Got Aphids?

Here’s what to do when you see these creepy crawlers!

Look familiar? These 2 pictures are good examples of when the aphids are starting to get bad.

At first, there tends to only be a few hanging on the bottom side of leaves or the fruiting part of your plant.

As time goes on, they start to look like this, and will spread throughout the garden.

They are not always the same color, but tend to mostly be this tan/brown or black color.

Aphids feed off the sap from your plants, which will lead to slow/stunted plant growth.

They will also make your skin itchy when you are working in the garden.

We don’t want this!

The good news, is it is pretty easy to get rid of them :)

Step 1: Be in your garden regularly! You will notice when they are starting to hang out under the leaves.

Step 2: If there are just a few infested leaves, you can prune those back.

Step 3: Grab your hose and spray them off!

Step 4: Continue to check the infested plants over the coming days and spray again as needed.

If they are continuing to be a problem after trying to remove them with water, you can spray some Dr. Bronner’s soap or neem oil on the plant to keep them away.

Another more natural and organic method would be to grab some lady bug larve from a local nursery to add to your garden. Lady bugs will eat the aphids!

If a plant is really covered with them and they won’t go away, you can always remove the plant (sad, but also means a new plant!).