in today's video we are going to talk
about one of the most annoying pests in
the garden aphids when it comes to
aphids the thing you have to know is
that there are
hundreds of different types of aphids
i'm sitting in a brussels sprout patch
here i'll cut off a leaf here and just
show you some of the gnarliness that's
going on here we've got some gnarly
aphids here but you have all sorts of
different types there's green black
white red woolly aphids pear-shaped
aphids there's aphids that attack
different plants so cabbage aphids for
example on this one brussels spout a
member of the cabbage family but out in
the front yard there are rose aphids on
my climbing roses so you really have to
know
the exact type of aphid you're dealing
with but fortunately for you and for me
the way to treat and prevent them ends
up being relatively the same the way
that aphids decimate a plant fortunately
they haven't really destroyed these
cabbage yet but like i mentioned with
the brussels sprouts they have come in
so here's what they'll do they will
start to colonize a section usually
these crevices or these nooks and
crannies of leaves but on this brussels
sprout leaf they've really hit the
absolute tip of the leaf which is kind
of unusual but you see this leaf
starting to curl in and the reason why
is because all the aphids have colonized
this area and they've pierced the tissue
of the plant and they're sucking all the
sap out of the plant and just really
crumpling it from the inside out
something else that they will end up
doing is they will secrete this sort of
honeydew-like solution that ends up
coming out of them and ants tend to mine
them so you'll see aphids and ants
almost in this weirdly symbiotic
relationship where the ants are trying
to basically eat that honeydew or
they're farming aphids for the honeydew
which is a good sign if you're seeing
ants crawling all over your plants that
you probably have aphids lurking
somewhere so the problem here is first
of all if i was to eat this cabbage leaf
or this brussels sprout leaf i probably
wouldn't want to right because it's been
so decimated up here at the tip and it's
frankly kind of gross but they can also
spread disease they can spread very
quickly if you let them get out of check
so we're going to start now talking
about some ways that you can control
them so you have to be able to detect
where aphids are in your garden so let's
take a look at this cabbage here i know
these ones back here didn't have an
aphid problem it looks like this one
might and how do i know that well first
of all take a look at this leaf here
this leaf is curled over like this
cabbage fan leaves really want to be out
out and proud and they're not here so if
i take a look and i
undo this
look at what i see under there
and this is how they're going to show up
they're going to show up in these
pockets and these clusters so let me
just
get a little brutal here and cut this
leaf off and i guarantee
oh yeah there's a ton here
so that's your indication that's one of
your primary indications and you can see
what they like to do there's some up top
but there's way more down below where
it's a little bit safer for them to be
and they'll cluster you'll also notice
if you look at just the soil sometimes
you'll see a lot of these sort of aphid
exoskeletons as they grow up like if i
hit this a lot of stuff's just kind of
falling off that's not all necessarily
aphids sometimes that's just their
exoskeletons that have fallen off and
you'll see that debris down below that's
another way that you know that there's
aphids there's another one that you can
know if you're just watering your garden
and you see this sort of milky substance
coming off of the plant that doesn't
necessarily mean it's aphids but a lot
of the times it does what you'll do is
you'll water and you'll see these pools
of water kind of come in there's a
couple right here
and it won't it just won't run clear
it'll look kind of funky and you'll go
you know what i think there's probably
something wrong with this plant now we
need to actually figure out how to get
rid of aphids after this i'll talk about
how to prevent them in the first place
which is really what you should be doing
as a gardener but let's be honest i
clearly haven't prevented them i need to
get rid of them starting with the most
serious of infestations like the leaf
you just saw if it's really bad you need
to bust out a knife of some kind and
come through and just get rid of those
leaves this one is absolutely disgusting
i mean it really is gross even just to
hold in my hand let alone let it exist
in my garden so on this cabbage i'm just
going to come around and do an audit of
all the gnarly super infested leaves
you can even see here this is one that's
just been decimated so much that it's
actually fallen off the plant and died
now this is also a lower
fan leaf on the cabbage it's going to
get older sooner but i see some aphid
damage on here and this is what will
happen to your plants if you don't get
these under control
[Music]
okay i could keep on going but i'm
starting to see that the leaves are
getting a little bit less infested now
which kind of brings us to our next
control method which is a lot less
painful than cutting off the leaves of
your plants a lighter touch option that
does not require you to decimate your
plants with a cutting implement so make
sure that this tip you do it while the
leaves are still attached i'm just
showing this as an example here is to
grab a hose use either the flat or the
cone setting probably the only times we
ever use these settings in the garden
i'm going to use the flat one here and
just blast off the aphids they're very
weak soft bodied insects if you get them
relatively far away from their target
plant oftentimes they kind of just die
there they don't make it back so you can
cut their population down quite a bit so
here's a leaf again an example do this
to a plant that actually is still
attached to the soil but there's a big
old chunk of aphids right here i'm going
to show you how well this works
i mean those things just vanished i mean
we cut that down by about 99 percent you
can also use the cone setting like i
said it works really well
you're seeing a little bit of that milky
white substance that's another one of
those indications a couple things here
certainly water probably your lightest
touch option if you want to get a little
fancier you can mix in some dr bronner's
which is a castile soap more of a true
soap what that'll do is it'll encase
them in the water and it'll actually
suffocate them so you can kill them
while getting them off the plant finally
if you really want to get fancy is you
can mix in some neem oil as well we have
a whole video on that on the channel a
little recipe for insecticidal soap
personally i don't see the need i think
just blasting them off
and making sure you do it every so often
maybe while you're doing your watering
is oftentimes enough to keep the
population low enough to save the plant
there are three more things that you
technically could do to prevent and
control aphids that i probably wouldn't
recommend so spinosad is a really common
organic bacteria that's going to
basically kill them when they eat it the
problem with that is they're not really
getting too deep into the plant tissue
to actually get the spinosad inside of
them so we find it's not the most
effective next up you hear all the time
diatomaceous earth which is crushed up
diatoms they're sort of very very sharp
and on soft body insects they can really
decimate them the problem is you got to
dust it all over your plant if it rains
or if you water it's rendered
ineffective i find the effort's really
not worth the cost both in time and in
money and then finally and this is the
one that i think might shock you a
little bit is you hear ladybugs eat
aphids now of course that is true but i
think it's not a good idea to go out to
the nursery and purchase ladybugs number
one they're really not sourced in that
sustainable of a way and number two and
we're going to get to this in a second
unless you've built an environment in
which ladybugs want to exist you're
going to buy them put them on the plant
that has aphids they may or may not eat
those aphids they might just immediately
fly away so you bought them
really to have them do one thing and
then peace out so now we need to talk
about really the most effective way to
control aphids which is to never get
them and it comes to prevention it might
not seem like it but you can create a
garden where aphids are much less of a
problem than they are in your garden
right now and the way to do that is
really focusing on the garden as an
ecosystem so let's start out with soil
with healthy soil you're not going to
need to over fertilize use synthetics
get your soil conditions out of whack to
a point where an aphid senses that that
plant is sort of weak and it's easy to
colonize and basically consume so one
thing that i've been doing is this cover
crop garden out here in the backyard
that's kind of just slowly improving all
this fill dirt that was here from
whenever the house was built so this
stuff is improving the soil it's
breaking up the soil it's adding
nutrients back to the soil and making
that soil healthier but at the same time
above ground you can see there's flowers
there's all sorts of different bugs and
insects that are in this ecosystem so if
aphids were to ever get out of control
in here well there's ladybugs in here
that are going to go ahead and eat it
there's assassin bugs there's all these
beautiful predators so that is one of
the best ways to do it and we have a ton
of videos about that on the channel we
just talked about how just managing the
overall ecosystem of your garden is very
important but even down to the
individual plant we're back in the
brussels sprout patch and you remember
the plant that i chopped the leaf off at
the beginning of the video was this one
right here and i'm chopping more and
this one's infested with aphids as well
this is also a shorter plant than the
ones literally right next to it this one
this one both taller more healthy and
way less aphid pressure why is that it's
pretty simple it's just because these
plants are healthier they are not as
stressed they've been watered
appropriately not underwater not over
watered they haven't been fertilized too
much they haven't been fertilized too
little the heat has been great on them
they haven't gotten too cold it's really
that goldilocks zone of keeping these
plants nice and healthy now this one's
just a little unlucky it's planted on
the corner it's not getting as much
water and that's probably why it's
suffering in fact if you look at this
bed something interesting is that both
of these are lower they're in the
corners and these are taller they're in
the middle they're getting more access
to all that stuff so managing the plants
on an individual level much like
managing your own health if you're not
exercising if you're not eating well
what's more likely to happen well you're
more likely to get a bacterial or viral
infection or to have some sort of pest
attack yourself it's really the same
with your plants and those are the ways
to prevent and control aphids so with
that i hope this arms you with enough
ammo to go into the garden and make sure
that you have a healthy productive
harvest this year good luck in the
garden and keep on growing