Aphids. When and how to control

In my opinion aphids at times seem to be a minor pest and at other times it is critical to keep them under control. On an established tree the aphids seem like an insignificant problem but when you have a young tree and they congregate at the all important tips they can seriously delay developing the tree or vine as you have planned. I have recently planted muscadine vines and my goal is to get the vine down the support wire as soon as possible. The aphids I see go after the very tips of these vines and if unchecked they will seriously delay the tip of the vine growth. Pretty much the same applies to apples and pears. I’m a small scale back yard grower so what I do probably would be impractical on a larger scale or when a person is not able to be as frequent an observer of their plant as I can be. It would be great to here from others on how they deal with aphids. Any input is welcome. For me a small 2 quart pump up bottle of water with a few drops of dawn gets the job done but it appears to only be effective for only a few days. When I spray some of the aphids appear to be unaffected but when I come back the next day they are just a little dark spot on the leaf. In a few cases it takes two sprayings to knock out a heavily populated area. The aphids are small but most all of us are dealing with them. Please share your control method. All input is welcome.

2 Likes

When I washed my cats for flee’s. I found the only dish soap that had the promised insecticide effect to be lemon joy. Dawn I know never worked. I don’t know about Palmolive or others I never experimented more after I proved to my self Dawn was ineffective.

1 Like

In the last couple years,there were Curly Leaf Plum Aphids attacking certain grafts on a Flavor Supreme,particularly,Purple Heart Plum and Santa Rosa,while leaving everything else alone.
I sprayed a few times with a soapy mixture,but the leaves were really curled.The grafts were young and didn’t have fruit yet,so no biggie.
This time,just up to seeing a little color in the flower buds,I sprayed the whole tree with a quart of water,mixed with about a tablespoon of these ingredients:some kind of natural dish soap,baking soda,Soybean oil and Neem oil.There were no Aphids this Spring like before.Only now,a little shoot had some,and were promptly squished.
I have a potted Nadia Plum in a greenhouse and some ants lead me to a few leaves infected with the non curly type.They had to be sprayed twice and after that,the tree was rinsed with water to remove any others and the residue. Brady

2 Likes

Castile soap or Safer insecticidal soap is safest environment method. Kills by contact and has no residual effect so needs repeat application. That’s what I would do but for something stronger there is pyrethrin and neem oil.

1 Like

I’ve used insecticidal soap and neem. They both work ok, knock them down for a while, but you do have to repeat them. Usually though, as the spring gets going, they start to disappear. Not sure if they don’t like the hot weather or if the predator insects have finally reached the numbers required to eradicate them.

1 Like

I have used neem before and it works well. When it gets hot outside the tender leaves tend to be damaged by the spray of soap or neem spray.

Any soap or oil works. I usually use soap.

Most of my aphids self-limit, the ladybugs eventually are eating most of them, but the green plum aphids will make a major bloom if I don’t repeatedly control them. I found my first ones last night, few enough that I squished them individually. I’ll do this for a few weeks and then will have to spray a bit of soap and hopefully there are enough ladybugs by then to take care of things.

1 Like

I use neem oil (with a bit of dish soap to help emulsification). Usually a couple of applications is enough. I spray in the evening, so everything is dry when sun raises the next day. I have a lot of roses, and aphids attack them before anything else. That’s where I kill all of them.

2 Likes

I haven’t combined the two but it sure looks like it would work better than either used individually.

Various aphids attacked my rose buds. I sprayed them twice with dilluted neem oil. I squished the few that escaped that onslaught between my fingers. Aphids are gone. Now look at my roses! Photos taken this week:

Eden Rose:

Unknown heirloom from my late grandfather-- smells divine:

10 Likes

How about using Tanglefoot or electric tape sticky side out to control the ants, which tend and spread the aphids around?

1 Like

Others had used this method successfully but I haven’t tried it. Good idea.

Nice roses. After seeing yours it make me realize that my knockout roses need more care. About two years ago when we were having a heavy Japanese beetle infestation I tried neem spray on them. I only used it one time but it worked well.

Eden rose this morning. Aka Pierre de Ronsard. These things are stunning.

8 Likes

I second that. Ants don’t just move the aphids around to propagate them, but they defend them against aphid predators. I had a bad aphid problem with a young plum tree. I wrapped a three inch band of the trunk with plastic flagging tape to keep the tangle foot from touching the tree directly, and applied a ring of Tanglefoot over the tape. The gooey stuff blocked the ants, and within days the natural predators had wiped out the aphids. And the single ring of Tanglefoot protects for many months.

BTW: I did the same thing to block the earwigs that were attacking my nectarines at night.

2 Likes

It depends on the kind of aphid, I find that works perfectly on the black cherry aphids. They are a nightmare to control otherwise as they curl the leaves. All my cherry trunks get fresh tanglefoot bands every spring. The green plum aphids on the other hand the ants don’t farm and so the tanglefoot doesn’t help.

2 Likes

I hate aphids. But I hate having to apply chemicals too. So I let plants with tiny flowers go to seed. My current favorite is Celery or Celeraic. Flowers are about to open, and will continue all summer long. And those tiny flowers encourage tiny pollinators to stay around. Pollinators like syrphid flies. Which have babies who LOVE to eat aphids. And braconid wasps, which produce those “aphid mummies” we all want to see. It can be a shock to see an ugly fly larvae on your plants, but they are aphid eating monsters.

6 Likes

Black aphids appeared yesterday on my odom plum, I squished a bunch of them. More today, but I saw some ladybugs on the tree too. Usually the ladybug larvae do a good job of aphid control, but the aphids sure do seem early this year.

1 Like

What concentration do you use please?

1 Like

I use about 1 Tablespoon neem/1 gallon water.

1 Like