Do the plants in your garden have stunted growth? Have you noticed that bunch of tiny evil creatures that are there on the underside of the leave? Well, they are the real culprit who has made your precious plants and vegetables look shriveled. These tiny evil bugs are aphids that tend to survive on the nutrition from the plant sap. They have a tinny pear-shaped body having various shades of colors like yellow, red, brown, green, or black. These aphids suck out the vigor from the plants part which ultimately makes you plants almost died.
The presence of these aphids can be noticed easily. If you have ever seen either the curling of the leaves or any sticky substance on the surface, then here are the culprits. The sticky substance is the waste product secreted by these aphids and is often referred to as the honeydew. It’s a little bit awful that the sticky substance has the propensity to attract the ants and is usually collected by them as food.
However if we talk about the fact that whether they are bad or not for our plants, then from the all above discussion it is evident that they are not suitable for our gardens. These little bugs bite your plants and make them lifeless. The problem is that they mate very quickly, and this can be very dreadful for the plants. It’s the same as several evil creatures are making one plant dead by biting them. Their infestation can make the plant parts deformed and also transmit the virus in the plants sometimes.
Therefore, it becomes necessary to exterminate them from your garden area to prevent your plants from getting died or remain stunted.
Best Methods of Aphid Control
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If you are entirely annoyed trying out various methods to get rid of aphids, then don’t fret, here we are to help you out. Gratefully, there are many ways to get rid of these tiny bugs without spending a bunch of money on the removal methods. So, without wasting any fraction of second further, let’s move on to the below-reiterated techniques to do away with the aphids:
- Hose of water
If you catch a glance over your plants and you see only a few aphids there, then you can expel them away using a strong sluice of water. For the complete removal of the aphids, focus on spraying the water on the undersides of the leaves with the help of a spray nozzle. Thereby, the aphids will be get banished from there in two weeks.
But here there’s one thing that you need to keep in your mind that is spraying the plants with water in the morning only so that they can dry in the sun. We don’t want to remove the aphids on the verge of leaving our plants to develop fungus.
- Insecticidal soap
It is a very effective method as it not only kills the aphids by suffocating them but also helps to wash the honeydew from the plant parts. This method is entirely safe, non-toxic, and inexpensive as well.
Best Natural Aphid control
If you don’t want to use harmful chemical treatments on your delicate plant to just kill the aphids, don’t fret. Here we are to make you introduce the best natural alternatives to you to get rid of the tiny evil bugs from your yard.
- Garlic spray
The garlic spray is a magical insecticide want to know why well this is because first, it is natural and second it doesn’t kill the good bugs from your plants but removes the evil ones out there. However, the irony here is that it even doesn’t kill any bugs, it only makes the plants smell bad due to which the aphids are unable to stay there, nor they want to lay the eggs there.
- Neem oil
Neem oil has been known from ages to keep the infections, bugs, and pest away due to its property, which make it bitter. It is insecticidal as well as antifungal as well. The Neem oil is entirely safe for the application on to the plants. What the Neem oil will do is that it will prevent the aphids from biting the plant, and thereby preventing them from gaining nutrition and growing, which will leave them, suffocating to death.
Biological Aphid Control
The aphids are vulnerable to several natural pieces of stuff, so it is effortless to dispose of them off your plants by using one of these pieces of stuff. These natural enemies include the aphid parasitoids, parasitic wasps, entomopathogenic fungi, predators or the insect-killing fungus.
Let’s discuss some of these methods here to get a better knowledge about getting riding of the aphid bugs.
- Aphid Parasitoids
These are a type of the parasitic wasps that tends to grow inside the host and kill them slowly as they mature. The best thing is that these are specific parasitoids for specific hosts so that you can choose as per your problem.
- Ladybugs
You can buy and leave the ladybugs on to your plants as these ladies love having the aphids as their meal. These beetles feed on several different species of the aphids. It is because the two-spotted lady beetles love to eat soft-bodied insects. That’s why these beetles are available in the market for pest control alternatives.
The larvae of the ladybug can eat up to 1000 aphids; therefore, the eggs of these beetles are laid near the aphids. However, one can store the adults until you release them.
Apart from that, you can also make the use of natural predators such as the hoverflies. These are very beneficial for the plants and are often referred to as flower flies and or the syrphid flies. The legless larvae of these aphids have a tapered head. The Larvae of the hoverflies consume the aphids as their meal and solves your issue.
The aphids are, however, not that harmful, but they become a disaster if they continue to breed and not taken care of. Therefore, it is necessary to look out on your plants to check for the aphid infestation as soon as possible.
