[Gardening] Aphids on my strawberries, should I worry about my garden?

[Togath]

I found(and hopefully stopped) an aphid infestation on my strawberry plants... Should I be afraid of them spreading to other things?
I mainly grow mint, along with a few berries and fruits(grapes, raspberries, blackberries, and pink huckleberries), but the aphids seem to only be going after my mostly dead strawberries(which were supposed to die in the winter, but didn't)

[Spojaz]

You certainly don't need to worry about the mint. Mint oil is a natural pesticide. To keep aphids from spreading to the other fruits, you can put your thumb over the hose nozzle and use the high pressure spray to wash them away. Once a day for a week should do it.

[Icewraith]

Get all the ladybugs. All of them.

[Bobbybobby99]

Get all the ladybugs. All of them.

Seconded. Also, if you planted that mint in the ground rather than in pots or raised beds, you should dig them up and put them in either pots or raised beds.

[Togath]

Pots, and sadly the hose thing won't work >_<
Top floor of an apartment building+growing the garden on a balcony.

[Serpentine]

A spray of dishwashing liquid in water is meant to help. I ended up getting a general pesticide because I was also getting scale bugs and caterpillars, but dishwashing liquid spray is what I've heard for aphids. It's a physical contact treatment, though, not preventative - it works by actually hitting the aphids, not by coating the plant or whatever.

[cobaltstarfire]

Pots, and sadly the hose thing won't work >_<
Top floor of an apartment building+growing the garden on a balcony.

You can still wipe them with soapy water, or get a spray bottle to do it. (make sure to clean the soapy water off afterwords)

That or individually find and remove/kill them by hand. (I usually just toss caterpillars and thrips/grasshoppers over the porch fence into the grass) But aphids and scale bugs gets wiped off/squished. This is usually how I do it because it's more comfortable than dealing with water in this way.


Since you weren't interested in keeping the strawberries at all you may also consider simply pulling them up and throwing them away/burn/freeze them.