Aphids, also known as aphids, damage a wide variety of host plants by sucking juices from leaves and stems, causing discoloration, battered leaves, yellowing and growth retardation. Large infestations can produce a sticky and sugary residue, known as molasses. The molasses can attract ants and feed the growth of fungi on the surfaces of plants.

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Aphids can transmit plant viruses by injecting them into the plant while feeding. These viruses can cause shedding, yellowing or poor performance in various plants and ornamental plants. In the average life time of an aphid of a month, they can produce 40-85 young. Some aphids or aphids have wings, others do not.

The aphid can have black, yellow, green, orange, etc ... with an approximate size of 1 to 6 mm, we can see it with the naked eye, and they are mainly found in warm areas and with little humidity, being their moment of greatest activity spring and summer. Also the earth with excess fertilizers favors its propagation.

Aphids are the cousins of flies and white scales, however, it differs from the latter because the juvenile stages are mobile, that is, they have legs and can walk unlike their cousins that remain stuck to the plant when they are small. adults in all three cases are the only ones that have wings and can fly.

What crops attack?

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Aphids can attack a large number of crops, the attack is famous in citrus, where it produces leaves rolled up in buds, but the most important damage was caused by the black aphid, which transmitted a virus that caused the sadness of citrus, It ended with millions of trees around the world, leaving the world citrus industry bankrupt, by the eighties in the last century.

Aphids also attack crops of:

• Potato: Its damages are manifested by the extraction that makes nutritious juices from the plants through the picador buccal.
• Pimiento: wrinkles the leaves of the head and produces mottles.
• Papaya: the milky should be a three to four year crop with continuous production, but the presence of a virus affects the crop in such a way that the production can be used in only one year and if the attack is severe and in the early form all production is lost. This virus is transmitted by many species of aphids.

What else can we do to combat the aphid?

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1. Soapy water is a good ecological remedy to combat them: spray the affected plants with a spoonful of neutral liquid soap diluted in one liter of water.

2. Boil two cups of water with the peel of an orange. Let stand for 24 hours, strain and add white soap, 50/50 quantities and spray on affected plants.

3. With onions: we will need 2 large onions per liter of water, boil 10 minutes, let cool, strain and ready to use.

4. Garlic gives us two possibilities: we plant it close to the plants, cut in half or in its entirety (this helps us to prevent and fight the plague) and we can also prepare a water to sprinkle the plants, we boil 8 cloves of garlic medium in one liter of water for 20 minutes, let it stand for 24 hours before using it.

5. Nettle: we let macerate 100 g of leaves in water for 15 days, we move the mixture every day, we make efforts and are ready to use. This also strengthens plants and makes them more resistant to pests and diseases. Here you can see more.

6. Tomato leaves: we boil them for 15 minutes and let them rest overnight. We colamos and pulverize on the plants.

7. Absinthe: macerate 300 grams per liter of water for a week. We strain and spray on the affected plants.

8. Horsetail is highly recommended to strengthen the plant, apply it in the spring to face the summer, or after having passed a plague for the recovery of the plant.

To prevent pests is essential to keep the garden in good condition, and if we see leaves or fruits in poor condition, it is best to discard them immediately.

Aphids have many biological controllers, ladybugs are the most famous, however the lacewings have a fundamental role, we know a case of a plantation of lemons that has virtually no aphids product of a large population of lacewings that were released years ago to control thrips and whitefly in vegetable crops, but adapted so well that nowadays they are flying abundantly at night in the crops.

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THEME WEEK - FARM PESTS

WEDNESDAY - WEEVIL
▪THURSDAY - APHIDS
▪FRIDAY - LOCUSTS
▪SATURDAY - BEETLE
▪SUNDAY - MITES
▪MONDAY - MEALY BUGS
▪TUESDAY - THRIPS
▪WEDNESDAY BONUS - LADY BUG (BENEFICIAL BUG)

Write about how these pests affect crops and which crops they affect.