aphids again!

[Northpine]

Good Grief,
I think someone has put a curse on me!
This time it is red aphids. First I noticed red tips on my solidago. Looks closer and was shocked to see every tip coated with them. I quickly mixed up some soapy water and was able to dunk the ends into the container and rub them off. Thought I was done.

A week of so ago, I found a rose bush infested with them. This time I didn't care so much as I was planning to remove the bush anyway, so quickly did it.

Today I was admiring my Therese Bugnet that is getting ready to burst into bloom when I noticed honeydew. Looked closer and there they are again. The thing is full of them. I cut off all the tips where they were clustered, but I'm sure I missed many.
In all my gardening years I've never seen anything like this. If you smear them off, it looks like blood.

[DonnaZn2SK]

Nice imagery, Marie. Yuck.

I had aphids on my annual salvias last year. I haven't noticed any yet this year. They have a fairly quick life cycle, so you need to keep an eye out for them over the course of several weeks.

[davefrombc]

Hose them off . You can hit them with the soapy water spray first , but spraying them off with the garden hose will drastically reduce them.. They don't easily crawl back onto the roses.
You don't have to clip off the buds and stems they are on . Hose them off.. That bunch won't be back.. You'll get others again , but nail them with the spray and away they go .

[Northpine]

Dave, I've tried unsuccessfully many times to use the water spray on wooly aphids that constantly wreck my honeysuckle vine. They laugh at my efforts.

It's the variety of plant material these aphids seem to be attacking that caused my panic and impelled me to cut them off. The Therese Bugnet is a very large shrub rose and would be difficult to spray. I didn't think she would miss the stems I snipped off. Plus it was instant gratification.

But just went out and smeared a few more off the rose, then noticed honeydew dripping onto a hosta, looked up and it's coming off the birch tree. I think I'm doomed.