Defeating Aphids

My yearly garden battle begins; the aphids have started to show their ugly little heads.  The days have gotten warmer, the plants are starting to bud, and my aphids are back.

Every year I try to pretend they wont turn up, that this year they will have moved on to another garden.  I look away as my lovingly pruned rose bushes start to shoot and grow in the yellow sun, I am afraid to look too close.  Sure enough, there are aphids lounging on my prized roses.  The battle begins.

 

Aphids are very small plant eating insects.  They can be one of the most destructive little bugs around.  They can survive all over, but prefer to live in the warmer climates.  Most of these little buggers have small green or brown bodies and each type enjoys eating on different kinds of plant.  Aphids use a needle like mouthpart to suck the inner sap of plants, and once that inner sap is reached, they eat and eat and eat.   Aphids don’t chew, so if there are holes on the leaves of your plants, it is not aphid damage.  They also reproduce rapidly when conditions are right, resulting in tons and tons of happy aphids sucking away at your precious plants.  The damage that aphids cause is more superficial than anything, but if you’re like me, it isn’t too wonderful to be admiring your beautiful roses with small writhing insects all about.

 

So, what to do?  There are a couple things to try.  When you first start planting your garden, make sure to till the soil well and remove any weeds.  This may remove any existing aphid eggs waiting to hatch.  Try not to use too much fertilizer when planting, or use organic mix, which releases slower into your soil inhibiting aphids.  Aphids don’t like happy healthy plants, so make sure to water and tend new plants, which will encourage strong growth.

 

After your plants are thriving and established, you can use different types of mulches or ground cover that aphids don’t care for.  There are reflective mulches that are silver colored polyethylene sheets that keep aphids away.  I suggest the mulches if you are dealing with a large area where you tend to get aphids, but if you have an infestation of a few plants like I do, it might not be the way to go.  I haven’t tried any repellent mulch, so I can’t attest to their abilities.

 

Another option is to use some nasty pesticide.  Feel free to spray the aphids down with a pesky pest pesticide but you run the risk of hurting other helpful bugs that might be feasting on other items in your garden.  A better solution is to create a soap mixture using normal dish soap and warm water.  Soap kills aphids by dissolving parts of their bodies.  Fill a spray bottle with water and add some of your run of the mill soap and have at the aphids!  I sprayed with abandon, but for some reason when I checked on my aphids the next day, there always seemed to be more of them.

 

I decided to try the safest option - ladybugs.  There is no chance of harming other plants in the garden, poisoning your cat, or loosing lots of money on mulch.  I found a local garden center that carried the red beetles and purchased a container.  Ladybugs love aphids, in fact they are their favorite food, so with my container toting 500 of them, I figured I had those aphids beat.  They suggest to release your ladybugs at sunset and encourage them to climb on board to the plants with aphids.  Hopefully, they will adhere and start munching away.  We poured a nice glass of chardonnay, gently released our ladybugs onto our roses, and sat back to enjoy the show.  What we got was a lot of ladybugs floating off into the sunset.  The next day, most of the ladybugs had dispersed, and the aphids were still a force to be reckoned with.

 

I relented to my aggression and put the hose on them full force!  I got up close and sprayed the bejeezus out of them!  I held my roses by the bud and sprayed around them!  The aphids began to fall away and wash into my garden soil.  The next day, I did it again.  I followed suite for the rest of the week and my questionable roses were starting to be aphid free!  Within a couple weeks, the aphids had moved on, and I was able to breath a deep sigh of relief.

 

Now the season is on me again and I can already see the wee aphids starting to decend upon my poor roses.  But, this year, instead of becoming obsessed with vanquishing my aphids, I will spray them away with my trusty garden hose and be done with it!

Your aphids may respond better to some of the other options mentioned above – there are hundreds of different types that favor a large selection of plants.  Some are more susceptible to soapy water, and others to ladybugs.  When you come across aphids in your garden, assess the situation and choose a plan of attack that works best for you and your garden.  Aphids are a tricky little pest, but remember, with some patience and diligence, your precious plants can be aphid free.