COMBAT APHIDS NATURALLY

This month garden writer and blogger Emily Cupit turns her attention to that sap-sucking menace, the aphid, and offers some eco-friendly ways to control them

- Emily Cupit

Every single vegetable grower will encounter pest problems in their garden from time to time. Pests don’t know if you’re an experienced grower or a beginner, they just see the juicy green stems and leaves in your garden! Last spring I was strolling around my garden, admiring my beautiful French beans, when I noticed that almost the entire vine was covered in tiny black bugs – black bean aphids.

UNDERSTANDING APHIDS

In order to control aphids, I think it’s important that we understand them. When you think of aphids, you might think of tiny green bugs, but there are actually more than 5000 species in varying colours and sizes.

A typical life cycle starts in spring with wingless female adults giving birth to female nymphs without the need for male mates. It has been researched that a female aphid, hatched in spring, can produce up to 600 billion descendants, or up to 41 generations of females in a single season. Our poor plants don’t stand a chance!

In autumn, when everything starts to slow down, female aphids begin to produce winged females and males. The aphids go on to find mates and lay eggs on perennial plants. The eggs overwinter and eventually hatch in spring, repeating the cycle. 

WHAT’S SO BAD ABOUT APHIDS?