How to get rid of pesky aphids on cherries?
Unlike caterpillars, aphids do not eat foliage, do not damage fruits, like a weevil, but massive accumulations of tiny insects can ruin an entire garden. What if aphids are started on cherries, how to get rid of dangerous pests, especially for young plantings?
Causes and signs of cherry aphid
Trees that find themselves in the area of interest of insects do not give proper growth, weaken, tolerate winter worse and are more often affected by fungi.
Black or cherry aphids are most often found on stone fruit crops. Due to its rapid reproduction and development, its appearance can come as a complete surprise to the gardener. In a matter of days, shoots are strewn with black swarming dots. It is the eggs of aphids wintering on the bark that turn into insects, and the adults, remaining on the plant debris and grass, rise up in search of food.
Usually the presence of aphids is detected at the stage when the first damage has already been done, and the tops of young shoots, together with deformed foliage, are twisted into dense balls.
Ants scurrying along the branches also talk about the presence of aphids on the tree. Not only do they feed on the sticky secretion secreted by pests, ants are spreading aphids, since they literally graze them and carry them to new shoots.
How to get rid of aphids on cherries? What methods can be used at different times of the year, and are there effective preventive measures?
How to deal with aphids on cherries?
Today, gardeners have many ways to protect plants and fight pests that have already appeared. The simplest application for many seems to be the use of chemicals. But there are more significant limitations. For example, how to deal with black aphids on cherries, if fruits are already ripening on the tree, before harvesting which there are only a few weeks or days? In addition, irrigation of the crown will not succeed in defeating the ants, and the cherry aphid will soon after processing again be in the same place. Therefore, you should not limit yourself to the use of insecticides.
Sticky belts are very effective for insects climbing up the trunk to the top of the crown. They are equipped in early spring and, with regular renewal of the sticky layer, will help to protect the plantings from encroachments and cherry aphids, and other equally dangerous pests.
Before treating aphids on cherries, in the spring and early summer, it is worth going around the entire site to find all the anthills that exist on the territory.
Usually garden ants:
- build their shelters along the borders of flower beds, garden paths;
- they like to build dwellings on the remains of cut down, but not uprooted shrubs and trees.
Even a board lying in a sunny open place can hide the entrance to an underground anthill.
Before getting rid of aphids on cherries, be sure to carry out a fight with the discovered anthills. The easiest way is to stir them slightly and spill with boiling water. Hot water will not only damage the number of adult insects, but also destroy the eggs.
If the term for picking berries is already close, and the gardener does not want to risk their quality, the cherry crown can be treated with plain water. Strong jets directed at the affected branches easily wash away insects without harming the plant itself and the future harvest.
Insecticides: how to treat aphids on cherries?
With the help of modern insect control, it is not difficult to deal with aphids. Manufacturers offer a lot of affordable and effective drugs. How to treat aphids on cherries so that the processing result is long-lasting, but does not affect the ripening fruits in any way?
When choosing a chemical control agent, you need to carefully consider the recommended processing times and dosage.
Most often, the first treatment is carried out before bud break, and for irrigation they are used:
- the universal, popular "Iskra" remedy, which contains not only substances that are lethal for cherry aphids, but also easily digestible potassium, as well as other compounds useful to a weakened plant;
- natural "Fitoverm", which quickly decomposes, does not pollute the environment and does not harm the ovary;
- other systemic insecticides that are active against adult insects, their eggs and larvae.
Before fighting aphids on cherries, the selected drug is diluted according to the instructions. For spraying, it is better to choose a non-sunny, but not rainy day, so that the insecticide gets on dry leaves and shoots. The processing is carried out both on top of the foliage and on its back, where the bulk of the insects are hiding.
How to process aphids on cherries: folk remedies
Since our distant ancestors were also familiar with aphids as a garden pest, there are a lot of natural, affordable and most often absolutely safe methods of dealing with cherry aphids among the people.
How to use folk remedies, how to treat aphids from cherries? Popular options include:
- a solution of half a crushed bar of laundry soap, dissolved in 10 liters of warm water;
- three-day infusion of 500 grams of wood ash in 10 liters of water;
- herbal infusion, for which the same volume of potato or tomato tops, tobacco or dandelion leaves are taken in a bucket of water.
Such treatments are completely harmless and can be carried out several times per season as needed.
In addition, do not forget about the fragrant essential oil plants that easily repel insect pests. This is fennel, thyme, marigold, horseradish, dill. Sown next to the cherry orchard, they will protect it from the invasion of aphids.
If low-growing varieties of nasturtium are planted under the crown of a tree, then this culture, like the wild-growing bedstraw, will distract the pest to itself.
Preventive measures
Experienced gardeners know, if you pay due attention to prevention, then the question: "How to get rid of aphids on cherries?" will lose its relevance over time. Insects will have almost no opportunity to capture a garden in which:
- damaged branches are regularly trimmed;
- weeds, fallen leaves and other plant debris are destroyed;
- the gardener treats plants for fungal and bacterial infections;
- trees are healthy and do not lack moisture and nutrition;
- the stands are whitewashed and protected from frost in winter.
In this case, you must observe the measure when making nitrogen fertilizers. Their excess leads to increased formation of green mass, attracting cherry aphids and other sucking and deciduous pests.