Are your plants not growing properly? Are leaves discoloured? Do you notice little insects crawling or flying around your plants? Then you might be dealing with aphids. This article explains everything you need to know about aphids: what they are, how to recognize them, treat them and prevent them from harming your plants again.

What are aphids?

Aphids are very small (less than 4mm) sucking insects that suck on your plant’s nutrients preventing it from growing properly and threaten your entire garden. When doing so, they mainly focus on sucking sap from new growths.

There are many different types of aphids, and they attack all types of plants, from rose bushes, indoor plants, and fruit trees. They spread quickly, and not only suck the sap from your plants, but they can also carry and spread disease.

How to recognise aphids?

Aphids can be difficult to spot because of their small size (2 to 4 mm). They exist in a lot of different colours, including white, black, and grey, but the most common is light green which makes them particularly difficult to find on plants.

This insect can usually be found around the stems and if your plant is infested, it will show signs of slow growth, curled up leaves or even discoloured new growth. They can also create a sticky substance attracting ants and other insects, which is another sign of infestation.

How to treat aphids?

If you are simply dealing with a small infestation, remove them by hand.

Spraying your plant with a strong stream can dislodge the aphids which will fall off and usually not find their way back to the plant.

If the infestation is too extreme and aphids have already weakened specific branches, the best solution is to cut off that branch (and the aphids with it). Burning the cut off branches will help make sure aphids or eggs wont still live in your garden, and therefore reduce the risk of them attacking another plant.

Alternatively, using protective, preventative, and curative treatments on your plants will also help reduce the likelihood and/or damage of infestation.

How to prevent aphids?

Whether dealing with diseases, insects or pest, prevention is always key. Keeping your plants strong and healthy is important as they will be able to better fight of aphids, but also as aphids mostly target already weak plants.

Outdoors, aphids like to store their eggs in weeds, so regularly weed your garden to limit risks of aphids. Also, pay attention to the type of fertilizer you use on your plants as an excess of nitrogen will attract aphids.

Finally, although aphids attack a wide number of plants, there are some aromas made by plants that aphids are repelled by. A few of them include onion, garlic, chives, catnip, and cilantro. Therefore, an effective prevention method is to plant these repellents near plants that are more likely to be attacked.