Imagine my puzzlement when I glanced at one of my two spireas and saw empty branches. This was a plant that was flushing out with its reddish amber to golden leaves just a couple days ago. The leaves around the tips were completely intact but some of the stems were nearly naked. What caused this damage? Aphids!
What do Aphids do to Plants?
These nasty little green insects in the picture above were clumping all over the spirea’s stems devouring the leaves. Aphids enjoy sucking on the plant juices that come from fresh leaves and stems. As they eat they secrete a substance known as honeydew. It’s such a nice sounding word for something that comes as a waste product from an insect. The honeydew then can attract a mold to further destroy your plant. Aphids can also introduce harmful diseases to your plants. You can see that even though they are small little creatures they are big pests.
Aphids Have a Weird Reproductive Cycle
What is crazy about aphids is their reproductive cycle. The little green girls in the above picture (and girls they are, nymphs) are hatched from eggs that are laid in the fall. In spring when they hatch the aphids become stem mothers and produce more females which will continue to reproduce more offspring. In the fall when the days are shorter and the temperatures are cooler the aphids will produce young with both females and males. The aphids mate and lay eggs then the cycle begins again.
How do You Treat Aphids?
What can you do about aphids? Insecticidal soap works well. I’ve used it many times on our lemon trees (in pots, they aren’t hardy for Tennessee winters) and it usually takes care of them. A blast from a garden hose will knock them off your plants or you can rely on natural predators like lady bugs and lacewings who like to munch on aphids. You could go with a variety of pesticides but insecticidal soap will do the job fine and it is more ecologically friendly than most pesticides.
We didn’t plant this little spirea but we like it since it kind of regrew from nothing in the aftermath of the previous occupants of our home. Before we bought the house the front garden was stripped of everything that was there except for the nandina and apparently our little friend who sprung up out of nowhere. Although I suspect this little spirea is really a ‘Magic Carpet’ spirea (Spirea japonica) I would be tempted to rename it the Phoenix since it regrew from nothing. Now with our help this phoenix will rise again!
Be on the watch for these pests on new growth. If you suddenly notice leaves dropping or stem damage look a little closer and you may find what’s bugging you!
Here is some good information on the little buggers from the Virginia Cooperative Extension.
Garden Projects for 2010
Last year I began what will become an annual tradition of laying out all the garden projects I plan to work on for the year. This way you can get an idea what I’ll be getting myself into even if I don’t! Last year’s list changed as I went through the year and inevitably this one will too. Sometimes projects…
Don’t Forget About Worst Weed Wednesday!
Do you say “Do you feel lucky, punk?” when you stare down weeds while wielding a bottle of herbicide? Do you cringe when you hear crabgrass? Then don’t forget that this coming Wednesday July 29th is Worst Weed Wednesday where you get to rant all you want about the worst possible garden invaders to your yard! For more details check…
Snowhenge and the Ziggurat of Ice
Surely one of the greatest mysteries to appear in the history of the state of Tennessee. Recently strange shapes have appeared across the landscape. Covered with a cold and white mysterious substance these shapes reportedly have been erected by the mysterious “snowpeople” (the exact gender cannot be known except by manner of dress. Top hats and pipes tend to indicate…
A Thank You!
I just wanted to say a quick thank you to Gloria Ballard, the garden columnist at The Tennessean newspaper for including me in her latest article! It has some great information on Fall Planting of Vegetable Crops. Please stop over and read her article online at The Tennessean: Second Season Springs to Life in the Garden or visit Gloria’s personal…
Mulching The Vegetable Garden
The vegetable garden is growing “like a weed”, in fact its growing a few of them too! I’m really pleased with the progress of most of the garden so far. There are a couple beds that need some attention but I have almost all the beds mulched with a hardwood mulch to keep most of the weeds at bay and…
Daylily Hybridizing: My First Attempt
I am a self-professed plant propagation nut and therefore I find plant propagation in all it’s forms very interesting. It was inevitable that I’d try my hand at hybridizing and what better place to start than daylilies? Daylilies have easy to find and manipulate reproductive parts (stamens and pistols). The stamen is the male part that contains the pollen and…
Yes, those little boogers can be so bad. I have them on some calla lillies too. They love the fresh new growth. Hope you get rid of them.
Destructive little beasts! Thanks for the tips.
I haven’t had too many problems with them, luckily. Thanks for the tips!
I really get the creeps from the little soft bodies but was compelled to keep reading. Glad you won the battle! They love my rose The Fairy and I hose them off each year.
Gail
Looks like magic carpet to me. We have tons of it, it roots like crazy wherever a branch touches the ground so I have spread it hither and yon. It will grow in any condition sun, shade, wet or dry. I will have to run out to look for those little bad girls on mine.
Hi Dave .. aren’t you on my deck ? LOL
Aphids .. YES … every year I am in a battle with those little so and so’s .. Gold Mock Orange is one of their favorites .. and yes .. Spirea, I have a few .. I took out my Honeysuckle because it was just too much to handle with them … ugh ! I use the jet stream to wash them off and let the natural preditors have lunch on me !
Joy
Thanks for the info! Aphids can cause a lot of damage. They have been difficult to eradicate on my daylily plants because they bury themselves deep inside the fans and are hard to eliminate completely. I did find a good homemade recipe that works fairly effectively with detergent, oil, and water.
I had them on a shrimp plant one time! Got sticky stuff all over my furniture! arggg
Aphids are my nemesis. It seems like nothing keeps them away for very long. They absolutely cover the new growth of the Van Houtte spiraeas here in the spring.
Tina,
From what I’ve read they tend to stick with one type of plant at a time. They may like your calla lilies but they shouldn’t spread to other plants in your garden just calla lilies. Strange behavior for strange creatures!
Nancy and Karen,
Your welcome, they certainly are a pain!
Gail,
I haven’t won the battle just yet but I will in the end! I checked them this morning and most of them have died but I sprayed again in case I missed any.
Frances,
Thanks for the second opinion on the spirea! I propagated a couple last fall but neglect took them. Sometimes you just forget about stuff! Definitely check for them on yours you don’t want them to get too established!
Joy,
I decided to move south! Too much snow up there. 😉 I’m sure the lady bugs (beetles) enjoyed your feast!
Chey,
I can definitely see where that would make them difficult to get rid of. They are so small they can get into those crevices really easily. Do you use equal proportions for your recipe? This would probably be a lot of trouble, but if you divide your day lilies have a bucket of your mixture on hand and dip the entire lily before you replant. That may help!
Skeeter,
You have experienced the honeydew effect! Icky stuff isn’t it?