There are several home recipes. How much you want to do will depend which one you choose. The yuckiest one is to take several leaves covered with aphids and blend them with water and spray the solution on your other roses. it does work.

If your roses are in containers you can place two or three cinnamon sticks in the pot and the aphids will be gone overnight.

Here are some other homemade mixes:

-- 4 oz of dishwashing liquid to 1 gal of water

-- 1 tbs liquid soap and 1 cup vegetable oil, then add only 2 tbs to a gallon of water ....NOTE: do not spray anything with oil in it if temps in your area are going to be above 85 degrees in the next 90 days

***After using the recipes above, be sure to wash your plants with just plain water.

-- Blender spray -- puree three or four jalapeno peppers, three cloves of garlic and 1 quart of water. Strain and spray on your plants. You can add aphid bodies, to this recipe by blending in a generous bunch of aphid infested leaves into the mix.

-- Some people say a mixture of mineral oil and garlic also works.

I hope this helps. Good luck with your roses.


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Using the search feature of the the Q & A Forum, I found an old post I had done on using home remedies to control aphids. To answer your questions specifically:

1. Using dish soap may kill the ladybugs, too, but will definitely kill the aphids.
2. It doesn't really matter if you use cold or warm water, just don't use hot water.
3. The soap mixture may be applied using either a hand sprayer or a hose sprayer, but I would be more comfortable with the hand sprayer myself.
4. This remedy only works on contact with the insect itself. You don't even need to use dish soap and can just wash the aphids off of the rose plant with a hard spray of just water. Aphids do not have lungs and by washing them with anything, they drown. Applying the soap solution to roses where you do not see aphids will not work as a preventative measure.

I hope this answers all of your questions and good luck with your roses.

Smiles,

Lyn,
helpmefind.com

I believe a hand held sprayer - not sure how you would do it with a hose attachment. I was talking to a guy that owns a nursery at my gym yesterday as I have aphids on all my new rose bushes. He told me the quickest way to get ride of them is to use a Systemic (spelling) that way you mix the concentrate with water and pour it into the ground. That is the best way and no spraying is involved.