Topic: lettuce root aphid

[Tin Shed]

Have just discovered that my lettuces are succumbing to lettuce root aphids.
Does anyone know how to control or get rid of them and do they stay in the soil over the winter ? I know that there are some lettuces that are resistant to them which I wiil try for next year, but I would like to try and salvage this years crop.

[Kepouros]

If you have a Pump up Bottle Sprayer with a lance you could try injecting insecticide under pressure into the root systems of the plants - you would have to push the tip of the lance down into the soil alongside the roots to do this.  I always used this method with Sybol to great effect when the cabbage root fly got past the collars around my brassicas, although whether the ineffectual new insecticides that the EU allow us will work as well I couldn`t predict.  But be careful not to loosen the rootball in the ground.

They don`t stay in the ground over winter but will become mature and fly away to overwinter in poplar trees.  Depending on temperatures they generally migrate back to lay their eggs around lettuces about early June.

The best protection is fine horticultural mesh covering the crop and sealed into the soil at the edges.

[tim]

Don't know about aphid, but my follow-on Pablo - hearting up nicely 4 days ago - have gone flat, kerput!!

[Tin Shed]

Many thanks for the advice - it also explains why my first sowings of lettuce were unaffected, but the later sowings are.