Infested Nursery Stock

Beginners
1

I have a nursery stock Austrian Pine. Over the last 2 months, the needles started to yellow. At first I thought it was getting too much water, so I changed its location. It has continued to yellow. With my rookie experience, I thought it might be because it was still in the the nursery pot with the field soil wrapped in burlap. As I started the repot process, there were bugs all over the burlap in the soil. They were black, almost looked like very large ants. As I slowly scraped the soil away I noticed aphid issues on some of the large roots. Also looked like there were eggs.

My two questions are…

  1. Is my effort in vain?
  2. Is there a systemic to treat the aphids?
2

You can use beneficial nematodes to help take care of the root aphids.

3

aren’t you better off returning it to the nursery and getting a different one or a refund?

4

I would if I hadn’t bought it last fall and still had the receipt. I guess I’ll chalk it up to a learning experience.