Hey guys,
Aphids are nasty little creatures that can damage and kill plant life by injecting their feeding tube into the leaves and stalk and sucking out the sap. This has resulted in animosity towards them by many gardeners who have found their crop ruined by the insects. In this post I’m going to discuss howto get rid of aphids using biological control.
What is Biological Control?
Biological control is the process of controlling the population of a species by introducing their natural predators to their environment. A form of biological control is to get a cat if your house has a mouse or rat infestation.
Aphid infestations can be controlled by introducing one (or more) of the following species to your garden and plants:
Ladybugs/Ladybirds
Ladybugs (called ladybirds outside North America) are the most effective biological control for aphids and can quickly wipe out large numbers of them and permanently reduce their population. Typically, a ladybug will eat around 5000 aphids during it’s lifetime of between 1 and 2 years. Both adult ladybugs and ladybug larvae can be use to get rid of aphids.
Parasitic Wasps
Parasitic wasps kill aphids by laying their eggs inside aphid’s bodies. After the egg hatches, the larvae feeds on the aphid’s body until it is dead. When fully-grown, the adult parasitic wasp will then seek out more aphids to inject it’s eggs into.
Lacewing and Hoverfly Larvae
These maggots will joyfully chomp aphids before they undergo metamorphism into adults. Then they will lay their eggs near to aphid populations, which will in turn provide a food source for their own young.
How To Obtain Predators
In order to introduce aphid predators to your garden or greenhouse, you first need to obtain them.
You can do this by collecting them yourself from the wild (you can pick up dozens of ladybirds from a simple walk through the countryside), purchasing them from your local garden store or even attracting them to your garden by growing specific plants – nettles, wallflowers, amaranths and herbs such as parsley, sage and mint are good choices.
I love how Both adult ladybugs and ladybug larvae are the most effective biological control for aphids and can quickly wipe out large numbers of them and permanently reduce their population, eating around 5000 aphids during it’s lifetime of between 1 and 2 years. – Joe