black aphids on austrees
We have black aphids on our austrees; have sprayed with ortho and seven several times this summer and no luck getting rid of them. Our trees are taller than our house. We are cutting them down this fall to 6' or so to make it easier to control next spring. Would it be best to wait for freeze to kill the existing aphids and treat the ground before spring next year? What products should I use?
Thank you, N.
First, the products you mentioned aren't the best options when it comes to dealing with black aphids. If you look over our APHID CONTROL ARTICLE, you'll learn that aphids are both persistent and hard to control with conventional products. The BIFEN and NYLAR mix seems to work well and when combined with SPREADER STICKER, you should be able to knock them down quite a bit with just one or two treatments.
Second, cutting your austrees down to control any insect is rarely a practical solution. Insects will almost certainly continue to thrive even if their local food supply is diminished. Not only that, they will not just leave or disappear. In fact, what will probably happen is that you will force them to move onto a more suitable plant and I suspect this will be something else on your property or possibley a neighbors. To avoid further spreading of this pest, treat the trees now. There is still plenty of time to get aphids under control so that by next spring, your trees will be able to grow their leaves in normal fashion. This is the best way for them to star the new spring/summer and should enable them to lead a healthy comeback following the infestation.
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Comments on black aphids on austrees
nellie irwin @ 9:15 am
Well it's spring and the thought of those black aphids re-appearing is on my mind. We did not treat them last fall so want to be aggressive now before they appear again. What is the best product at this time? Can we catch them before they reproduce?
Nellie Irwin
admin @ 6:46 am
@nellie irwin: Treating now before they get active would be quite smart. In fact, most pest problems in and around the home can be avoided with a little bit of preventive treatments. Aphids are no exception.
To get ahead of the infestation, the best approach would be a combination of the three products mentioned above. Bifen is the adulticide meaning it would be killing any adults on the plant. Nylar is the growth regulator which would stop their cycle from completing over and over again and the Spreader Sticker would be the adjuvant enabling the spray to get full coverage on the plants you treat. Here are direct links for each product:
http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/products/page1730.html
http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/products/page1249.html
http://www.bugspray.com/catalog/products/page1248.html
These would be our strongest options and treatments using them would be long lasting. If used before aphids arrived, you could expect to get 1 month of residual from the application and maybe longer. But if you treated once a month and stayed on this program, I doubt you'd see any aphids the whole year.
Organic options can be used too but they won't last nearly as long. If you prefer, go with the 3 in 1 concentrate and use is every 2 weeks through your season. This too would work but would prove to be about twice as much work seeing that you'd have to spray that much more. You can see this item on our Non Toxic Pest Control site here:
http://www.non-toxic-pest-control.com/concentrates/3-in-1-fim-32-oz
Get a jump on aphids before they start jumping on your plants! Treat early and you'll find handling infestations will be a lot easier.