[Grubbypaws]

Just discovered mealy cabbage aphid on my purple sprouting broccoli. I have removed the badly infected leaves and destroyed them. Two questions. Does soapy water work as it does with greenfly? Will they be killed off by cold winter weather?

[mumofstig]

They seem to have a waxy coating that means they're not bothered by soapy water, cold weather slows them up a bit, but that's about all, in my experience. I resorted to giving my cabbages a spray in early October with a product from the RHS advice, which seems to have stopped them in their tracks.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=656
Not ideal but I didn't want to bin them. I'd have to buy cabbages then and who knows how many times they will have been sprayed 

[rowlandwells]

once again your rite Mum who knows how many times the commercial grower sprays his brassicas crops no one likes using sprays but sometimes its necessary to save the crop

I've used a mix of garlic cooking oil and soap and that seemed to have worked on my brassicas but one thing i did do wrong was to plant my brassicas to close as it seemed to encourage aphids?

[snowdrops]

A couple of years ago my brassicas were so badly affected I had to scrap the lot, well they went to the chickens who got extra protein so all was not lost  . I put some of it down to them being incarcerated in debris netting for butterfly & pigeon protection making it rather damp in there & lacking airflow. I now use specific butterfly netting which also allows predators like ladybirds in.

[mumofstig]

I now use specific butterfly netting which also allows predators like ladybirds in.

Yes, I must buy some more of that, because the only ones I had to spray were under some debris netting I had put over them in a hurry when the 'proper' brassica tunnel was full.... Lesson finally learnt