|
Aphids are small insects, usually about the size of a pinhead, but easily spotted with the naked eye. These insects can range in colors from green, yellow, black or even pink and be with or without wings. They excrete a sticky, honey colored residue. Aphids attach themselves to your plants and extract fluids from them, harming the vegetative growth of your plant and effecting your plants' potential growth. An infestation of aphids can cripple a garden in a matter of days. They can be controlled very effectively using two common types of treatment(not including prevention): insecticides and predator insects.
PREVENTING APHIDS IN YOUR GARDEN
Preventing aphids in your outdoors garden is nearly impossible, however, you can prevent a major infestation(using insecticidal sprays and predator insects, which are described later) from forming while in it's infancy.
In your indoor garden you can prevent aphids by not introducing them into the environment. Don't make your usual rounds in the outside garden and then go straight to your inside garden. You should check yourself for bugs, and wash your hands thoroughly before entering your indoor garden. Also, be sure to seal your indoor garden properly, leaving no crevices, and cracks for them to sneak in through. If you think you spot an aphid, use a mild form of extermination, such as spraying it with an insecticide immediately or by releasing a few predator insects(both described later)in the area of the garden where you spotted it. You can also use the manual form of elimination(recommended for a few bugs, because it's very time consuming) and squish them between your fingers. Aphids are slow fliers and can be caught quite easily. They are also vulnerable while they are feeding and stuck to your plant by their suction tube.
DEFEATING APHIDS WITH INSECTICIDAL SPRAYS
Aphids are very easily defeated by insecticidal soaps and pyrethrum sprays. Pyrethrum and insecticidal soaps are applied in basically the same manor. If mixing is required, first mix according to product usage label, then apply liberally to the foliage of your plants, being sure to cover the majorly infested areas of your plants. Approximately 5-10 days later repeat the spraying this should kill most of the newly hatched eggs and remaining adults. A third treatment is just to be safe and kill any survivors that may remain. In 5-10 days following your third treatment check your plants thoroughly for any remaining diehards, and spray any spotted, as well as, the area surrounding it.
ATTACKING APHIDS WITH PREDATOR INSECTS
Predator insects are good exterminators of aphids, both in the indoor, and outdoor garden. For their best effectiveness they should be placed out at the first sign of aphids on your plants. The two insects that are most used for aphid infestations are lacewings and lady bugs.
Lacewings are the most menacing predators for aphids. They are released at a rate of 1-20 lacewings per plant, depending on your infestation size. After you have reduced your infestation to minimal levels, place lacewings out at about 1-5 per plant every month there after until harvest. If adult lacewings are available, they are preferred over the larvae. Larvae take time to grow into adults and the aphids can devastate a garden in a matter of days.
Lady bugs are also an excellent, and easy to obtain exterminator of aphids. During the summer months you can find them available at most retail nurseries. Indoors lady bugs can be almost ineffective, due to their attraction to lights. If your indoor garden has a high-intensity discharge(HID) lamp, the lady bugs will fly toward it and likely fry(lacewings are the preferred, indoor garden, aphid predator). Lady bugs are released at a rate of about 50 per plant, if you have a HID lamp about half of them will fly toward the lamp and pop! Outside they should be released at a rate of 5-20 per plant once every month after the initial predator application. Inside they should be released at a rate of 5-20 per plant about 1-2 weeks after the first release, and repeated again every 1-2 weeks there after until harvest. With early detection, and extermination measures aphids should pose no problem to your indoor or outdoor garden.
|
| |
