One of the most harmful pests on fruit and ornamental trees is aphids. This small insect reproduces at an alarming rate and causes irreparable damage to trees. Aphids suck out juice and carry various diseases. Because of its activities, you may lose your crops and even your fruit trees. In this article we will look at the most effective ways to deal with insects and protect your plantings.
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What does the pest look like?
Aphids are small insects (no more than 7 mm). It has an oval or teardrop shape. The mouth is presented in the form of a proboscis, with which it pierces the tissues of the plant and sucks out the juices from them. It comes in white, green and black. Black aphids are more common in gardens.
ON A NOTE. There are several thousand species of aphids. Interestingly, aphids are a kind of pet for ants. They milk her like people milk cows.
The danger of aphids is that they feed on tree sap, disrupting the natural processes of sap flow. As a result, some of the plant's shoots do not receive proper nutrition. The activity of aphids also affects the fruits of fruit trees.
What are aphids and how are they harmful to your summer cottage?
These small insects, measuring from 5 to 7 mm, are familiar to all 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 sensitive to viral diseases. Several species of aphids live exclusively on plant roots, damaging them.
There are winged and wingless forms of aphids. Colonies of winged aphids can spread up to 25 km with the help of the wind and lay eggs for the winter. Wingless reproduce asexually, laying eggs in spring and summer.
In addition to the fact that aphids themselves harm 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, which protect the aphid colony from attacks by other insects.
Here are a few symptoms that will help you recognize an 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 the insects, this is old skin shed by aphids;
- damage to leaves and buds is indicated by the fact that they are covered with sticky honeydew;
- leaves that are affected stop developing, curl downwards 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 omnivores, so the damage they cause can be 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 become so adapted 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 provide themselves with wintering.
Why do aphids appear on trees?
There are several reasons why your garden becomes a victim of a pest:
- Insects come from neighboring areas.
- The insects have overwintered in the bark of your trees.
- The aphids were brought to the site by ants.
The danger of aphids is that they can produce up to 20 generations of parasites in just one season. The insect grows quickly and has an inordinate appetite.
General information about aphids
Aphids are small sucking parasitic insects 2-3 cm long. They have a special love for the most delicate greenery - young leaves, tops of shoots, buds. The color of aphids varies from almost transparent, yellow and light green to brown and black.
Unfortunately, the gardener. who has never seen aphids with his own eyes - an almost unique phenomenon
The pest is distinguished by its rare “omnivorousness”. The area of interest of aphids includes almost all garden crops. It doesn’t ignore fruit trees either. Cherries, plums, pears, and apple trees are especially affected.
Aphids most likely will not completely destroy an adult fruit tree, but the insect is quite capable of causing significant damage to it.
It is very difficult not to notice aphids on trees. The pest settles on them in huge colonies. Gradually, the tree is deprived of juices, losing its “vitality”. Growth rates are sharply slowed down, immunity and winter hardiness are reduced, the ovaries crumble, and the volume and quality of the harvest decreases. In addition, the sweet sticky secretions of the pest (honeydew) are a very suitable environment for the development of many pathogenic fungi.
Aphids and ants form a stable symbiosis. They play a big role in its distribution throughout the garden. The pest is capable of moving independently. Female aphids are very fertile, with the number of eggs from each numbering in the hundreds of thousands. A new generation of winged individuals hatches in mid-July. They lay eggs throughout the garden, including under the bark of fruit trees.
Aphids and ants live in a strong symbiosis, so you need to get rid of both at the same time
Video: what a gardener needs to know about aphids
How to treat aphids on trees, effective preparations?
The most effective way to kill aphids is to use chemicals. They have different operating principles, but they are aimed at the complete destruction of pests on shrubs and trees. Insecticides are used in the preparation of solutions for spraying trees.
There are 3 main groups of drugs against aphids:
- System . Penetrate into plant tissue, making them poisonous to aphids;
- Contact . They kill an insect by falling on it;
- Intestinal . Poisons aphids.
In the following table you will find information about the most effective drugs against aphids and methods for preparing the working solution.
Table. Effective drugs against aphids
| Means | Preparation | Treatment frequency |
| Biotlin | 2 sachets (3 ml) per bucket of water | Apply once per season |
| Aktara | 2 grams of powder per 10 liters of water | Apply no more than 2 times only before flowering begins. Treatment interval – 1 week |
| Fury | 1 ml per bucket of water | One spray per year, no later than 30 days before harvest |
| Arrivo | Ampoule 10 l | 2 treatments 2 weeks apart |
| Karbofos | 5 grams of emulsion are diluted in 1 liter of water | 1 time per season |
| Spark | 0.5 tablets per 5 liters of water | Use until the buds swell |
| Confidor | 1 gram of powder per 5 liters of water | No more than 4 treatments at intervals of 2-3 weeks |
| BI-58 New | Ampoule for 5 liters of water | Maximum 2 treatments |
| Green soap | Mix 400 ml in 10 liters of water | As needed |
| Fufanon | 4 ml per 3 liters of water | No more than 3 treatments with an interval of at least 7 days |
| Aktellik | 10 ml per 10 liters of water | No more than 2 sprays per year |
| Fitoverm | 25 ml per 3 liters of liquid | As needed. Finish processing at least 5 days before harvesting the fruits |
| Aktofit | 80 ml per 10 liters of liquid | No more than 2 sprays |
| Arrivo | 3 ml for 2 buckets | Process no later than 3 weeks before harvest |
| Tanker | 3 ml per bucket | One treatment |
| Kinmiks | Half an ampoule for 5 liters of water | No more than 2 treatments |
| Kalash | 10 ml per 20 liters of water | The treatment interval is 21 days. Spray no more than 2 times per season |
| Commander | 5 ml per bucket | No more than 3 sprays with an interval of 2 weeks |
| Arrow | 25 grams of powder per five-liter sprayer | Biological agent. Apply at intervals of 10-15 days before fruiting. |
| Alatar | 10 ml for 2 buckets of water | One-time processing |
| Cortlis | 4-5 ml per 1 bucket of water | The consumption of the working solution is half a bucket per tree. One treatment per year |
IMPORTANT! Strictly follow the instructions on the drug packages and the manufacturers' recommendations regarding the timing and method of using the poison.
How to protect trees from ants
Work related to protection against ants must be carried out on time. They are carriers of diseases that weaken trees. The following are used as effective measures of influence:
- protective cone;
- glue;
- catcher's belt
Important! It is necessary to take measures to protect against ants, as they attract aphids.
Ant glue for trees
The composition is applied to the barrel. It does not allow insects to rise up. As a result, the probability of larvae reaching areas convenient for development (leaf plate) is reduced. Treatment should be carried out in the spring.
Ant trapping belts on fruit trees
You need to know not only when to spray trees, but also how to additionally protect them from ant invasion. A catch belt helps with this. It is recommended to glue it low and renew it every season. You can form a cone-trap so that the ants cannot get out and damage the trunk.
Whitewashing the trunk - effective protection
How to whiten trees in spring
Before flowering begins, you need to whiten the trunks and lower parts of the bushes. Gardeners need to know where to start their treatments to achieve the most effectiveness. You need to start from the ground. The optimal time is autumn. During this period, it is easy to eliminate pests and fungal spores. The trunk is first treated to remove old bark and the damage is treated with garden varnish. For work, a solution is used - 10 liters of water and 2 kg of slaked lime.
What are the dangers of chemical treatment?
Despite all their effectiveness, chemicals have several significant disadvantages that make their use dangerous. Let's consider the most significant of them.
- Poisoning. When working with poisons, you can get minor poisoning. This is especially true for those summer residents who neglect protective equipment.
- Harm to plants. Incorrect dosage may cause chemical burns.
- Nitrates in fruits. Do not get overly involved in treating with pesticides. Some of them, when decomposed, leave nitrates in the fruits.
- In addition, treatment with chemicals during flowering can cause the death of bees. Most poisons are non-selective, meaning they are dangerous to all insects, beneficial and pests. Treatment with such compounds during periods of abundant flowering leads to damage to all agriculture, and especially to beekeeping.
Chemicals, insecticides
The disadvantage of folk remedies is 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 to low shrubs, washing away aphids from the leaves and covering the surface with a thin protective film. But more often you have to resort to more stringent methods.
Chemical agents are:
- contact;
- intestinal;
- systemic.
Prevent aphids from growing on your fruit trees
Each type has positive and negative sides.
- The contact agent will immediately help the plant, since it kills the pest by penetrating through its integument. But the surviving aphid, sensing danger, immediately begins to multiply.
- Intestinal preparations enter the digestive system, poisoning the insect. They are usually used together with contact ones to enhance the effect of both.
- Systemic drugs make the plant sap poisonous to pests, penetrating into the leaf tissue. They are well suited for treating trees and are quickly absorbed, so they are not afraid of rain. But the effect may appear after 2-3 weeks. Fruit trees will withstand this period, but for flowers. For example, roses, this delay can be disastrous.
However, it is better to resort to treatment with chemicals in the most extreme cases. They destroy not only harmful aphids, but also the predators that feed on them. In addition, pests quickly develop resistance to drugs, so they need to be replaced. Do not treat plants during the flowering period - this will harm pollinating insects.
How to fight aphids on trees using traditional methods
You can also fight aphids using traditional methods. Most of them compare favorably with chemical preparations in that they are safe for fruits, plants, bees and people. However, you need to understand that the effectiveness of folk remedies is often much lower than that of poisons. This means that in case of large-scale infestation of trees with aphids, such methods will not help.
ON A NOTE. Using folk remedies, it is better to carry out several treatments with an interval of 3 days.
Ammonia
Pour a bottle of ammonia into a bucket of water. Mix, pour the product into a sprayer and treat the trees.
ON A NOTE. Ammonia evaporates quickly, so it is better to work with small young trees with this solution.
Tobacco dust
It can be used in 2 ways. First, prepare an infusion and spray the trees with it. The second is to poison the aphids with tobacco smoke. To do this, light a small fire in a bucket, and then put it out by pouring out a bag of tobacco dust. Next, you need to stand downwind so that the smoke goes to the infected plants.
Infusion of celandine
Finely chop this herb, add water and leave for 3 days. After this, strain the liquid, dilute it with clean water and add grated soap to make the solution stick.
Onion peel infusion
Pour water over the husk and leave for 2 days. Strain the liquid, mix with clean water and add grated soap. Spray the infected plants with the resulting solution.
Mustard powder
Sprinkle the product under infected trees. The second method is to prepare a spray solution. To do this, mix 50 grams of powder with 5 liters of water. Treat the plants.
Garlic infusion
In a quart jar, soak 3 cloves of finely chopped or crushed garlic. Leave in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Then strain and pour the resulting mixture into a sprayer. Treat infected trees.
Tar soap
You need to rub 50 grams of tar soap onto a five-liter sprayer. Small trees can even be washed with this solution.
Ash and garlic solution
Finely grate 2 garlic cloves and cover them with hot water. Then, stirring, add 100 grams of ash. Strain the solution and pour into a sprayer. The product is ready for use.
Iodine and whey solution
The treatment solution is prepared from 5 liters of water, 500 ml of whey and 0.5 teaspoon of iodine.
Kerosene
The aphid repellent is prepared as follows: rub a bar of laundry soap into a bucket of warm water. Then add 5 ml of kerosene to the mixture.
Metronidazole
The product can be bought at a pharmacy. The spray solution is prepared from 20 crushed Metronidazole tablets and a bucket of water.
Trichopolum
This drug is also sold in pharmacies. The product for treating infected trees is prepared as follows: 20 tablets are finely crushed in a mortar and filled with a bucket of water. Everything is thoroughly mixed until completely dissolved.
Protection of trees and shrubs
In early spring or autumn, after the leaves have fallen, you should use a garden sprayer to treat the berry bushes with a chemical solution of nitrafen.
This process should only be done when the branches are completely bare of leaves, as the preparation is toxic and can burn the foliage. To protect currants from infection that may appear from the outside (for example, from neighbors), it is advisable to plant calendula or chamomile near the bushes.
Gardeners advise in the spring to carefully examine all currant bushes and remove branches even with slight deformation of the leaves. This is because the remaining few aphid larvae will multiply quickly.
Currant bushes can be processed using folk remedies, which are widely used by experienced garden crop specialists. You can prepare a solution based on tobacco dust at home: 300 grams of a tobacco-colored dust-like preparation should be poured with boiling water and the solution allowed to brew for three days. Then strain the mixture and add 100 grams of laundry soap to it, having previously dissolved it in water.
A solution prepared from mustard powder is considered a fairly effective way to spray currants to kill harmful insects.
To prepare ten liters of solution, pour 50 grams of dry mustard with boiling water (1 liter) and let the mixture sit for two days. The next stage of preparing the solution is that the prepared concentrate is brought to its full volume.
It is very important for currant bushes not to skip the process of preventing the appearance of insects, since this berry crop takes a long time to restore its previous appearance and productivity. All of the above tips can be applied to other fruit trees and shrubs.
How to get rid of aphids if fruits have already appeared?
The best solution would be to use folk remedies and biological products. Among the most popular remedies for aphids are Strela, Fufanon, Fitoverm.
If the tree begins to bear fruit, then it is quite possible to use insecticides. But it is important to complete processing at least two weeks before harvest.
You can also use catching belts and sticky fly tape, but this is not a very effective method.
ON A NOTE. Ladybug will also help in the fight against aphids. To attract it, plant calendula, borage, cornflowers, tansy and dandelions around the trees.
Favorable conditions for the reproduction of aphids in the spring in the garden
Aphids can take a liking to almost any plant. The eggs of the females, laid on the shoots near the buds, tolerate the winter well, and with the first warmth they begin to multiply en masse. The asexual production cycle throughout the growing season results in rapid and widespread infestation.
Winged species of aphids are able to cross a distance of 25 kilometers to lay their eggs in another area.
Because the pest is so small, sometimes the first sign of it living on crops is ants. The honeydew secretion of aphids attracts entire colonies of these insects. They spread aphid larvae to other crops, and in bad weather they save them in the anthill.
Imagine, one individual can lay 80-90 eggs in a week, and by the end of the next week its offspring will lay their larvae, etc. Therefore, it is not surprising that their colonies number in the thousands.
Lack of moisture and minerals weakens the plant, and this attracts the female to lay eggs. Excessive nitrogen and poor air circulation can lead to an increase in aphid populations.
Preventing aphids from appearing on trees
First, carry out early spring preventative treatment. Weeding in the garden will help prevent the appearance of aphids.
Secondly, conduct regular inspections of branches and leaves. If you detect the first pests in time, it will be much easier to destroy them than to fight an entire colony of aphids.
Thirdly, remove anthills from the area. Especially if they are located near fruit trees.
Fourthly, do not forget about timely feeding and watering of trees.
Fifthly, in the fall and spring, whitewash the trees with lime or garden paint. It is also important to keep the tree trunk area clean so that fallen leaves, rotten fruits and broken branches do not accumulate there.
Sixthly, do not forget to carry out sanitary pruning of trees.
Damage to trees and bushes
An insect, having settled on a plant, begins to master it, choosing young tender leaves and shoots for feeding. In tissues deprived of juice, photosynthesis and metabolic processes are disrupted, which affects the growth and development of the tree, the formation of buds and ovaries. Young trees, if no measures are taken, will enter winter weakened and may not withstand severe frosts.
Aphids suck out much more juice than they need to survive, so the remainder is excreted from the body and forms a sugary coating on the leaves and branches. Honeydew (honeydew) blocks the access of oxygen to cells, interferes with photosynthesis, and creates excellent conditions for the development of fungal infections. A frequent companion of aphids is black sooty mildew, viral diseases, and gall-like formations that weaken the plant. Viruses and fungi are also carried by ants.
Related article:
Spots on grapes - what to do and how to treat bushes
Common mistakes
Let's look at the most common mistakes that gardeners make when fighting pests:
- Treatment during flowering leads to the death of bees.
- Treatment on the eve of harvest. You need to finish spraying with all insecticides within 2 weeks to avoid poisoning.
- No preventative work is carried out. Preventing the appearance of a parasite is much easier than getting rid of it later.
- One-time processing. Most likely, a single spray will not kill all the aphids. Usually 2-3 treatments with drugs of different effects help.
- The concentration of the active substance is exceeded. It is necessary to strictly follow the recommendations of the insecticide manufacturer so as not to harm the plant.
- Processing is carried out only on the upper part of the sheet plate. During spraying, the leaves need to be unfolded, the branches and the underside of the leaf blades must be treated.
Other methods of struggle
What else you need to know to conduct comprehensive pest control:
- Healthy, strong trees are attacked much less frequently by aphids. Therefore, proper care is the best prevention.
- By clearing the tree trunk circle of plant debris and burning it, you simultaneously destroy aphid eggs. And whitewashing a tree prevents insects from laying eggs in cracks in the bark.
- Fight not only aphids, but also ants. Until you get rid of them, it will be almost impossible to remove aphids.
- Plant plants that aphids do not like near fruit trees - herbs, onions, garlic, tobacco, horseradish, marigolds, calendula. And away from them are those that attract her in order to “distract attention” and create some kind of traps (poppies, cosmos, nasturtium, begonia, viburnum, linden).
Marigolds planted in a circle near the trunk repel not only aphids, but also other pests from fruit trees - insects do not like the pungent smell of their tops
Aphids have a lot of natural enemies. The “favorite” of gardeners is the ladybug, which destroys 50–100 specimens daily. She is attracted to the site by flowers and aromatic herbs. You can also attract hoverflies by planting greens (dill, parsley) and daisies in the garden, earwigs by mulching the soil in tree trunks with sawdust, and lacewings, which like ferns.
Ladybug is one of the gardener’s valuable assistants in the fight against aphids
Birds and aphids feed on them. But, having destroyed the insects, they can switch to your crop. So think twice before setting up feeders for them.
When attracting birds to your site, be prepared for the fact that they may feed not only on the food left for them and harmful insects
Video: ladybug against aphids in the garden
Answers to popular questions
How to quickly get rid of aphids?
It will not be possible to defeat the pest instantly. The sooner you start the fight, the greater the chances of success.
Which drug is the most effective?
Aktara, Biotlin and infusion of garlic with ammonia perform well.
How often should treatments be carried out?
Using traditional methods, on average once every 3 days. The frequency of insecticide treatments varies depending on the product.
Repellent plants
Some plants will also help defeat aphids. Plant a repellent plant in your garden or garden, and this pest will not appear on your site.
Aphids are afraid:
- garlic;
- dandelion;
- wormwood;
- cornflowers;
- tobacco;
- basilica;
- horseradish;
- Luke;
- shepherd's purse;
- henbane.
These plants frighten aphids or interfere with their digestion.
You should not have viburnum, bird cherry, elderberry, nasturtium, or petunia nearby - on the contrary, the pest likes such plants.
Some people make beds with nasturtium or petunia in a secluded corner. Thus, they lure aphids there, away from other garden crops.
