If you have plants, you might have aphids at some point. They’re one of the most common pests found in gardens, and while they’re tiny, they can do a serious number on your plants.
To keep your garden growing strong, here’s everything you need to know about these pesky little critters, and how to get rid of aphids for good.
Aphids are small—so small, in fact, that you likely won’t see them unless you’re looking for them.
What are aphids, anyway?
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“You’ll know you have aphids by looking at your plants’ leaves, specifically the undersides,” says Kevin Espiritu, founder of Epic Gardening. “Aphids like to cluster together.”
Aphids are soft-bodied, pear-shaped insects with long antennae. They’re colorful little buggers and come in a variety of hues, including white, brown, yellow, pink, and black, but they’re most commonly green. While they can be found anywhere in the United States where there are plants, they like temperate and tropical climates the best, and they come out strongest in the spring.
Signs of an aphid infestation
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Regina Caligiuri, an alternative gardening expert with Maximum Off Grid, says although aphids can be hard to spot, there are some telltale signs that will help you identify an infestation.
“Holes in leaves, yellowing leaves, deformed leaves, the dying of young shoots are all signs of aphid attack,” she says. “Oftentimes, you can spot them in clusters by turning over leaves or spotting clusters where the leaf meets the stalk of the plant.”
While there are a ton of species of aphids (4,400-plus), only a fraction of them—about 250—are destructive to common garden plants.
“They suck the sap out of your plants’ leaves, and the plants die,” Espiritu says.
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What plants do aphids eat?
So, why did they pick your garden? Aphids can enter your garden when you bring in new plants that are already infested. And some species of aphids can fly, making it easy for a swarm to make a new home in your garden.
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While they can feed on any type of plant, some species of aphids have evolved to specialize in specific plants such as bean aphids, green peach aphids, apple aphids, cabbage aphids, potato aphids, and melon aphids. They also tend to proliferate on unhealthy specimens.
“You have them because, well, pests like plants,” Espiritu says. “But plants that are sick or less than healthy typically have them more often, similar to how a person with a weakened immune system gets sick more often. You can also get them more often if you don’t have an abundance of other beneficial insects that munch on your aphids.”
“It could also be that the plant is weak, the soil is too dry, or the plant is growing out of season,” adds Kevin Rodrigues, founder of GardeningMentor.com.
How To Get Rid of Aphids: Tips To Nix Your Garden’s Biggest Pest appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.