Aphid Control in Vegetable Gardens

Recognizing aphids on your vegetables is half the battle.

Aphids are sucking insects that can wreck your vegetable garden. These insects can affect mostly the leafy-type vegetables, such as cabbage, lettuce, endive, radicchio, garden cress, mustard greens, spinach and also potatoes and turnips. Once you recognize aphids in your vegetable garden, it is not too difficult to get rid of them, especially if you catch them early.

Aphids

Aphids are a sucking insect that use their long tongues to pierce the leaves and vines of vegetable plants. They then suck out all the moisture and sap from the plants, thus destroying it.

Recognizing Aphids

Aphids are tiny insects that might vary in color between green, yellow, brown and black. Some may even have red stripes, depending on the variety. Aphids are easy to recognize by their pear-shape bodies. Most likely aphids will be seen on the newest growth or underneath the blossoms in your vegetable garden, as those are the tenderest portions of a plant. If you lift up a leaf or a vine and can see what look like hundreds of little bugs, they are probably aphids.

Damage From Aphids

Aphids can cause damage to vegetable plants in the form of removing all the moisture from the leaves and vines, blocking the stems so nutrients cannot get through and causing mildew or mold to grow. All these forms of damage can kill the plant. Signs of aphid damage include wilted or curled leaves, odd-shaped leaves or even a discoloration in the leaves. The "mildew" caused by aphids consists mainly of their excretions. They have a tendency to excrete in the same area each time, which builds up over several days, giving the look of mildew on your vegetable plants.

Getting Rid of Aphids

Choose one of a few ways to get rid of aphids in your vegetable garden. If you catch them early, simply spray the plants with a fairly strong spray of water, which will remove the aphids from the vegetable plants and kill them. If the infestation was neglected, using an insecticide may be the way to go. Use a food-safe insecticide that is specifically for using on vegetable plants. Another way to get rid of aphids in the vegetable garden is to encourage ladybugs to come. Ladybugs are a beneficial insect that eats aphids. Purchase ladybugs at your local garden shop if necessary.

References

• "Southern Living Garden Guide: Vegetables"; Jennifer Greer; 1996
• Dollar Stretcher; Vegetable Garden Pest Control: Don Trotter