Aphid question!

[Swiss]

I planted leaf lettuce this spring (mainly to get rid of old seeds, and to see how I felt about it). Long story short, it didn't do well, and is very pretty when it bolts. So, I just let them be and only ate a few leaves in the beginning.
This evening, I went out to do some dead/dying leaf clean-up in the garden, and discovered a few are loaded with aphids (see pictures below). They are planted right next to my tomatoes. I squished as many as I could, but my question is this: should I pull up all the lettuces and dispose of the aphids (probably in a bucket of soapy water), or should I leave the plants as "sacrificial plants" so the aphids stay away from everything else (so far, the lettuces are the only ones I have seen aphids on)?

**Edited to remove duplicate pictures**

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Every time I've seen aphids they are being farmed by ants for their honeydew. Do you have ants around? Aphids can be hard to get rid of unless you address the ants first.

 

[Swiss]

I've seen one ant at the top of each of my (3) sunflower plants, but those are really the only ones I have seen. There were a few colonies when I tilled in the spring.

Maybe they just come out early morning/at night and I don't see them? I'll have to stay up with a flashlight one of these nights/or get up really early with a flashlight, just to see what shows up when the sun goes down!

Thanks for the reply!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Interesting thoughts. I'm not much into trap plants where I let them breed. I'm worried about them overpopulating. The only trap planting I do is eggplant to attract flea beetles. I spray them to kill them, otherwise they will migrate to other plants after they kill the eggplant.

I suggest you leave the lettuce there as a trap but use insecticidal soap to kill the aphids. Use real insecticidal soap, not dish soap. Follow instructions. That way you should not harm the beneficial insects.

 

[Swiss]

Interesting thoughts. I'm not much into trap plants where I let them breed. I'm worried about them overpopulating. The only trap planting I do is eggplant to attract flea beetles. I spray them to kill them, otherwise they will migrate to other plants after they kill the eggplant.

I suggest you leave the lettuce there as a trap but use insecticidal soap to kill the aphids. Use real insecticidal soap, not dish soap. Follow instructions. That way you should not harm the beneficial insects.

That is what I was wondering! I'll definitely have to look into that!
Thanks!

 

[pibb]

What kind of leaf lettuce? I don't think I've ever seen aphids on my lettuce. I've grown black seeded simpson, salad bowl, romaine, and a couple others I can't remember. Leafhoppers are plentiful. Aphids on my tomato leaves are pretty much guaranteed though. If you leave the lettuce, your tomatoes might be your trap plants.

You can use dish soap. It is a contact killer. I don't like to use chemicals on my lettuce and I have used Dawn Classic and Dawn Ultra and verified it kills certain pests and aphids are one of them. 1.5 tablespoons of Dawn Ultra dish soap per gallon of water will kill those aphids. So far I've found it doesn't work on catepillars and leafhoppers. Some bugs I haven't tested only because I can't catch them. As far as "Insecticidal Soaps" go, I've never used those so I can't say what they can do.