# Omg Pea Aphids....



## Heim (Aug 3, 2008)

Now on the whole, I am liking these little guys. As long as they have food, the numbers seem to stay pretty high; I have found them active enough for frogs to hunt them; and apparently they are very nutritious...

I have been following some of the guides on the net, but the plants really don't last too long, and quickly go stinky and moldy. I appreciate that they are having the life sucked out of them, but has anyone managed to sustain some fairly 'healthy' pea plants for a sustained period? While allowing a nice regular harvest of the aphids?


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

Honestly, I don't even know how you are supposed to culture them- fill me in, and I may have some ideas.


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## Heim (Aug 3, 2008)

Well they live exclusively on the sap of pea plants. So the method I have been following is:


Buy a pack of dried peas
Soak some peas in a dish overnight
Place some peas in a container on top of damp kitchen roll
Allow peas to grow for a week or so
Providing peas are now growing and some some 'green'; introduce pea aphids
This can not be missed at all, one week off will result in a point in time you have no plants for the aphids to hop onto next.

Now I am guessing it is because the plants are so young, they are just being killed so quickly by the rapidly reproducing aphids.

I am considering trying to grow some in some rich soil, perhaps the extra nutrients will give the plants a fighting chance. Also I guess I could start some plants now, and let them have a chance to actually grow for a few weeks before introducing the aphids.. hmmm..


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## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

Do both, with an extra 3rd option too. As in grow some on in better soil too. Then try all 3, see if any make a difference, then stick with that one.

Ade


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## Drayvan (Jul 7, 2010)

:2thumb: I was actually going to ask about this the other day... but forgot :blush: so thank you, my pea plants died far quicker than I was expecting too so I didn't manage to get plants ready to move them on in time. All the little toads I have went mad for them so definitely worth the faff. Where did you buy your original culture from? I'm having a bit of trouble getting hold of some recently.


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## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

Ok, all that sounds sensible. I would be inclined to grow the pea plants in modules- on a sunny windowsill or actually in a propagator or spare viv.


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## colinm (Sep 20, 2008)

You have really got to sow the pea seeds weekly or even twice weekly to carry on with the cultures.The problem is that the aphids reproduce so quickly they kill the plants off quickly.

Conversely if you dont have enough aphids the pea plants grow so quickly that they soon outgrow the pots.

I found them to be more hassle than they are worth because of this and I found that my dartfrogs didn`t really go for them.This I think was mainly due to the fact that they are much slower moving than fruitflies and crickets that they are regularly fed on.I gave up on them and collected aphids from the roses and beans instead,but of course this only applies in the summer.


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## Heim (Aug 3, 2008)

Yeah Colin, I have definitely witnessed the aphids quickly overwhelming the pea plants, and the need to have so many tubs growing (especially seeing as I sometimes seem to get 'dud' tubs, but I am not so sure as to why yet). 

I haven't yet been in a position where my plants were too big to be an issue! lol, but I have not bothered with lids on my cultures either, so I haven't had an issue with having to cram the plants in a little pot. The aphids don't seem interested in leaving the plants at all, at most I might find the odd one that has fallen off a plant, but they are never more than a few inches from the plants.

Your not the first person to have said your frogs had a lack of interest due to them being slow moving, but I have found the aphids seem to scatter when in the viv and move at roughly the same pace as hydei (sp?).

I think I will experiment with them a little more before calling it a day.

@Drayvan - a few people seem to be doing them now, to name just two:

Live Food
Dartfrog - Livefoods

Dartfrog specify a 7 day wait mind, so may well be worth giving Richie a shout if you want them quicker.


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## rimonex (Dec 21, 2010)

Longest lasting I've ever got off them was to grow the peas in a seed sprouter (grew per sprouter instructions until they had roots and then just left them in their with the base bit filled with water). Finally used the aphids about 3 weeks later.

I tend to find that if the peas are too wet they mould quickly and don't produce. Best results from experimenting have been

1. Soak Peas overnight to 24 hours in water
2. Drain and keep fairly dry with a daily rinse (ie put water in then drain off)
3. place peas on a layer of damp (not wet) compost (c 10mm in depth). They soon take.
4. Put in a small number of aphids.

Although I would agree with Ron that using a windowsill propergator might work better I don't currently have the space to try so anyone who deos can you let me know how it goes.

From what I've read somewhere the aphids like the plants young and if they get too old and big the aphids won't colonise, but not sure about the truth of this...


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## DrNick (Sep 20, 2012)

Pea aphids are great food for dartfrogs and all of mine (from R. reticulata all the way up to P. terribilis) take them. They are also a great fallback for if fly cultures crash - within a week you can have more live food than you can ever use!

The turnover time is unavoidable unfortunately. 3 weeks is about the max and can be achieved just using kitchen roll as long as the cultures are kept cool enough - pea aphids shouldn't be cultured above 15C. Anywhere down to 10C is fine and the cooler they are, the slower the plants will grow and the more nutrients they will pass on to the aphids. If plants are grown in bright light and/or warm conditions they will grow rangy and produce small anemic-looking aphids. The turnover time will also be as low as a week.

Give the peas a few days of growing time first so that they are an inch or so high before adding aphids to a new culture. Don't bother trying to grow larger plants - it just becomes unmanageable and there's a law of diminishing returns - the aphids will only ever feed on the new shoots and there are proportionally less of these the larger the plants get.

Just thought I'd share some thoughts as I've just fed the menagerie, amongst other things, 4 pea aphid cultures from which I got about half a tumbler-full of aphids! They're definitely one of my favourite feeder insects, but as is always the case shouldn't be used alone - they are very high in sugars and low in protein.

Nick


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## richie.b (Oct 27, 2008)

I use a lot of pea aphids as well i find them excellent food and i use wheat aphids which are smaller and excellent for froglets as a change from springtails

Richie


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## Heim (Aug 3, 2008)

Wheat aphids you say? How do you go about culturing them Rich?


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