Hi Hilltop, and welcome.
If you live where winter temps go below below freezing there’s no need to worry about these aphids (or their eggs) carrying over to next year. Instead, next year you can worry about the completely new crop of aphids that will almost certainly come to infest the lambs quarters as they mature. Far’s I know, aphids just come with the territory and are a major reason to eat a lot of this excellent green in spring and early summer, while the leaves are tender and before the bugs arrive.
LL

I’d like to clear this up. I’ve read that pioneers and native Americans ate “lambsquarters,” and I’m trying to find out for sure that the two are the same or different plants.

Hi Linda,

Yes, this is the real thing… and you’re right to be wary of eating anything wild until you’re sure it’s safe. But as far as I – and countless others – know, C. album is safe to eat…at least for humans.
The USDA link is to a Cornell site that lists plants that are poisonous to livestock. The poison(s) in question are nitrates, which can be damaging in the large doses a cow, for instance, might ingest. And they can also cause problems for humans when present in large concentrations – as in rhubarb leaves, for example.
But people eat a lot of things that contain nitrates.
Spinach is an example, and one that’s pretty close to lambsquarters. Most people can eat spinach without having any problems, but it too can cause “poisoning,” at least to the point of stomach upset. This article (published by Medscape) lists it as among the top 25 reported poisonous plants.
I can’t say for sure what plant was eaten by earlier generations, but it was probably C. album or one of its very close relatives. “Pigweed,” can refer to many plants from many different genera, but I’m pretty sure “lambsquarters” is always chenopodium.
Hope this helps
LL