Hi everyone,
My outdoor ivy is covered in what seems to be black aphids (see photos). They’re clustered on the young shoots, and there’s also fine webbing. I’m worried the infestation might spread to other nearby plants.
Pretty good watering i think and get somme light the morning.
Any advice for treating it ? Thanks a lot!
by Aggravating_Ad_1273
4 Comments
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RELEASE THE LADYBUGS! CHARGE!
There are a few ways to go about this that I know of!
1. Biological control: ladybugs are big consumers of aphids (and the nymphs even more so!) but it’s important to make sure you’re getting a native species that is collected from the wild ethically
2. “Non-pesticide” product treatments: soapy water essentially desiccates the aphids and the eggs. Obviously this method is a lot more hands on and you often have to apply the treatment multiple times to make sure the aphids are completely gone (I’ve also found that changing the soil helps this method be more effective). As a note, soap can take away protective coatings that plants naturally develop and they can become more susceptible to burning in the sun/drying out.
Neem oil will also kill aphids and their eggs but it will also kill other bugs as well. Wipe/spray the oil onto the plant and directly on to the aphids as best you can. The plant won’t risk drying out with this method as it would with soap but I find it annoying to wipe the leaves down once the infestation is gone due to the amount of dust that sticks to my plants afterwards.
3. Straight up pesticides: you can buy some very weak pesticides but obviously this might not be ideal for a lot of people and they can be hard to find (and hard to acquire in general, especially depending on where you live)
4. Physical methods: you can essentially gently “power wash” the plant and blast the aphids off. I’d say this method is the least effective depending on how big the infestation is and probably the most hands-on
5. Toss that sucker: if you don’t have much attachment to this plant and you don’t want to deal with the aphids, especially if it seems totally unmanageable (or you just don’t want to – I totally get it), you can always just toss the plant (but I’d bag it up first if you do so the aphids don’t spread further)
Hopefully this was helpful and I wish you the best in dealing with those nasty little bugs!
Options:
1 Spray off with water. (Probably not the best option considering these are seedlings.)
2 Insecticidal soap.
3 Neem oil.
4 Asian lady beetles. (Natural predators of aphids.)
5 Rosemary. (Better as a preventative, too late for that now.)
6 Exterminatus. (Ditch the whole plant, burn it, throw the soil into the neighboring forest or your compost pile, and re-plant with some fresh seeds.)