Photo: Stock.Xchng

Have you ever paused at one of your rosebushes to smell the beautiful pink flowers before realising they were covered in those little insect pests? Aphids are little tear-shaped bugs with long antennae. They are bright green, brown, grey or pink and tend to cluster densely together. Aphids feed on the sap of your roses or vegetables and can transmit diseases to your plants which can cause leaf curling and stunted growth. If the number of aphids is extremely high, they may extract a large amount of sap from the plant, and it could die.

Put down that pesticide!

Before reaching for harsh pesticides that could affect more than just your pests, try getting rid of your aphids in a way that won’t damage the environment. Killing aphids with pesticides can cause havoc in the food chain. The pesticides may directly or indirectly kill other “useful” insects, like ladybugs or spiders, and the birds or lizards that eat these might also get killed. Needless to say, using pesticides on vegetables or fruit can be dangerous to people, too. Fortunately, there are other alternatives to pesticides. These green tips will help you combat aphids in your garden.

Safe pesticide solutions

Keep in mind that healthy plants are far more likely to weather an infestation of aphids. Make sure your plants are well-fertilised and watered regularly. If aphids are a problem despite this, make a trip around your garden and cut off any parts of plants that are heavily affected by aphids.

Next you can use a few drops of non-toxic liquid soap with natural ingredients to make a spray. Add a teaspoon of neem oil. Apply this to your affected plants. This should poison the aphids on contact as well as any pesticides, but without any unwanted side-effects. You will need to repeat this treatment every few weeks though.

Use pest predators

Natural predators of aphids, such as ladybugs and certain wasp species also help to keep these pests’ populations down. You can introduce some into your garden, yes – certain breeders specifically breed these beneficial insects so you can kill aphids without pesticides.

We hope you find these tips useful and happy gardening!

Tags: gardening