turnips in early march are doing better at attracting beneficials! I did hope to get flowers earlier from the deliberate flowers!
Pam