Are they Aphids? These are all over my Coral Honeysuckle in central Ohio. I've started just cutting off the areas they are on, but didn't know if there was a better way to go about it? They seem to be causing the flowers to wilt before blooming.
by AtroxAmbitus
4 Comments
Aphids love honeysuckle. Blast those suckers with a hose or neem oil.
Edit: many fair points have been made below. Just use the hose and skip the neem oil. Ladybug larvae also love eating aphids, so that’s an option of they are native to your area.
I know some people leave them alone and wait for the news to spread to ladybugs
If you wait long enough predators of the bugs come and feed the circle of life. It’ll still flower unless they’re all over the entire plant
I lost a bunch of good lupines to aphids a couple years ago. Had to plant many new ones, only 2 of the 10 or so I had came back from their destruction.
I bought tons of ladybugs online, didn’t help. There’s no guarantee that aphids will just be harmless or natural predators are gonna show up in time.
It’s ants that farm the aphids, gotta focus on good ant control to stop them. They’re easy enough to kill but the ants will keep bringing more. At least that is the case with lupine aphids.