What is the best way to rid your plants of aphids? Personally, I favor the quick, easy and instantaneous method of simply squishing the bugs. Don’t want to get gooey aphid guts on your hands? Ok, try insecticidal soaps, or neem oil. Neem oil is fantastic- a natural insecticide derived from the neem tree. It has a unique odor to it, but I wouldn’t call it off-putting, just distinctive. Do be careful if you use soaps- many plants don’t like soaps and will burn easily in the sun. Always spray a small test area first and never spray in the middle of a sunny day. Since soaps aren’t residual, you’ll need to spray as often as you see the bugs. Aphids have a nasty habit of getting out of control quickly. When their populations get really big, beneficial insects fly in to the rescue. The question is – can you wait that long to let the aphids get to large numbers before the ladybugs and lacewings come in? Possibly- remember, soap and neem can still harm beneficial bugs, too, so if you go that route know that your diminishing your chances of having predators knock down your aphids. If you choose to leave your aphids to the voracious whims of predators and parisitoids (mainly tiny wasps), you’ll be treated to the daily carnage that ensues when bugs are left to their own devices. Look for ladybugs (both adults and larvae) as well as lacewing larvae chowing down on aphids. Also, look for aphid mummies- the light bown, swollen, dead aphids that will eventually have a small exit hole in their backside. This small hole shows us that more tiny wasps have emerged and are on the prowl for more aphids. It’s a bug-eat-bug world!

An Aphid Mummy!

Tags: aphid, cleveland botanical garden, pests

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 3:41 pm and is filed under Animals and Insects, Cynthia Druckenbrod. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.