Aphids and Emersed plants

[ExcitableBoy]

Hi to all!
I don't know how they have arrived in one of my "ripariums", probably there were eggs on the Myriophylllum sp. stems I bought on eBay, because they were emersed in a pond and most of the aphids I can see are actually on it. Maybe there are someone on the Limnobium near the Myriophylllum too, not sure. The good thing is that since it's summer the aphids are not the kind who flies and haven't invaded other plants and ripariums yet.
I have manually removed the stem that had lots of aphids, now I can see one here, one there... They are still a few, it's not an invasion and plants looks healthy, but it's gonna be an Aphids Farm if I do nothing.
I can't use ladybugs larvae etc. because there's water under the stems. I cannot submerge everything and then let fishes eat the floating aphids (no fishes in my ripariums).
I was thinking to spray a solution, leave it on the plants for a little, then spray again with RO water, maybe repeating the treatment every 3-4 days for a couple of week.
What do you think I could use? I have read dish soap, neem oil, Excel (or any glutaraldehyde product), tobacco etc.
Something not harmful for the waterplants of course and for the aquatic invertebrates too if possible.
Thanks for help, have a nice day!

 

[Tyko_N]

When I had an aphid infestation in my paludarium I tried using parasitic wasps (Aphidius colemani) to control them, I had my doubts as to whether this would actually work since the paludariums above water section is about 500L and crammed with plants, but the wasps eradicated the aphids completely. With patience you can of course also manage a small outbreak by yourself, by killing any aphids you can find every day or so, aphids give birth to live young (at least at this time of year) so there won't be any eggs left to restart the population once you have removed all the adults and nymphs.

 

[ExcitableBoy]

When I had an aphid infestation in my paludarium I tried using parasitic wasps (Aphidius colemani) to control them, I had my doubts as to whether this would actually work since the paludariums above water section is about 500L and crammed with plants, but the wasps eradicated the aphids completely. With patience you can of course also manage a small outbreak by yourself, by killing any aphids you can find every day or so, aphids give birth to live young (at least at this time of year) so there won't be any eggs left to restart the population once you have removed all the adults and nymphs.

Thanks, I can find online some Aphidius colemani mummies, not so expensive. The problem might be to place these on the plants without making them fall in the water. As I said there's no substrate above the water, so maybe I could use the Limnobium as platforms and place them next to the stems.
I will try to manually remove those I still see for now, then in a week or so I will decide if go for the Aphidius.

Do you have a journal or a gallery of your paludarium? I'd like to see it 🙂

 

[Tyko_N]

I will try to manually remove those I still see for now, then in a week or so I will decide if go for the Aphidius.

Sounds like a good plan, I think people often underestimate how easy some pests actually are to get rid of if you just have a bit of patience and discover them early on.

The problem might be to place these on the plants without making them fall in the water.

They will probably come in a container mixed up with some kind of media like vermiculite, just open that and place it in near the aphids (but make sure it doesn't get water in it), maybe you can have the container floating on a piece of styrofoam? Once the adult Aphidius hatch they will fly out and start looking for aphids to infect, so the container can be removed after a few days.

Do you have a journal or a gallery of your paludarium? I'd like to see it 🙂

I do, Marshlands, unfortunately I don't have photos of the entire build process though, and it badly needs an update (but it's still going strong).