Summertime Pest Treatment Series: Aphids

What Are Aphids?

Aphids look like little specks crawling all over the leaves of your plants. There are 100s of different types of aphids, so those specks are most commonly green or yellow. But they could also be gray, white, red, black, or orange depending on the type of aphid infestation you are dealing with. 

Aphids feed off of the sap of the leaves of your plants, causing them to curl inward and eventually die off from lack of nutrients. They also produce a honeydew-like substance that is highly attractive to ants. So ants can also be a telltale sign of an aphid infestation.

The first course of action is to use your hose on its flat or cone setting to try to spray off most of the aphids from the leaves of your plant. Aphids are very weak and soft-bodied insects, so spraying them off with water is the safest way to try to get rid of the aphids on your plants before turning to other methods of treatment. Once you have done this, it is time to start cutting off all of the leaves of the plant that are still infected with aphids, or that have visible aphid damage, to avoid the spread of the infestation. If you are still noticing an aphid infestation or aphid damage on the leaves of your plants, try mixing in neem oil the next time you hose off your plants with water.