How to get rid of aphids using folk remedies is a problem that worries many gardeners and gardeners. At the same time, forgetting that aphids are a consequence, not a cause. The main reason is the ants, which feel free in our areas.
Fighting anthills and ants first of all. They are the ones who cultivate aphids like dairy cows, from which they drink milk. In their underground labyrinths, ants store aphid larvae even in winter.
Folk remedies will help against aphids and ants
I came up with my own means of fighting aphids. With my favorite Veta (lapdog) every summer at the dacha. From time to time you have to use flea shampoo. I decided to dilute a couple of caps (about 3 tablespoons) in a 10-liter bucket of water and process the leaves of zucchini and a young apple tree. I got carried away and sprayed radishes, bushes, and trees. How long was the solution enough? I didn’t even think that the aphids would disappear. And she disappeared. Along with it, the cruciferous flea flea went away. I solved the question of how to get rid of aphids on cabbage, which the pest simply covered. The product is inexpensive, as long as I treat my plantings once a week. So, I saved my roses too. I buy flea shampoo at the pharmacy and at specialized stalls in the market. Liliya F., 38 years old.
My way of pest control
And I offer liquid green soap, which is especially suitable for flowers. You can fight aphids with folk remedies using tar soap or shampoo and tobacco. Nothing harmful to the plant, but it helps for shrubs, trees, vegetables and flowers (especially roses). Later, all this will be washed away by rain and the leaves will be clean. Pay special attention to and process the undersides of the sheets and the receptacle. I looked for my own way and tried others. This one turned out to be more effective. Irina V., 27 years old
Getting rid of the root cause of aphids - ants
You have seen how ants take a fancy to a tree and crawl to the top leaves of the branches. This is where they set up their “canteens”. And I used to think, as a young gardener, that smart insects climb up tree trunks to devour them, and I took them for cleaners. And I didn’t even know that ants weren’t so harmless. Here's my method for getting rid of insects. I buy ant glue, by the way, it comes in a syringe, and make spiral circles around the trunk. Just let them try to poke their noses in. They will stick there with their aphids. Vladimir Sergeevich, 45 years old.
What methods do resilient gardeners use to get rid of aphids? For example, wrap tree branches with sticky fly tape. We will try. All methods are good for controlling ants and aphids.
Traditional methods of fighting ants
A visitor to the Pro100ogorod website still suggests purchasing and using special “catching belt” glue. You can easily buy it at gardening centers. The product is sold in tubes and lasts all summer. It should be applied to the trunk in a circle with a stroke width of 8 to 10 cm and slightly smeared over the bark. Ants do not cross this cordon, and the bravest ones remain there forever. Then your area will be free of aphids and ants.
How to get rid of anthills and ants on the site
To get rid of aphids and ants in the garden using folk remedies, you can spray their habitats with a solution. It's called "Aardeater". A drug based on diazinon. In its proportion, it is not dangerous for people and does not accumulate in vegetables and fruits. Those ants that fall under its influence die. After two days the rest leave.
Neutralize the anthill. Dig it to a great depth and fill the hole with soda.
Reduce the number of ants on the site
- It is necessary to spray the trunks of bushes and trees with Muratsid 4–5 times per season.
- Since ants feed on aphids, spray the crowns affected by the pest with aphids.
Don’t be lazy to clean up fallen fruits and berries in the garden. - If there are no visible hummocks, a container with fragrant syrup or fermented jam will help get rid of ants. It needs to be placed under trees and bushes. Change the “feeder” periodically.
- Dip a washcloth into a solution of water and honey and place it next to the anthill. When the insects crawl onto it, pour boiling water over it. Do this more than once.
- A remedy that helped remove both ants and cabbage grass from the garden. Salted sprat or fragrant sprat are buried in the ground 15–20 cm shallowly (2 cm). Within a week there was no trace left of the small enemies.
Another way to get rid of ants on your property
I am sharing my method of getting rid of ants in the garden. There was no time to do this earlier. Probably, there is still some kind of force that controls a person. I struggled with ants for a long time. And the decision came somehow unexpectedly. I soaked the weeds in a barrel that stood in the sun. When the brew started playing, the smell became unpleasant. And this is easy to say.
I read on the Internet that ants flee from millet. Sprinkled it in places where insects lived. And after a while I think I’ll add more herbal mash. I saw it myself, the ants were running with their belongings, only their heels were sparkling. I didn't meet anyone until the end of the season. Now I know what to treat them with if they come to my site. Valentina Mikhailovna, 63 years old.
Video recipe How to get rid of ants
There are many recipes for getting rid of aphids and ants using folk remedies. We choose and try it in practice.
If you see black ants on the fruit trees of your garden, hastily climbing up the tree trunk to the foliage, know that within a few days the individual leaves will curl into tubes, slimy dark spots will appear on them, then the leaves will dry out and fall off. The damage is caused by aphids. How are ants and aphids related, you ask, and you will probably be surprised by the answer.
Aphids feed on plant sap. This tiny insect pierces the leaf shell with its tiny proboscis and sucks out the nutritious juice from them. The pest gains vitality, and the tree, on the contrary, loses it.
In the process of assimilation of plant juice, aphids will secrete a sticky substance - a product of its vital activity. It contains a lot of sugar, so beloved by black ants.
How insect friendship manifests itself
Ants and bees are the most organized insects. The organization of black ants is also evident in the careful care they take for the aphids they breed. These tireless workers, already at the onset of the first days of spring, begin to deliver aphid larvae to their future feeding site. Ants attach aphid larvae and even eggs to the swelling buds of trees and to young sprouts of vegetable crops.
This is where pests appear on young shoots. Now remember how many ants you probably saw scurrying around on tree trunks. Each of them manages to deliver more than a dozen of their future nurses in a day. Where do ants get them?
One can only marvel at the intelligence of the ants. In the fall, they collect eggs and larvae of aphids and take them to their large anthill. There they spend the winter safely. Amazingly, on days when there is a thaw, ants take their guests out of the anthill so that they can get some fresh air. In spring everything starts all over again. The symbiosis of ants and aphids continues for tens of thousands of years.
Mutual assistance between ants and aphids
The defenders even manage to protect their nurses from the birds. Of course, they cannot cope with birds in open battle. But the ants figured out how to deceive the birds. They manage to build something like roofs over aphid colonies. In this case, the birds simply do not see the aphids.
Ants carry out their service from early spring to late autumn, and their charges, accordingly, carry out their destructive activities.
The friendship and mutual assistance of these insects is so great that when the ants have to settle in a new place, they take the eggs and larvae of aphids with them.
What plants do aphids attack?
Aphids harm any trees, berry bushes and vegetable plants. Another thing is that on some plants it spreads more readily, while on others, on the contrary, it does not appear so often. The reason for this is not the quality of the juice, but the difficulty of obtaining it. The thinner and softer the leaf shell, the easier it is for the aphid to pierce it with its proboscis.
If you do not fight ants and aphids, then their union will destroy any garden or vegetable plant.
How to get rid of aphids and ants?
The easiest way to control aphids is to wash off the insects with water using a sprayer.
In the garden and vegetable garden, constantly destroy weeds.
Plant garlic or onions next to trees or bushes - plants that repel aphids well.
Along the contour of the site, plant plants that attract beneficial insects. These are dill, mint, nettle and other fragrant crops. Their aroma has a beneficial effect on ladybugs and other insects that eat aphids.
As for birds, attracting them has a downside. In addition to aphids, they will also peck sunflowers or berries. You can attract birds with bread crumbs on a saucer, seeds or millet. When these delicacies run out, the birds will take up the aphids.
Aphids actively settle on linden trees, mallow, nasturtium, cosmos and viburnum. You should not grow them near your garden or vegetable garden.
Use of chemicals
- The leader of folk remedies for combating aphids is an aqueous solution of laundry soap.
- For spraying, gardeners also dilute kerosene in water.
- Plants are also sprayed with infusions of wood ash, onion, garlic, and chamomile.
- A decoction of potato or tomato tops works quite effectively against aphids.
- Fumigation of plants with smoke leads to the immediate death of aphids - they suffocate. Any branches or grass are suitable for making smokers. Tobacco smoke kills aphids with lightning speed.
How to deal with black ants?
Although ants do not cause direct damage to the garden, the type of their relationship with aphids involves fighting them too.
Black ants make their homes in the ground. You can destroy underground anthills, but these tireless workers soon rebuild their homes again. You can completely dig up the anthill and take it away from the garden in a large bucket. However, after a while the ants will return to your area again.
There is no better way to combat ants than treating anthills with insecticides. Under the influence of drugs such as “Anteater”, “Muracid” and “Ant”, black ants quickly die. These effective remedies contain the poisonous substance diazinon. It paralyzes the nervous system of insects and they die immediately. No matter how sorry the ants are, gardeners try to protect the trees.
Aphids themselves are small insects, not exceeding a few millimeters in size.. Their oval-shaped bodies are covered with a tuberous, half-transparent shell. Thanks to their long legs, aphids can crawl and even jump from one plant to another. Read more about where aphids live and what gardeners and gardeners need to know about the pest.
They live in colonies, and in each of these colonies there are both wingless insects and individuals with wings. The winged trait in aphids is not related to gender: both females and males have wings. An adult insect has antennae on its head, thanks to which it distinguishes sounds, and it also needs antennae for touch.
The eyes of aphids with a complex multi-faceted structure come in different colors: red to dark brown, almost black. Wingless insects may have three simple eyes in addition to them.
The aphid's mouth opening is a small proboscis consisting of four segments. She uses it to pierce the skin of the plant and suck out the juices from it (you can find out more about what aphids feed on). The leaves of plants affected by aphids begin to wither, the shoots stop growing, and hollow projections called galls form on the roots. Aphids can infect any part of the plant without exception., which makes it a particularly formidable and dangerous pest.
The life cycle of aphids begins with the female laying eggs in the fall, which hatch into larvae in the spring. Having become adults, they begin to reproduce by parthenogenesis, that is, without fertilization. At this stage, the offspring of aphids are only wingless females. In a month their number can reach hundreds of thousands.
As soon as the colony is overcrowded, among the offspring there appear individuals with wings that can fly to other plants. At the end of summer, winged males appear among the offspring of aphids.
When they become adults, individuals of both sexes participate in reproduction. The female now lays much fewer eggs. But fertilized eggs will be able to survive the winter, while all aphids hatched from the first, unfertilized clutches do not survive until the cold weather.
Aphids can live from several days to a month. Cool temperatures, 8-10 °C, extend the life of the female to two months.
How do ants live?
Ants belonging to the order Hymenoptera live in nests they build - anthills, located in the ground, under stones or in wood. Often, other insects that have entered into symbiosis with ants live there along with them.
In addition to the host ants, sometimes “slaves” captured by them live in anthills - ants from other colonies who do the hardest work.
Ants are small insects, their numbers are huge because they reproduce very quickly.. They live everywhere except Antarctica and several islands lost in the world's oceans.
An ant colony is a complex structure divided into castes:
- Female ants- also called queens or queens, are engaged only in reproducing offspring. Unfertilized eggs produce males, and fertilized eggs produce females. The queen has wings, but she chews them off immediately after finishing her flight. Ant queens are much larger than their “subordinates” and live longer than them. The lifespan of a queen ant can reach 20 years or more.
- Male ants- they are smaller than the uterus, and they also have wings. Their only task is to participate in mating. After the males have fulfilled their purpose, they are destroyed by other ants. The lifespan of male ants reaches several weeks.
- Worker ants or foragers– these are females with an underdeveloped reproductive system. They obtain food, maintain order in the anthill and raise future offspring. The largest individuals among the working ants with a large head and highly developed jaws, which are called soldier ants, protect the anthill from uninvited guests.
Ants are considered beneficial insects, but when they settle near humans, they cause considerable harm.
Important! Ants damage garden and vegetable plants, as well as cereals, undermine the inside walls of wooden houses and sheds and help aphids to reproduce unhindered, which makes it very difficult to fight them.
Insect symbiosis: why do they need each other?
What is the essence of the union of insects, how do ants milk the symbiont (aphid) and do they eat it themselves? The ant tickles the aphid with its antennae, and it secretes a drop of sweet liquid. Some aphids secrete a drop of honeydew almost every minute.
For this, the ants herd or protect aphids from ladybugs, lacewings and birds and even build clay shelters for them on plant stems, and also transfer aphids to other, younger and succulent plants after the diseased plant begins to wither.
During the winter, ants even take aphids into their anthills., where they take care of her and the eggs she lays all winter.
How to fight?
Garden ants settle in summer cottages and garden plots, spoiling the harvest and breeding countless hordes of aphids.
There are many chemicals available against ants., the main effect of which is primarily aimed at paralyzing nervous system these insects. Most of them are based on diazinon or chlorpyrifos.
You can fight ants in more “ecologically friendly” ways: spread anise leaves or sawdust mixed with grated garlic around the anthill. Or pour kerosene on it, but do not set it on fire.
Attention! Regular salt gives a good effect: it should be poured onto the anthill itself and the paths along which these insects move.
Wormwood and parsley growing on the site will also protect against ants who cannot stand the smell of these herbs.
Vegetable oil, tobacco ash, crushed tomato leaves, as well as turpentine and charcoal are also good remedies against them.
But due to the fact that the greatest damage to the garden is caused by ants and aphids, first of all you need to fight them. There are several ways to do this. The most popular methods of fighting are mechanical or manual. You can also use chemicals that will kill aphids.
You can also plant plants around your garden or garden that attract natural enemies of leaf aphids, such as hoverflies, lacewings and various birds.
Read more about other helpers in the fight against aphids.
How to protect trees?
Tree protection can be done in several ways:
This type of relationship, such as the symbiosis between ants and aphids, has existed for millions of years - these insects depend on each other so much that they could not survive alone. If it appears on the site, it is necessary to simultaneously fight against both of them. If you do not fight not only aphids, but also ants, then the leaves of the plants will very soon again be covered with these harmful insects.
If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.
Anthills, along with their small inhabitants, are a mandatory attribute of any dacha. Of course, these insects are very useful in nature and belong to the “forest orderlies,” but they can cause serious harm to vegetables, fruits, berries and flowers, so you will have to constantly fight ants in your summer cottage.
To date, more than 8.5 thousand species of ants are known. They live in vast colonies, which can include several hundred insects. Ants raise their offspring in huge dwellings - anthills. The insects in question feed on mushrooms, leaves and plant sap. And their life expectancy is approximately 12 months. This information should be taken into account when fighting ants in the country.
First of all, it is worth noting that ants love ripe fruits and berries, especially garden strawberries. As a result, many fruits can be bitten and can no longer be eaten by humans.
Ants are very thrifty insects, so they often drag plant seeds into their houses. Among them may be weeds. As a result, the site owner will need to spend much more time on weeding.
The first two points are the most harmless. The maximum harm to a garden plot is caused not even by the ants themselves, but by their “pets” - aphids. The insects under discussion breed whole herds of beneficial aphids. This is necessary to obtain sweet milk from her. To ensure that there is enough delicacy for everyone, the ants try with all their might to increase the number of their “pets”. The aphids, which they transfer to the branches and leaves of various plants, suck the juice of their shoots, thereby making them weak.
In addition, it is a carrier of a variety of diseases dangerous to crops. Miniature “cows” overwinter in a warm anthill, and in the spring, insects again place them on fresh, untouched leaves and even on the roots of plants, specially digging small passages to them. As a result, crops may not just weaken, but completely stop producing crops. Their appearance also noticeably deteriorates - the leaves turn yellow and curl, and the shoots stop growing.
Interestingly, in addition to aphids, ants also have other pets, which they breed and “milk.” This certain types of caterpillars, psyllids and cicadas. They can also cause serious damage to plants.
In addition, garden ants, like moles, can greatly damage a lawn, flower beds or alpine hill. If the molehill turns out to be small enough, then the anthill can reach enormous sizes, increasing every day. If you do not destroy it immediately after its appearance, the height of the object can reach 1.5 meters. Therefore, measures to combat ants and their nests should be taken as early as possible.
Having studied the presented list, we can conclude how important it is to begin the destruction of insects that appear on the garden plot in a timely manner.
Methods for controlling garden ants
Of course, fighting ants on a site is a rather complicated process, but it is quite possible to destroy all pests on it, if you do it correctly. The tips published below will help every garden owner with this.
Protecting trees and shrubs
First of all, you need to protect the trees and bushes in your garden from ants. Otherwise, in the process of fighting insect colonies, they will all simply move to tall plants, and in the future they will build new strong anthills for themselves.
You can use the following actions:
Having properly protected trees and shrubs from insect attacks, you can begin to destroy anthills.
Destroying anthills
Since most of their inhabitants and uteri do not appear on the surface, then conventional spraying of plants with pesticides will be useless. The poison must be delivered directly to the queens and larvae, resulting in the death of the entire colony. That is why modern chemicals for fighting ants, produced in the form of gels, granules and powders, do not act instantly on the spot, but after some time, allowing the insects to carry the poison into the anthill themselves.
To the owner of a garden plot All you have to do is choose the right product in a specialized store and place it on the paths between the beds, as well as near insect nests. The gel can also be applied to tree trunks favored by ants.
Traditional methods of fighting ants
If it is not possible to purchase ready-made pesticides designed specifically to combat ants in the garden, then You can also use folk recipes for this.. There are a huge number of them; you just need to choose the simplest and most accessible one for yourself.
- Instead of poison, you can place fresh wormwood, garlic cut into small pieces, cinnamon sticks (or ground spice) or sprigs of fresh mint at the dacha in places where ants accumulate, as well as near plants that need to be protected.
- As soon as the anthill is excavated and destroyed with a shovel, you need to pour a bucket of boiling water into it. There should be a lot of hot liquid.
- You can take some bait that is tasty for ants (for example, honey or minced meat), add boric acid to it and place it near the insect nests.
- It helps in the fight against the pests discussed in the garden by watering anthills with sugar syrup mixed with yeast.
All of these methods allow you to get rid of ants in your garden and get a rich harvest that is not damaged by small pests.
Rhubarb cannot be found in every garden plot. It's a pity. This plant is a storehouse of vitamins and can be widely used in cooking. What is not prepared from rhubarb: soups and cabbage soup, salads, delicious jam, kvass, compotes and juices, candied fruits and marmalade, and even wine. But that's not all! The large green or red rosette of leaves of the plant, reminiscent of burdock, acts as a beautiful background for annuals. It is not surprising that rhubarb can also be seen in flower beds.
3 delicious sandwiches - a cucumber sandwich, a chicken sandwich, a cabbage and meat sandwich - a great idea for a quick snack or for an outdoor picnic. Just fresh vegetables, juicy chicken and cream cheese and a little seasoning. There are no onions in these sandwiches; if you wish, you can add onions marinated in balsamic vinegar to any of the sandwiches; this will not spoil the taste. Having quickly prepared snacks, all that remains is to pack a picnic basket and head to the nearest green lawn.
Depending on the varietal group, the age of seedlings suitable for planting in open ground, is: for early tomatoes - 45-50 days, average ripening periods - 55-60 and late ones - at least 70 days. When planting tomato seedlings at a younger age, the period of its adaptation to new conditions is significantly extended. But success in obtaining a high-quality tomato harvest also depends on carefully following the basic rules for planting seedlings in open ground.
Unpretentious “background” plants of sansevieria do not seem boring to those who value minimalism. They are better suited than other indoor decorative foliage stars for collections that require minimal care. Stable decorativeness and extreme hardiness in only one species of sansevieria are also combined with compactness and very rapid growth - rosette sansevieria Hana. The squat rosettes of their tough leaves create striking clusters and patterns.
One of the brightest months of the garden calendar pleasantly surprises with the balanced distribution of favorable and unfavorable days for working with plants according to the lunar calendar. Vegetable gardening in June can be done throughout the entire month, while the unfavorable periods are very short and still allow you to do useful work. There will be optimal days for sowing and planting, for pruning, for a pond, and even for construction work.
Meat with mushrooms in a frying pan is an inexpensive hot dish that is suitable for a regular lunch and for a holiday menu. Pork will cook quickly, veal and chicken too, so this is the preferred meat for the recipe. Mushrooms - fresh champignons, in my opinion, are the best choice for homemade stew. Forest gold - boletus mushrooms, boletus and other delicacies is best prepared for the winter. Boiled rice or mashed potatoes are ideal as a side dish.
I love ornamental shrubs, especially unpretentious ones and with interesting, non-trivial foliage colors. I have various Japanese spirea, Thunberg barberries, black elderberry... And there is one special shrub, which I will talk about in this article - viburnum leaf. To fulfill my dream of a low-maintenance garden, it is perhaps ideal. At the same time, it is capable of greatly diversifying the picture in the garden, from spring to autumn.
It is no coincidence that June remains one of the favorite months of gardeners. The first harvest, new crops in the vacant places, fast growth plants - all this cannot but rejoice. But the main enemies of gardeners and garden bed dwellers – pests and weeds – also use every opportunity this month to spread. Work on crops this month is waning, and planting seedlings is reaching its peak. The lunar calendar in June is balanced for vegetables.
Many dacha owners, when developing their territory, think about creating a lawn. The imagination, as a rule, draws magical pictures - a smooth carpet of green grass, a hammock, a sun lounger, a barbecue and beautiful trees and shrubs around the perimeter... But when faced with laying out a lawn in practice, many are surprised to learn that creating a beautiful, smooth lawn is not so easy . And, it would seem, everything was done correctly, but here and there strange bumps appear or weeds sprout.
The June schedule of gardening work can surprise anyone with its richness. In June, even lawns and ponds require attention. Some ornamental plants have already finished flowering and need pruning, others are just getting ready for the upcoming show. And sacrifice decorative garden in order to take better care of the ripening harvest is not the best idea. There will be time in the June lunar calendar to plant new perennials and potted arrangements.
Cold pork leg terrine is a meat snack from the category of budget recipes, because pork legs are one of the cheapest parts of the carcass. Despite the modesty of ingredients, the appearance of the dish and its taste are at the highest level! Translated from French, this “game dish” is a cross between pate and casserole. Since in times of technical progress there have been fewer game hunters, terrine is often prepared from livestock meat, fish, vegetables, and cold terrines are also made.
In cute pots or fashionable florariums, on walls, tables and window sills - succulents can withstand weeks without watering. They do not change their character and do not accept conditions that are comfortable for most capricious people. indoor plants. And their diversity will allow everyone to find their favorite. Sometimes looking like stones, sometimes like fancy flowers, sometimes like extravagant sticks or lace, fashionable succulents have long been not limited only to cacti and fat plants.
Trifle with strawberries is a light dessert common in England, the USA and Scotland. I think this dish is prepared everywhere, just called differently. Trifle consists of 3-4 layers: fresh fruit or fruit jelly, biscuit cookies or sponge cake, whipped cream. Usually, custard is prepared as a layer, but for a light dessert they prefer to do without it; whipped cream is enough. This dessert is prepared in a deep transparent salad bowl so that the layers are visible.
Weeds are bad. They interfere with the growth of cultivated plants. Some wild herbs and shrubs are poisonous or can cause allergies. At the same time, many weeds can bring great benefits. They are used as medicinal herbs, and as an excellent mulch or component of green fertilizer, and as a means of repelling harmful insects and rodents. But in order to properly fight or use this or that plant for good, it needs to be identified.