How To Get Rid Of Aphids On Trees (apple, Plum, Bird Cherry, Etc.): Treatment, Folk Remedies, How To Treat

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

Effective remedies for getting rid of aphids from trees

With the onset of spring, gardeners and truck farmers start a time of trouble. And often the cause of these troubles is aphids, which can cause great harm to fruit trees and shrubs. It is impossible to let the fight against these insects take its course: aphids on trees multiply rapidly and affect young leaves and shoots. We will tell you how to deal with aphids without harm to plants.

Content

• 1 What is aphid and how it is harmful to your summer cottage
• 2 Prevention and control of aphids
• 3 Folk remedies to combat aphids
• 4 A few more plants to help you
• 5 Biology on guard for your garden: birds and insects against aphids
• 6 Your helpers in the fight against aphids
• 7 Chemicals, insecticides
• 8 Video on the fight against aphids

What is aphid and how is it harmful to your summer cottage

These small insects ranging in size from 5 to 7 mm are familiar to all gardeners and gardeners. They pierce the surface of leaves, buds or shoots with their proboscis and suck out their juice. Because of this, the plant weakens and becomes very susceptible to viral diseases. Several species of aphids live exclusively on the roots of plants, damaging them.

There are winged and wingless forms of aphids. Winged aphid colonies can spread up to 25 km with the help of the wind and lay eggs for the winter. Wingless reproduce asexually, the time for laying eggs is spring and summer.

In addition to the fact that aphids themselves harm the plants, they attract ants, acting in symbiosis with them. Aphids secrete honeydew - a sweet substance derived from plant sap, which is very attractive to ants that protect the aphid colony from attacks by other insects.

Here are a few symptoms to help you recognize aphid infestation on plants in your garden:

• young shoots and buds are covered with clusters of black or brown aphids visible to the naked eye;
• there are even more insects on the underside of the leaves;
• white particles are visible among insects, this is old skin shed by aphids;
• the defeat of leaves and buds is indicated by the fact that they are covered with a sticky pad;
• leaves that are affected stop development, curl downward and eventually dry out;
• the affected buds do not open, which means that fruits will not develop from them.

Aphids have a detrimental effect on young tree shoots

Aphids are omnivorous, so the damage they cause can become enormous. There are many types of aphids, almost any cultivated plant in your garden or vegetable garden can become a host for this parasitic insect. Over time, some species have adapted so much to the peculiarities of the climate and local flora that in the summer they live on vegetable crops - peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and in the fall they move to fruit trees to ensure their wintering.

Aphid prevention and control

The most important preventive measures are carried out in the framework of seasonal gardening in the fall. First of all, be sure to cut and burn the affected branches and shoots on the tops of trees, shrubs. If you didn’t do it in the fall, it’s time to do the work in the spring, in preparation for the summer season.

Young trees and shrubs are especially susceptible to aphid attacks. Examine them carefully before the onset of winter, and if you notice a clutch of eggs, after the leaves fall off, spray the shoots with water at a temperature of 70-80 degrees. Do the same in early spring, before the buds begin to open.

Instead of hot water, you can use a solution of Nitrofen, 300 g of the substance per 10 liters of water.

Aphids most commonly affect fruit trees

Here are some more tips to get rid of aphids:

1. Since aphids live in symbiosis with ants, it is very important to get rid of these insects as well. Water the clutches of ant eggs in the immediate vicinity of the plants with boiling water.
2. It is difficult for aphids to bite through elastic, strong and dense leaves. Therefore, regularly carry out abundant watering, fertilizing, not overloaded with nitrogen, sprinkling the crown and mulching. Sprinkling will help wash off the honeydew in which the sooty fungus likes to settle.
3. Remove root growth of fruit trees in time. It does not bring any benefit, but only takes juice and strength from the tree. And since the branches and leaves on the shoots are very soft, they are especially susceptible to aphid attack.
4. Old flaking bark serves as an excellent refuge for aphids and their nesting. Remove bark and whitewash tree trunks to help control pests.

Folk remedies to combat aphids

Although there are different types of aphids, the same methods can be used to eradicate them. The features are as follows:

• vegetables should be processed no later than 30 days before harvest;
• fruit trees are sprayed during bud formation, after flowering and 3 weeks before harvest;
• berry crops are processed before they bloom and after they are harvested.

Spraying regularly will help get rid of aphids

The use of chemicals to control aphids requires caution and adherence to certain conditions. Therefore, many gardeners prefer to use folk remedies.

1. Spraying with soapy water. To do this, you need to dissolve soap in laundry water in a ratio of 10 l: 300 g. In order for the soap to dissolve faster, rub it on a grater.
2. Ash and soap solution. Add about 300 g of ash to 10 liters of water, bring to a boil and dissolve 40 g of soap in the mixture.
3. Take 1 kg of fresh or 700 g of dry potato tops. It is very important that the tops are not affected by any diseases! Chop finely, pour 10 liters of water and leave for 3 hours. Strain the solution and spray it on the plants.
4. Chop 200 grams of onions together with the scales and leave in 10 liters of water for about 20 hours. Spraying with strained onion solution perfectly destroys aphids.
5. Garlic, thanks to its caustic aromatic oils, is also good at fighting pests. Grind 200 g of garlic heads and leave to infuse for 2 days in 5 liters of water. Dissolve 25 g of this concentrate in 10 l of water and spray the plants.
6. Take 200 g of chopped dry tobacco (makhorka), pour 5 liters of water and leave for 2 days. Then strain and add another 5 liters of water. You can prepare a decoction in the same proportions, while the solution is infused during the day, and then boiled for 2 hours.

A few more plants to help you

Nature "endows" us with many pests, but she also gives us methods of dealing with them. For example, an ordinary field dandelion helps to get rid of aphids on apple trees. It can also be used against copperheads or spider mites. In the spring, when dandelions are just beginning to bloom, their green mass is collected for infusion, and in the fall, rhizomes are dug out and stored in the basement, like carrots.

To prepare the infusion, you will need 400 g of leaves or 300 g of chopped roots. Pour 10 liters of warm water over them and leave for 2 hours. Strain and spray the plants thoroughly. For apple trees, this procedure must be carried out twice: during bud break and after flowering.

If you add more garlic and pepper to the dandelion, then the infusion will become more effective. Pass 400 g of dandelion leaves and roots through a meat grinder along with 200 g of garlic, add a tablespoon of pepper and dry mustard. Pour 10 liters of water and leave for 2-3 hours. This solution is excellent for both apple aphids (including melons and cabbage) and ticks.

Dandelion will be an excellent helper in the fight against pests

Plum is more susceptible to aphid attack than all trees, and not only because of the sticky leaves, but also because of the many young basal shoots that hatch every spring. Be sure to delete them! And, even if you did not notice aphids on the surface of the nursery, spray the plum tree. For this, you can use the tops of tomatoes. Chop 5 kg of fresh or 2 kg of dried tops, cover with boiling water and keep on low heat for 30 minutes. After the solution has cooled, strain it, dilute 3 liters of infusion and 30 g of laundry soap in 10 liters of water.

Not only for fruit trees - apple, pear, plum, cherry, but also for flowering shrubs, such as lilac, bird cherry, jasmine, spraying with coniferous infusion is very useful. For him, you need 2 kg of spruce needles, one-year pine growth. Pour 8 liters of water over them and leave for a week in a cool, dark place, stirring daily. The resulting spray solution must be diluted in a ratio of 1 liter per bucket of water.

Biology on guard for your garden: birds and insects against aphids

To prevent aphids from bothering your garden and orchard, you need to call insects and birds as allies, which are the main enemies of pests. Most of all, aphids will harm:

• ladybugs, and especially their larvae;
• lacewing;
• ground beetles;
• hoverflies;
• predatory bugs;
• wasps;
• sparrows;
• kinglets;
• warblers;
• tits;
• wrens;
• linnet.

In order to attract insects that destroy aphids to your site, plant spicy and aromatic plants: dill, parsley, cloves, carrots, as well as nettles. The ladybug is very fond of calendula, which in addition will help decorate your garden

Ladybug is one of the main enemies of aphids

Birds mainly feed the caught aphids to their chicks. Place feeders, birdhouses, and drinkers where you can to attract birds to your area.

Many plants have the ability to either repel or attract aphids. This can also be used to kill pests. Plant flowers such as petunia, begonia, mallow, cleoma and nasturtium away from vegetables and trees - the aphids will concentrate on them and will be distracted from the garden plantings. Of the trees, such plants include bird cherry, linden and viburnum.

Marigolds, garlic and onions, fennel, Dalmatian chamomile, mint and coriander, on the contrary, scare away aphids with their sharp spicy smells, so it will be useful to plant them in the beds and in the aisles in the garden.

Your helpers in the fight against aphids

Chemicals, insecticides

The lack of folk remedies in their short-lived action, so you often have to turn to chemicals. The simplest remedy is liquid soap or dishwashing detergent. Its solution is easily applied on low shrubs, washing the aphids off the leaves and covering the surface with a thin protective film. But more often you have to resort to more harsh methods.

Chemicals are:

• contact;
• intestinal;
• systemic.

Prevent aphids from breeding on your fruit trees

Each type has positive and negative sides.

1. The contact agent will immediately help the plant, since it kills the pest, penetrating through its covers. But the surviving aphid, sensing danger, begins to multiply instantly.
2. Intestinal drugs enter the digestive system, poisoning the insect. Usually they are used in conjunction with contact to enhance the action of both.
3. Systemic drugs make the sap of the plant poisonous to pests, penetrating the tissue of the leaves. Well suited for processing trees and are quickly absorbed, so they are not afraid of rain. But the effect may appear in 2-3 weeks. Fruit trees will withstand this period as well for flowers. For example, roses, this delay can be disastrous.

Nevertheless, it is better to resort to chemical treatment in the most extreme cases. They destroy not only harmful aphids, but also predators that feed on them. In addition, pests quickly develop drug resistance, so they need to be replaced. Do not process plants during the flowering period - this will harm pollinating insects.

Aphid control videos

Now you know how to get rid of a pest like aphids. Share with our readers your recipes for combating garden parasites. Easy work and good harvest!