What’s the best insecticide to get rid off aphids? I used Natria Neem oil for my pluerry and Nadia cherryplum but it’s only working like 20%.
This is a picture of my pluerry infested with aphids.
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My 2 honeyberries have the green ones on it. I just noticed this afternoon and just sprayed it with neem oil this evening. Gonna repeat a few times. Hopefully that help mine, I have a much smaller area though. Did you blast them with the hose any?
But I’m interested in anything anyone else has to say too !
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You can make tobacco tea and use a hand bottle sprayer wearing latex gloves to spray and clean each leaf, a laborious task but it gets it done. My last big aphid attack took me two weeks to clean all my infested plum trees. The nicotine does the trick.I do not know of a better remedy. Wish it were easier. With aphids you have to hit them before they start multiplying or else it’s a lot of work. I’m watching my new emerging foliage for any signs to treat.
Dennis
Kent, wa
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I use either lady beetles or green lacewings (aphid lions). Luckily for me I often end up finding baby lady beetles around when I need them most and I’ll move them on my plants that may need the help. You can order cards of your own little super army of larva and they’ll hatch in certain temps and get to work.
My friends that spray neem or other poisons always end up having the worst bug pressure because they spray and it kills the good and the bad.
Normally I can find them both at my local nursery but sometimes I’ve bought cards from Arbico. Here’s a link and more info if you want to look more into it.
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I find that insecticidal soap is quite effective against aphids. It should not damage bees if it is applied when they are not present, such as late in the day. This is a good time to spray anyway because most days the wind dies down in the evening in our area.
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I had them on about half my apples and all plums last spring. I used a couple tablespoons of dr bronners soap mixed with a gallon of water and sprayed the affected leaves and rubbed the leaves gently with the soap mix. This most likely crushed a lot of them in the process and I had minimal aphids the rest of the year after one go around. I did have quite a few lady bugs as the year progressed so that probably helped a lot too.
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Diatomaceous earth? It supposed to be so sharp it stick their body and bring it to the eggs, then their bodys crack like raw spaghetti. And I have read it doesnt harm the plants
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I have too many trees and plants to spray. I only spot spray for certain insects that are hard to reach. Years ago i purchased ladybugs. 90 percent of the ladybugs just flew away. I purchased them back to back year. The 10 percent that stayed, make a home in the backyard. Now, I have plenty of ladybugs in Spring and early Summer. They thin out by late Summer. They do a decent job of eating the aphids.
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I started using this grease you paint directly on the trunk. It stops ants from crawling up the tree to carry aphids and farming them. I noticed a big difference
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One of my friends just suggested wrapping tape around the base, slippery side out
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Should be the sticky side out
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They are hard to control once they get going, even with conventual insecticides. Dormant Oil just before bud break on a warm day is the ticket.
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Very true.
Can’t tell if the OP’s plants have green peach aphids, but if so, I’ve found that neem, soap, etc. aren’t up to the task. Pyrethin-based sprays work well for these on my Burbank plum, though it may take multiple sprays when the infestation is that far along.
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I like the natural approach. Letting ladybugs and wasps do their thing. I didnt know however about the effect of rhizomes with grasses around my fruit trees… seems that helps alot. I dont fertilize because i dont want big trees and only use woodchips. So less nitrogen for me is better. YMMV.
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If ants are feeding on the honeydew produced by aphids, predators like ladybugs will be less effective because the ants will protect the aphids. I use Tree Tanglefoot on all of my fruit trees to keep ants off.
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This doesn’t really answer your question but I focus more on prevention by using tree tanglefoot. It keeps ants from crawling up and farming aphids in the first place which keep em at a minimum, if any. Once in a while when I do see aphids, theue limited to just a few leaves and it’s quite easy to just rub em off with my fingers and let the ladybugs handle the rest.
I wrap a 1" wide strip of cloth first around the trunk then plastic tape wrap(exact same material used for clingwrap) over that…a few times around so I get about 3-4" wide strip of snug plastic around…secure that with tape or find a way to knot it to secure it in place… Then I apply the free tanglefoot on that. One application lasts a few months before it gathers dust and need re-application. Otherwise, if I get lazy and apply tanglefoot directly to the trunk, it seems to get absorbed and needs re-application faster. The cloth keeps ants from crawling underneath the plastic so easily tho sometimes I really need to apply directly on the bark in certain spots to keep them from tunneling in between bark cracks.
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My yard is small so this wouldn’t be practical for someone with a large scale operation. But the only trees I seem to have aphids on are my Asian persimmon and Hybrid. I simply take the hose and spray them off every day that I remember to. Like others mentioned the problem is the ants, they really protect the aphids and farm them. Maybe I’ll try this tanglefoot as I’d never heard of it. I tried the tape method but they get around that very easily in my experience.
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There are many species of aphids that react differently to poisons, including organically derives ones. I found the tobacco juice idea interesting because synthetic neonics were created partially because they are safer than old-fashioned tobacco derived pesticides, which are extremely toxic to mammals like ourselves. If you make any tobacco juice, make sure you keep locked up whatever you don’t use immediately.
My problem with aphids on roses and certain trees, like cherries, is that if you kill them on the tree, ants quickly replace them so you need to deal with the ants first of all. Their are organic controls, but also outdoor ant stakes that have synthetic ant poison. Baits are the least environmentally disruptive pesticide because they require a tiny fraction of the material needed by other forms to control a given pest- only the targeted pest tends to consume it and it is held in a small container.
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What product did you put directly on the trunks? I killed several young trees doing this with Tanglefoot. I now wrap trunk with paper then TF.
I think it says do not apply directly to the tree. The diagrams I’ve seen have plastic wrap around the trunk with that applied to it. However if it kills the tree being applied directly to it, I don’t think I’ll be using it. The aphids/ants are something I can live with
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