Aphids suck – literally. These pesky garden pests will poke their mouths into your beloved plants and suck out their liquid. It weakens the plant and reduces your harvest – not to mention the unsightly appearance a massive, black mound of aphids can be on your plants. What can be done on the organic homestead to remedy the problem?
Aphid larvae on currant leaves
The answer: lots! To prevent aphids from taking hold to begin with, place aphid-repelling plants throughout the garden like garlic, onions, chives, and radishes. You can also plant aphid attracting plants, like nastursium, to draw the aphids toward one area and away from your beloved vegetables.
Aphids massing under an artichoke leaf
When aphids show up, there a number of strategies for getting rid of them:
- Apply tomato leaf or garlic spray (check out this link for recipes)
- Spray with diluted dish soap (1 tsp. per pint of water) – this dries out their soft-bodies
- Spray off with a strong hose
Spraying aphids with diluted dish soap. This dries out the soft-bodies insects, killing them.
Another strategy is to attract beneficial insects to the garden to feast on these pests. Ladybugs and lacewings love to eat aphids. Here are some flowering plants that will bring the good guys into the garden and keep the bad guys out:
- Bugleweed
- Coriander
- Cosmos
- Dandelion
- Dill
- Fennel
- Yarrow
Unfortunately I didn’t get a handle on our aphid problem until too late. The plants most effected this year are our artichokes and currants. We’re always going to be fighting one thing or another in the garden, so I guess this is the battle this year.
Aphids hiding in the folds of an artichoke head
What are you struggling to keep on top of in the garden? What tried and true solutions have worked to keep aphids under control on your homestead? Share in the comments below!
I get the aphid-ranching ants that place the aphids in neat rows up and down the flowers and protect them from pedators. I was blasting them off my corn tassels yesterday with the hose. I’ll have to do it again today. The ones farmed by the ants are very difficult to deal with because the ants nurture them so well. I think I’m having a big problem this year because of the drought. We’ve had no strong storms or heavy rains that I think would naturally knock them back a little.