Are these aphids?

[Paige Powell]

Found these on my lettuce today :(  Are these aphids?   How should I treat them?

[Moses Gonzales]

Yes, they are.  I'm new to aquaponics so I'm curious on the safe way to treat these and not harm the fish.  I know ladybugs will eat them, but I've always had mixed results attracting them or buying them and setting them free.

 

 

[Sylvia Bernstein]

I'd love to help you out, Paige, because I've dealt with a lot of aphids over the past few years, but I'm having a hard time telling what those are based on the images. The ones I deal with are usually green, soft bodied monsters...not black. But you could be dealing with a different variety.

Anyone else?

[Paige Powell]

It stumped  me as well Sylvia!  I've only seen them on my lettuce so far, not sure if that helps anyone!

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Can you take the lettuce plants out and soak them in the fish tank for a while?  I often do this with bugs on smaller plants.  The bugs drown, or as least let go of the plant and are floating food in the fish tank.  And if you get lucky your fish will come clean them off the plants for you!

[Paige Powell]

I will try that today!  Thank you!

[Jesse Hull]

The big one in the first image (062.jpg) looks to be an aphid, but it's hard to tell for sure. There are darker colored varieties (Aphis fabae & Nasonovia robos-nigri for example), but most are used to seeing the yellow-green ones.  Aphids feeding on plants getting high levels of nitrogen (aquaponics!) can appear darker as well.

It's been hit/miss when using lacewings for me, but ladybugs usually work well. Molly (Stanek) found that spraying ladybugs with a sugar-water solution (try flat Sprite or 7-UP) at the time of release will temporarily 'sugar-glue' the wings shut and keep them around longer. From personal experience, I don't feel secure until I've seen a few ladybug larva show up.  Within a week of them making an appearance, I've always noticed a drastic reduction in the target pest population, as compared to just the adult ladybugs alone.

[chris taylor Swamp Creek Farms]

i had a problem with aphids in my system,  I put ice in the beds and flooded them for a good while. Cold kills them.  then i had ants get in the beds, that didnt work the same,  so i added a tiny bit of dish soap and flooded the beds,  didnt kill the fish or the plants.   but it did the bugs.