Thousands of little bugs on lillies
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Wow! That IS a lot of bugs! I would try knocking them off with a sharp spray from the hose and let the fish eat them.
MoonShadows
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I sprayed them but they float! The eventually all swam back onto lillies. My koi don't really seem to care for them. I have some mosquito fish on the way that I'm putting in, maybe they'll eat them up.
They don't seem to be killing the plants (yet?) as they're all still green, there's just tons of these suckers.
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I think they're some type of an aphid. Darn, that the fish don't want to eat them 
I recently read about using an insecticidal soap spray, but personally I'd be hesitant to use it near my pond.....I'd probably keep spraying them with the hose.
I recently read about using an insecticidal soap spray, but personally I'd be hesitant to use it near my pond.....I'd probably keep spraying them with the hose.
Agree, with them being aphids. Besides spraying them off, for the fish to eat, I have removed the yellowing lily pads as the aphids tend to congregate on the pads that are dying back. I end up removing some of the healthy pads as well, if they are heavily infested.
Also, could try rinsing healthy pads off into a deep plastic bag of some sort and throw bag away. Just need to do it quickly.
Also, could try rinsing healthy pads off into a deep plastic bag of some sort and throw bag away. Just need to do it quickly.
Meyer Jordan
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Looks like a recently hatched brood of some type of beetle.
DutchMuch
Lord Of The Aquascapes!
They are called water aphids, slightly different than aphids, they thrive in water or moist conditions.
"Rhopalosiphum nymphaeae
Water lily aphid, Reddish-brown plum aphid"
"Large colonies may develop on water lilies, the aphids congregating along the leaf veins and invading the flowers. The rate of development, natality and survivorship rates of Rhopalosiphum nymphaeae has been studied in relation to its potential for virus transmission both to crops and aquatic weeds (Ballou et al., 1986
). The optimal temperatures for Rhopalosiphum nymphaeae were 21 to 27 °C. Hance et al. (1994)
established the life and fertility table on Azolla, an agronomically important aquatic fern used as green manure and fodder. They computed the intrinsic rate of increase which indicated a theoretical doubling in population size every 2.2 days. The various different nymphal instars are shown in the picture below."
(http://influentialpoints.com/Gallery/Rhopalosiphum_nymphaeae_water_lily_aphid.htm)
"Rhopalosiphum nymphaeae
Water lily aphid, Reddish-brown plum aphid"
"Large colonies may develop on water lilies, the aphids congregating along the leaf veins and invading the flowers. The rate of development, natality and survivorship rates of Rhopalosiphum nymphaeae has been studied in relation to its potential for virus transmission both to crops and aquatic weeds (Ballou et al., 1986
). The optimal temperatures for Rhopalosiphum nymphaeae were 21 to 27 °C. Hance et al. (1994)
established the life and fertility table on Azolla, an agronomically important aquatic fern used as green manure and fodder. They computed the intrinsic rate of increase which indicated a theoretical doubling in population size every 2.2 days. The various different nymphal instars are shown in the picture below."(http://influentialpoints.com/Gallery/Rhopalosiphum_nymphaeae_water_lily_aphid.htm)
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Where lilypads are over grown, sticking out of the water and become infested with aphids you notice sticky messy secretions accumulate on the foliage surfaces. Fungus can rip through and destroy the lot, all the lilypads and jeopardise the pond by dumping too much decomp at the same time
Knocking back aphids is better done sooner than later. You tend not to see the problem on 'natural' ponds where there is a resident horde of aphid eating spidies, beetles, pondskaters, whirligigs
Knocking back aphids is better done sooner than later. You tend not to see the problem on 'natural' ponds where there is a resident horde of aphid eating spidies, beetles, pondskaters, whirligigs
Update: pretty much all clear now!
If anyone has these a good method I found was remove any dying lillies (yellowing/browning), wait (if possible) until there's a good rain coming, hose them off really well when it starts raining, the rain will keep them off and drown them.
If anyone has these a good method I found was remove any dying lillies (yellowing/browning), wait (if possible) until there's a good rain coming, hose them off really well when it starts raining, the rain will keep them off and drown them.
