I can’t seem to win when it comes to aphids, especially on my Anna Apple Tree.
So far, the Anna is the only plant being affected which has been sprayed with Pyrethrins and neem oil on different occasions. The spray was applied to the top and bottom of all leaves.
Does someone know of a different approach to the ones I mentioned above? I want to steer clear of harsh chemicals as we eat the fruit.
Soap works well. Safer has a soap based produced made to kill aphids. I use Castile pure soap. It’s cheaper. 2 or 3 tablespoons per gallon of water. Temperatures should be below 90 when spraying.
I also use soap/water. When temps get around 90 or higher you might need to rinse it off about 30 min after applying it to prevent damage to foliage. How often are you spraying? If your having a bad year you need to spray on alternate days. Last year was terrible but I stayed after them and this season is much better. Do you dormant oil spray?
I don’t dormant oil spray because there hasn’t been a problem in the past, this year just one tree. It seems the tree is week for some reason and I’ll probably look into that first before I apply something else.
Since all the other plants are not being attacked by aphids, there hasn’t been a reason to have a spray schedule in the past.
My guess would be to strengthen the plant and let it naturally defend itself.
This has been an unusually horrible year for aphids on my trees. White, pink and black aphids, I’ve got them all. I have sprayed with everything I’ve got and still can’t get rid of them. Rain would help!
Ladybugs? How well do they do. And I’m assuming it’s a bad idea to release them if you’ve sprayed with Surround?
Just finished spraying the Anna Apple Tree with a formula my friend wants me to try. I have my doubts, but will see what happens as these aphids are out of control.
Lady bugs work but the problem with going to the store and purchasing them, they always seem to have better plans and leave your garden ASAP.
From the picture the leaves don’t look too upset (yet). Sometimes if you wait a predator will show up. I rarely spray for aphids on my apples as ladybugs will eventually show up in force and take care of the problem. On plum aphids I use soap nice they breed too quickly for the ladybugs to catch up. Soap works better than any non-harsh chemical that I tried.
It’s worse than that. Aphids don’t even have to bother with breeding during the growing year. Spring and summer aphids are almost entirely females who reproduce via parthenogenesis. No time or energy is wasted mating. They don’t even bother with eggs during the warm months, and keep popping out live young that are ready to suck those plant juices from the get go. Aphids have an incredible knack for mass reproduction.
Unless you get every single one on a tender tree, the population can rapidly rebuild. They’re tiny. So, it’s easy to miss some.
Aphids are tiny Tribbles, minus the endearing characteristics, in today’s world.
I have blackaphids on my cherry tree this year, I was going to spray something ,but saw lady bugs started doing their work.l left them alone,and now have ladybug baby is eating the aphids.
I have had black aphids on sweet cherries every year. Usually trunk wrapping with Tanglefoot worked well, with assistance from ladybugs.
Unfortunately, this year is my worst black aphids year. They don’t bother the sour cherry but attacked sweet cherries, particularly Vandalay big time.
Ladybugs could not keep up. trunk wrap with Tanglefoot meant nothing. Black Star got some, not as bad as Vandalay. The Black Gold next to them was hardly touched. Very weird.
Will buy insectcidal soap and be ready for them next year.
Thanks for the tip.I will try tanglefoot on the trunk next year. This year is a tough year for my cherry trees. I have never had black aphids before,. Aphids are all on my Carmine jewel every tip of branches. Do sick just looking at these creatures.
My Nanking cherry is dead for some reason.I thought it is a pretty tough cherry compare to sweet cherry.
I hope you know not to apply Tanglefoot right in the trunks of your trees. Wrap the tree with masking tape inside out or green garden tape. Make it a large band before you apply Tanglefoot on this wrap.
I work hard to keep Argentine ants out of my yard, and that keeps aphid populations way down. I get some aphids on my apple tree new growth, Anna and Pink Lady, and use Safer insecticidal soap and hand squish aphids at same time. This has worked over the past 7 years.
For using Tree Tanglefoot, I use 1 inch flagging tape to cover about a 6-8 inch area of the trunk. I start from one position of the trunk and pull it snug overlapping the first wrap to hold itself in place. After that, I continue to pull it snug going up overlapping each pass 50%. On the last wrap, I put a finger in between the tape and trunk to pull the finished end through and pull it snug to finish the wrap. Trim off the excess tape if necessary and apply a thin layer of Tree Tanglefoot over the entire flagging tape.
This will help prevent ants and other pests from climbing onto your trees and starting what seems like a never ending battle. Another word of advice is to make sure nothing surrounding the tree is touching, fences, walls, other plants etc. If so trim the plants so there is nothing touching your tree to prevent pests from having access to your tree.
There were 2 poles in the ground than ran next my Anna Apple Tree touching it, and there was the access point for the ants. Ants carried the aphids into the tree and the dreaded battle begins, my fault for not paying attention.
Hope this helps a few gardners out there,
Ron Eversole
I was about to say that. I had a cherry which was well tangle footed and I could not understand why it was still infected. Then I noticed one branch from a neighbor apple tree was touching it, and looking closely I saw many ants streaming across the “bridge”. Every time I have 100% isolated the plant and well-covered the trunk I have eliminated those black aphids.
I have a non-fruiting Pomme Gris apple.
I used Triazicide on them about an hour ago.
Aphids are the vampires of the insect world.
Scott,
All my cherries have branches overlapplng Honey Crisp and plums. However, it has amazed me that Black Gold hardly had any aphids while almost every Vandalay shoots were covered with aphids.
Next year I will wrap all those trunks with Tanglefoot.
Ditto the Tanglefoot experience. I initially only did the trees that the aphids bothered last year and was surprised how well that alone worked. They (ants+aphids) found the unwrapped trees, so I wrapped the rest of them.
