Aphids - they appear out of nowhere and can cause enormous damage to the beloved plants in the garden. Here is an overview of the types and how to fight them.
Aphids are one of the most well-known pests in your own garden. They attack both ornamental and crop plants. They come as a surprise and in no time at all they tamper with the young leaves and shoots of the plants.
This pest infestation usually begins unnoticed at first, but then spreads explosively under optimal conditions.
Aphid species native to Europe
Around 850 species of these greedy insects are known in Central Europe. Some of them are among the most common representatives in our gardens. These include the…
Green Peach Aphid
It occurs in two generations. The summer generation is green in color and has no wings. In the generations capable of flying, the head and parts of the thorax are blackish-brown to black.
The pest inhabits peaches, plums and mirabelle plums, but also various types of vegetables and weeds.
Black bean aphid
This insect forms several generations living in colonies. The winged and unwinged damsels are broadly oval and dark green to dull black in color. Affected leaves curl up and the shoot tips crook. The louse spreads on beans, potatoes and turnips, but also on viburnum and euonymus.
Great rose aphid
The pest has a long spindle-shaped body with a black head. The body is green or pink.
The black antennae are about as long as the animal's body and usually a little longer. The terrain of this aphid is rose, apple, pear and strawberry.
Apple Blood Louse
The wingless adult animals are dark brown to dark violet in colour. In addition, the body above the specimens living in the ground is covered with long, white, wool-like threads of wax. The underground apple blood aphid is covered with whitish-blueCovered with wax particles.
This lousy insect damages apple, pear and quince.
Other species of aphids that are up to mischief in the home garden are:
- the green apple aphid
- the large plum aphid
- the currant bladder louse
- the oleander aphid
- the Sitkalaus
The evil of the lousy plague
Aphids can cause considerable damage in the garden, which can lead to yield and quality losses and even complete crop failure. With their proboscis, the harmful insects pierce the plant cells of still young, juicy leaves and shoots and suck out the sugary plant sap.
Since they only need a small amount of protein in the plant sap to live, they excrete part of the sugary sap. This partially coats the plant with a sticky sap called honeydew.
Fresh honeydew attracts other insects to feast on it. Ants in particular are obsessed with this sugary excretion and milk the aphids. The ant even defends the aphid from attacks by beneficial insects.
Wind and insects often colonize spores of fungal diseases on older honeydew deposits. However, the fungal attack does not cause major damage. All that is left behind is unsightly dark mold stains.
The flying aphids pose another problem. When new plants colonize them, they can become infected with viral diseases, which can then spread to fruit trees or perennials, for example.
Prevent aphids naturally
"Prevention is better than cure", this folk wisdom can also be used by the hobby gardener if he wants to protect his plants in the garden from an aphid plague. The best prevention against aphids is to cultivate the garden in a natural way. In plain language this means:
- Avoid large clusters of similar plants
- Combine ornamental shrubs with different perennials
- Cultivating mixed crops of vegetables
- Avoid over-fertilization with nitrogen. Nitrogen constantly stimulates the plant to produce succulent young shoots whose sap benefits aphids.
- Plant nasturtiums in fruit trees to keep aphids away.
Lacewings, ladybugs and co decimate aphids
Helpers in protection against aphids are the beneficial insects. These are natural enemies oflousy offender. Of great use are:
- Lacewings
- Ladybug
- parasitic wasps
- Hoverflies
- Assassin bugs and other beneficial insects.
Some of these useful helpers settle well in the garden. The scent of catnip beguiles the lacewing. The aphid also exudes the same attractant as this plant and attracts the fly.
Ladybugs keep it in the garden if they find enough food. A small wildflower meadow with dill, yarrow, corn poppy and buckwheat can be an additional source of aphids for ladybirds.
It is also advisable to set up enough nesting possibilities in the garden, such as a small deadwood hedge, a lacewing box or an insect hotel. If the beneficial insects thrive in your garden, the aphid infestation will noticeably decrease after the first infestation in late spring or early summer.
At the same time, the aphid hunters multiply enormously due to the good food supply. In this way, a balance is established over the course of the summer that is easy to live with.
Home remedies can work wonders
Before resorting to commercially available pesticides, tried and tested home remedies are recommended. With a rather manageable aphid infestation, you can already achieve good results with curd soap solution, nettle or tobacco brew.
Plant protection that protects beneficial insects
The so-called sprouting spray on fruit trees in spring has proven to prevent aphid infestation. When the buds are bulging and the first tips of the leaves can be seen, the trees and shrubs are thoroughly treated with a sprouting spray that is gentle on beneficial insects, such as "Promanal". Rapeseed oil, the active ingredient, penetrates the smallest cracks in the bark and covers aphid eggs and wintering pests with a fine film of oil, causing them to die.
Plant protection against aphids should always be gentle on beneficial insects. After all, the hobby gardener does not want to disturb the natural balance of beneficial insects and their food requirements in the garden. And so you can choose from the range of preparations that are gentle on beneficial insects in the garden specialist trade. These preparations work on the basis of rapeseed oil or potash soap. There are, for example, such products as "Naturen Blattlausfrei" or "Neudosan Blattlausfrei". These agents clog the aphids' respiratory organs, causing the insects to suffocate over time. In order to capture as many pests as possible, it is important that the plants are thoroughly sprayed from all sidesbecome.