# ID this Aphid species & is it safe?



## jbeetle (Feb 8, 2004)

Ok, so today I found a ton of what appear to be aphids in my parents garden. So of course I had to take some, and then find out if I could possibly feed them to my frogs lol. I am not sure what species they are, and if they are safe to feed to my frogs... so I thought I would ask for some help from you guys. I found them feeding on a couple different (and in different areas in the yard) groupings of a Helianthus sps (or cultivar). This is a daisy or sunflower relative... I think? Here are the ones I collected:

2 views of them, and a drawing of your typical aphid body structure:









Group of them feeding on their host plant (a Helianthus sps):









*I think they could be one of two species:*
_Dysaphis plantaginea_ ~ Rose apple aphid
_Acyrthosiphon dirhodum_ ~ Rose-grass aphid

Here are some other pictures I found that look a lot like mine:










These are the Rose-grass aphids.


















Hopefully someone can tell me what species they are, and better yet if they are safe to feed to my frogs. *Thanks a lot.*


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## Guest (Aug 31, 2004)

Definitley a curious question because usually with insects the red or yellow colors shout "stay away, I'm poisonous", just like with dart frogs.

However, ladybugs eat aphids like crazy. Then again, I was told by a bearded dragon breeder that both ladybugs and lightning bugs were toxic.

I'd definitely like to find out that answer.


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## jbeetle (Feb 8, 2004)

I have been told the same as you about ladybugs and lightning bugs, but I know people feed aphids to their frogs... just not sure if these ones are safe. If they weren't red I wouldn't be as worried lol.


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## Guest (Aug 31, 2004)

http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/doctor/common.html

http://www.poison-frogs.nl/e0205.html

Here are two sites that say they feed aphids. Don't know if they are red ones or not.


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## Guest (Aug 31, 2004)

Hey Jon,

I don't have much time and not on my comp, so I wanted to post these links to help in a search:
http://www.uga.edu/vegetable/aphids.html

I would try to feed a few, but that is only because I have seen some big ugly things crawl out of a buddy's field sweeping container. I did do a search on red aphids, and found what looked to be a high school science project and saw that the red aphids were not eaten by lady bugs, so this raised a flag. I will see if I can find more out.

Aphids another food source!


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## jbeetle (Feb 8, 2004)

Thanks for the links guys. I am still unsure if I want to feed them or not. I may try one, and see if they actually eat it or spit it out. If they spit it out, its pretty obvious that they don't like them lol. I was thinking, even if they are toxic, could I maybe start new cultures on other plants? Kind of like what Tor was doing with the "milkweed" bugs (by the way whatever happened to that?). That way they shouldn't be toxic, same way our darts lose their toxicity. Not sure if this would work, as I know these types of insects can be very host specific... so that could cause some trouble. Any ideas on what would make for some good & safe host plants to try to culture them on?

Also, I did find 2 ladybugs on the same plant that the aphids were feeding on, but they weren't eating the aphids when I saw them (could have been since I was disturding the plant).

Is anyone out there an Entomologist?


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## Guest (Aug 31, 2004)

I wonder, if darts get their toxicity from ants that eat toxic plants, what would happen if the frogs ate aphids that were poisonous? :wink: Would the frogs get poisonous again?


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## andersonii85 (Feb 8, 2004)

Beetle,

I wouldn't mess with them. Stick to flies. You need to breed crickets or ants or something. 

Do they even move (the aphids)? I know a lot of aphid species can be sort of stationary, which may not trigger the frogs to eat them anyway.

Justin


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## k2bordr03 (Jul 15, 2004)

if you drop them in the tank aphids will start movin real quick to the nearest plants. make sure your frogs are around so they know you put em in there before they hi tail it out of the open. my darts absolutley love aphids. they go nuts when i put em in. as for the red aphid question, i dunno 100% but i fed one of them to them and nobody has croaked. the name of them if u live us bound is a rosy apple aphid. i have only been feeding the green apple aphids. i would assume an aphid is an aphid.
hope this helps


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