Aphid - Plant Louse

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Like lice parasitizing on the body of humans and mammals, sucking blood out of them, aphids parasitize on the body of plants, sucking out their blood - sap running along the stem and leaves. In addition, lice and aphids are carriers of pathogenic microbes and viruses, infecting their victims with deadly diseases

Immaculate Conception

Before using the virgin birth to send his son, Jesus Christ, on a business trip to Earth, the Lord God trained on his other creatures. Aphids, a millimeter insect that feed on plant sap, also fell into the circle of the elite. To pierce the surface of the stems and leaves of plants, the Almighty provided it with a special sharp proboscis.

In the numerous family of aphids, there are winged and wingless individuals. The winged are responsible for the expansion of territorial possessions, and the wingless reproduce tirelessly by the method of parthenogenesis, that is, "virgin reproduction". The wingless female lays eggs on the plant. In the spring, larvae hatch from the eggs, the task of which is to intensively feed on the juice of young spring shoots, so that after molting there is enough strength for reproduction, because males do not participate in this and cannot take part of the worries on their strong shoulders or "what else they have there", as Vladimir Vysotsky sang, however, about cars. The result of parthenogenesis is the birth of only wingless females, and in a month one female gives the world three generations, which is hundreds of thousands of new insects.

Males

Winged females appear only when the plants have already lost their tenderness, their stems have hardened, and therefore it is necessary to move to other lands. This is what winged females do.

Winged males are born in the fall to support the continuation of the genus by fertilizing eggs laid by females for the winter. The rate of such reproduction is much lower than "virgin breeding", but it helps in overcoming adverse environmental conditions.

Cash cows

The ants are very happy about the fertility of aphids. They help them as much as they can (they guard the plantations of aphids, help relocation to a new place), since aphids are for them what a cow that gives milk is to a person is a valuable food product.

The fact is that aphids, feeding on the sap of the plant, in turn, release a sweet liquid, also called "pad" (due to the fact that drops of liquid sometimes fall to the ground). The composition of the liquid is very high in calories, and many insects, including ants, as well as larger animals, love to feast on it.

Enemy of gardens and orchards

If for ants aphids are a friend and ally, then for gardeners and gardeners it is the worst enemy.

Aphids suck sap from plants, taking food away from the leaves and fruits of the plant. From lack of nutrition, they begin to wither, curl; flower buds dry out without blooming; it does not come to the fruits at all. A plant affected by aphids will not withstand winter frosts.

In addition, the sweet juice secreted by aphids, which ants love, envelops the stem and leaves, making it difficult for air to enter them; attracts various parasitic fungi (black sooty fungus or dew) to the surface of the plant. All this also weakens the strength of the plant. It begins to dry out and eventually dies.

Unsolicited tenant detection

Aphids are not so small and settle in large groups that are not difficult to spot. But she is cunning and resourceful. He tries to hide on the back of the leaves, and the gardener does not have time to look under each leaf. Therefore, its presence is detected when the plant begins to feel unwell. The tops of the shoots begin to deform, the leaves curl and turn yellow.

And, nevertheless, it can be noticed much earlier by the sweet bloom on the leaves and stems, by the lively presence of ants near the plant.

Pest control

Let's not talk about pesticides, they should be used as a last resort.

Better to get natural helpers. They can be plants, other insects, birds.

Decoction or infusion of any bitter herb (wormwood, garlic, onion …), wood ash; tar soap solution will cool the ardor of the pest.

Ladybugs love to feast on aphids and its larvae.

You can destroy them by hand, picking them from the leaves, although touching them is very disgusting. But what can you not endure if you want to get at least a little bit of a harvest.