Aphids do most of their damage in early spring when the new leaves of Drosera, Sarracenia and Dionaea start appearing. You can tell they are on your plants because the young leaves will appear abnormal and will curl over in a spiral. The cure can be as easy as spaying them off with water from a strong sprayer. The damaged leaves will never return to normal, so you can cut these off. They will be replaced by others. The trouble with this method is that it's not long-lasting and you must spray every five days to make sure the adults are washed off. The eggs which are laid on the plant will continue to hatch until they are gone. Then your troubles may be over but it pays to be vigilant.

The long-term method which works very well is to use a pesticide that is called Acephate. It is sold by Ortho under the name Orthenex. Usually one application does the trick of killing the adults. The good thing is that it does not harm the plant and it's a systemic which means the pesticide is mixed in the sap and when sucked out by the aphid, it dies. It is also long-lasting and that means further hatching of the eggs is fruitless. Recently, I lost only one plant to this spray and that was Pinguicula lutea.

However, the plant was covered by thousands of aphids while I was on vacation, and so I believe they weakened the plant beyond its ability to repair itself.

Joe Mazrimas