Aphids!

I've never really had any issues with Aphids before..or not that I ever noticed. It could be just because we've had such a warm and dry winter this year that they are out in full force. My turnips never were doing really fabulously, I planted them much too close together but I noticed that the leaves appeared to be going downhill quite rapidly. Upon closer inspection I found a massive infestation of aphids. Look at them!!



No, look away!!! The horror!! Apparently aphids are weak, vulnerable, stupid, and easy to control, but that's only if you catch them before they become a problem.



That's not dirt, that's bugs, hundreds and hundreds of aphids. Their only strength for them, is numbers. They reproduce with live young at an alarming rate. They suck the very life out of plants and excrete a sweet sticky substance called honeydew and ants will protect aphids so they can harvest honeydew. Google that, it's fascinating. Because they are soft bodied, they squish easily, they poison easily with neem oil or diluted soap water. They're slow so you can spray them with a targeted jet of water and apparently they're too stupid to find their way back to the plant. I dunno about that, I mean how did they get there in the first place, chance? They also have lots of natural predators, lady bugs and assassin bugs. I even found one trying to work on the population on the turnips. I'd need a whole swarm of assassins to make a dent in this infestation.



He looks very much like a nymph stink bug, but you can be sure it's an assassin because he has a long pointy proboscis that he keeps tucked parallel to his body on the underside. Before I snapped this shot, he was actually eating an aphid. Wish I had gotten a picture of that.

As counter intuitive as it seems, healthy plants have less pest problems. Just like your healthy immune system fights infections or prevents infections, a healthy plant can fight off disease and pests too. These turnips were always pretty weak, coupled with the weather, I'm really not surprised.

So I just decided to harvest, I tossed all the greens in the compost and kept the roots to eat. I also checked all my other plants and found the beginnings of infestation on one collard plant and one cabbage plant so I harvested all the good vegetable and pulled and tossed those plants in the compost also.



You win some and you lose some, but now I'm sure what to look for and how to prevent and control major aphid infestation. Hopefully future experiences with them will be more successful.