Did you know that most gardens host at least a few aphids? On healthy plants, these common insects don't cause much harm, and beneficial insects, including ladybugs, help reduce their numbers. Aphids become more of a problem when things get out of whack, which can happen when plants are stressed by drought, poor soil conditions, or overcrowding. Unfortunately, when garden conditions are just right, aphids can reproduce at amazing speed, in just a few days creating a huge, hungry colony that can literally suck the life out of your plants. The key to dealing with these small but destructive pests is knowing when you need to take action, and then having the right tricks up your sleeve to keep them under control.
How to Identify Aphids
Often the first sign of an aphid infestation is not the visible presence of the insects themselves. Instead, you'll see the symptoms of their feeding—twisted and curled leaves, yellowing foliage, stunted or dead shoots, and sluggish plant growth. Damage is usually most noticeable on shoot tips and new growth, along with unopened flower buds. When you take a closer look at these damaged plant parts, particularly on the undersides of young leaves and developing stems, you'll likely find lots of aphids crowded together.
These insects range in color from green to yellow, brown, red, or even black. Aphids cause damage by sucking sap from tender plant parts. As they feast, they excrete a sugary substance called honeydew. A fungus called sooty mold grows on the honeydew and blocks light from your plant, but is otherwise harmless. You can wash your plant leaves with water to get rid of the honeydew and sooty mold.
How to Get Rid of Aphids
When an aphid population explodes and begins to cause noticeable damage to leaves, stems, and buds, it's time to act right away. The sooner you can deal with the infestation, the better chance you have of stopping the pests in their tracks and saving your plants from the point of no return.
Spray with Water
The safest and fastest way to control aphids is to spray them off your plants with a strong stream of water from the garden hose. Aphids are such small, soft-bodied insects that even a good rainstorm can knock them off. Once aphids are knocked off a plant, they rarely climb back on.
Insecticidal Soaps and Horticultural Oil
These controls are low-risk to people and the environment, but you still need to follow the label instructions. They'll kill aphids, but must be applied on a regular basis during heavy infestations, since aphids reproduce so quickly. Insecticidal soap ($6, The Home Depot) and horticultural oil ($18, Walmart) only kill aphids when they come in direct contact, so you'll need to reapply frequently until the pests are completely gone. And don't forget to spray the undersides of leaves as well as the top. Keep in mind that insecticidal soaps and horticultural oil will kill beneficial insects as well, so only apply it to target pests.
Crush Aphids With Your Fingers
If you aren't the squeamish sort, and the infestation isn't so heavy that it would take forever to clean off, gently rub your thumb and fingertips over your plants' leaves and stems wherever you see aphids. Remember, these insects are very soft and delicate, so they're crushed with just light pressure. This tactic probably won't completely eliminate every bug, but it can help enough so that your plants will be able to grow healthy leaves again. Check back every few days to see if you need to repeat the procedure.
How to Prevent Aphids
Preventing large numbers of aphids from making themselves at home is possible. In addition to making sure your plants have the water, light, and nutrients they need for staying healthy, here are a few more ways to help keep aphid numbers down.
Use Row Covers in Your Vegetable Garden
In spring, protect young plants in your vegetable plot with floating row covers ($15, The Home Depot). These will keep aphids (and many other insect pests) out, but allow air, light, and moisture to reach your plants. Remove the row covers when your seedlings are several inches tall, or when temperatures heat up in summer.
Remove Weeds
You may be watching for aphids on your plants, but these insects can also get a foothold in your garden by infesting weeds. Then it's only a matter of time before they spread to your vegetables and flowers, so be diligent and keep up with weeding around your plants. Some weeds, such as sow thistle and mustard, appear to be especially attractive to aphids.
Attract Beneficial Insects That Eat Aphids
Plant flowers, including marigolds, calendula, sunflower, daisy, alyssum, or dill nearby to attract beneficial insects that love to feed on aphids. Ladybugs and lacewings are especially effective at devouring them.
Apply with a spray bottle directly on aphids and the affected parts of the plant, making sure to soak the undersides of leaves where eggs and larvae like to hide. The soap dissolves the protective outer layer of aphids and other soft-bodied insects, eventually killing them.
If insecticides are needed, insecticidal soaps and oils are the best choices for most situations. Oils may include petroleum-based horticultural oils or plant-derived oils such as neem or canola oil. These products kill primarily by smothering the aphid, so thorough coverage of infested foliage is required.
You can often control aphids by wiping or spraying the leaves of the plant with a mild solution of water and a few drops of dish soap. Soapy water should be reapplied every 2-3 days for 2 weeks.
Excessive use of nitrogen-rich fertilizer, which encourages too much tender, leafy plant growth. Transplanting shock which stresses plants vulnerable for a few days to a week. A temporary springtime population explosion of aphids prior to the emergence of their natural predator insects such as ladybugs.
As temperature rise, aphids and spider mites can shorten the time between new generations, which allow their populations to ramp up quickly, said Ian MacRae, Extension entomologist with the University of Minnesota.
Pyrethrum-based sprays can be effective if used early enough in the infestation. Water lightly after applying to disperse this chrysanthemum-based botanical into the soil. Reapply every two weeks (eggs in soil may continue hatching) until plants regain vigor and all aphid sign disappears.
Most aphids live on or under the leaves of plants, piercing them and extracting sap, which can cause leaves to deform or curl up . Grey-white root aphids, on the other hand, live in the soil and can attack plants causing them to suddenly wilt and die.
Predators such as lady beetles (ladybugs), lacewings, syrphid fly larvae, and soldier beetles all feed on aphids. Very small parasitic wasps lay their eggs inside aphids which eventually kills the aphid host. Check out the video below to see aphid-eating insects in action!
A baking soda solution has many uses – it can be used also for fighting with garden pests. It is effective mostly against aphids, but you can use it for whiteflies and mites as well. A baking soda mixture against aphids is very easy to make.
Like soap spray, neem oil will kill aphids most readily when it is sprayed directly on them. The active ingredient in neem oil (Azadirachtin) is also a general pest insect repellent. Therefore, routinely treating plants may help prevent an aphid infestation in the first place, or stop them from readily coming back.
Aphids are good candidates for control with soap. Any place gardeners gather to talk about plants, there will be talk of soap. Dish soap and water are often referred to as the holy grail for managing insects from aphids to Japanese beetles.
Plants with minor aphid infestations should not be thrown away. They can easily recover and thrive. Plants with moderate aphid damage can be treated with natural insecticides and possibly saved, but plants suffering from extreme infestations should be thrown away to prevent the spread of disease.
Ants may protect Aphid colonies in return for a feed of honeydew. You can prevent Ants from climbing into trees by banding the trunks with horticultural glue.
Trap Black Peach Aphids moving up and down the tree trunk by banding the trunk with horticultural glue.
Plants can easily recover from aphids if there's time left in the season for further growth to take place and if effective treatment methods are applied in a consistent, timely manner. Removing damaged foliage and fruit and properly fertilizing affected plants can speed along the recovery process.
In spring the eggs on the plant (primary host) hatch, leading to the first generation of aphids. All the aphids born from the winter eggs are females. Several more generations of female aphids are born during the spring and summer.
The best time to spray is early in the spring, when aphids are just beginning to multiply, and many of our insect friends have not hatched yet. Safer Brand 5110-6 Insect Killing Soap, 32 oz.
Aphids are attracted to mustard and nasturtium, which you can use as a lure to attract the aphids to snack on instead of your prized plant. Aphids will often take the bait and it might save a plant or two. You will want to check on your lure plants to make sure that the aphids do not hop onto the valued plant.
Dawn liquid dish detergent in approximately a 2 percent concentration is a fairly safe alternative to commercial insecticidal soaps formulated to kill insects such as aphids, mites and scale on plants and keep them away.
Aphids aren't big fans of Epsom salt, while plants are. So you can use this natural mineral to your advantage and eliminate the aphids without harming your plants. Just mix the salt with water, add it to a spray bottle, and spray the solution.
You treat them, knock them off, eradicate them from your plants, but somehow they return – so why do aphids keep coming back? Aphids only live for about a month but during that time, they are constantly reproducing. For every one aphid, you can expect up to 100 more to take it's place.
The average lifespan of an aphid is approximately one month. They reach sexual maturity in four to ten days and then are able to produce their own offspring.
Soil can be reused even after heavy aphid infestations because aphids feed and reproduce among the plant's branches and foliage, not in or underneath the soil. Even aphid eggs won't typically overwinter in soil. As long as the infested plant is removed, the soil can be reused.
Similar to compost tea, banana water or banana peel tea potentially can be used as homemade fertilizer for your garden. Banana peels have plenty of nutrients—such as potassium, calcium, magnesium, and manganese—to help your plants thrive.
Banana peels contain lots of nutrients, including potassium, phosphorus, magnesium and calcium—all of which are needed for good plant growth. Soaking the banana peels allows the nutrients to leech into the water, and once it hits the soil, the roots grab all those sweet, sweet minerals.
Aphids may be tiny, but they can destroy your plants in no time. Orange peels can help keep aphids away and protect your plants when you use them in a natural pest repelling spray.
Marigolds, known for being able to drive away all kinds of pests, have a scent that keeps aphids far away. Catnip, known for attracting cats, also has a way of repelling most other pests, aphids included. Some other fragrant herbs, such as fennel, dill, and cilantro are also known to deter aphids.
Slightly infested leaves exhibit yellowing, while severe aphid infestations cause young leaves to curl and become deformed, stunt plant growth, and reduce the number and quality of flowers and fruits.
Plants can easily recover from aphids if there's time left in the season for further growth to take place and if effective treatment methods are applied in a consistent, timely manner. Removing damaged foliage and fruit and properly fertilizing affected plants can speed along the recovery process.
Aphids are most active when temperatures are warm or hot and often cause the most damage to plants in late spring. Their favorite plants to infest are non-woody, blooming plants like zinnias, dahlias, cosmos, and asters.
There may be a fairly easy way to control flying aphids without spraying with insecticides. Aluminum foil placed on the soil around plants repels flying aphids and may provide adequate protection from those that spread diseases.
MAKE IT: Mix 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 2-3 drops of liquid soap in 1 liter of water. Spray the solution on the infected plants. Baking soda helps the plants become less acidic and prevents fungal growth.
Reflective mulch, usually made from silver polyethylene and aluminum foil, is an effective deterrent for aphids. Place it beneath the plants to increase the light they receive, allowing them to survive longer against the viruses which aphids spread.
Introduction: My name is Arline Emard IV, I am a cheerful, gorgeous, colorful, joyous, excited, super, inquisitive person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/aphids-33ea487e-bc630c51c2084b099418a08571f9b459.jpg "How to Get Rid of Aphids and Protect Plants from Infestation (1)")
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/aphids-on-back-of-leaf-ad71f3b898df41e6b8afb975a9275f2e.jpg "How to Get Rid of Aphids and Protect Plants from Infestation (2)")
