Neem didn’t seem to do anything. I thought aphids were white? Why is this all black and gooey? This is on my cherry. Is there anything I can do or should I throw it all in fire?
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There are black aphids (I think that’s what you have), green aphids (often on plums), pink aphids(found on apples) ,etc.
I usually squish them with my hands if they are only a few clusters.
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Those are terrible! I’d suggest putting on a pair of surgical gloves and spraying them liberally with Safer’s Insecticidal soap, using your hands to squish, as Mam says,and rub all surfaces of the affect leaves. I have to do that on kale sometimes. It’s another aphid magnet.
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Well known aphids eaters lady bugs are useless against those unless you prevent ants from coming into the tree - they protect the aphids. I made my tangle foot colors too late this year, so all the tips were like this and lady bugs were around, but not IN. As soon as I made the sticky collars and stopped ants from going up situation changed. Lady bugs and their off-springs cleared the aphids and now trying to escape the tree as there is nothing to eat any more - they just jump down and crawl away.But damage already done. Next year I will try to make the sticky collars before ants wake up.
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That is exactly how both of my trees looked. Get out your garden hose asap and spray them off. You can lose leaves and or the tree. Water was the best medicine. Spray them off twice a day. They will fall to the soil , die, and not crawl back up. It took about two weeks of washing the leaves with water before they were all gone! My aphids were black as well!
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The black stuff could be sooty mold,that is blown or carried to the honeydew, produced by the Aphids.
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I zoomed into the picture and it might just be a whole ton of aphids…
I agree with the above solutions: soap spray working leaves with fingers, shoot off with water, tanglefoot on trunk. You may be better with a stronger dose of neem, but soap will work far better in any case. Even horticultural oil will probably do better than the neem.
I last put tanglefoot on maybe five years ago and I think I may have cleared out every last aphid as I have not had to re-apply since then.
Soapy water killed my leaves Scott and at that stage of infestion (mine were just as bad) its too late suffocate them. Use your hose on ‘fairly strong broad spray’ setting and knock them off. Leaf by leaf. Infestations if left any long can kill the tree. My infestation (identical) left a black residue on my tiled terrace as well. It will take a scrub brush to remove the blackness. Also, the branches of the apple trees looked as if they had fireblight (which they did not) and I could finally spray the black crud off of the stems and branches too. Black aphids are horrible.
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My pear and apple trees are not so tall. Spraying with the water bottle leave me wet and cold, and I always wonder if the aphids fall to another branch or tree will they stay and start again there. Recently, using a medium angled bristle toothbrush I can remove the aphids quickly and neatly, even between the stems of the fruitlets. The kid foldable step stools help reaching the higher branches and are cheap, so I keep a few in different sections of the yard. The aphids got crushed and are almost gone now.