Pakistan Gardening Forum

Aphids are tiny sap sucking insects usually about one to two millimeters long that appear when the weather warms. Colonies can build up very quickly. They eat developing shoots and flower buds by piercing the plant's surface and sucking out the plant's juices, which can result in deformed buds, flower loss and even defoliation of the plant. Roses, Peach trees and hibiscus are tasty treats for aphids. Aphids definitely prefer yellow flowers.

Aphid Images

Aphid & Ant Mutualism
Ants can be a real nuisance. We don't want them in the house, biting us or "farming the insects" of their choice on our plants. Ants themselves don't do much damage to your plants; however they protect and farm herds of aphids, cottony scales, Mealybugs, soft-type scales, and whiteflies. Ants save the eggs of these insects in their nests over the winter and bring them out in the spring. These insects produce honeydew while feeding on your plants which the ants just love. If you closely observe ants streaming up a tree and tending their aphids, you will see them take their legs and rub the aphids which stimulate them to produce the honeydew. This activity is known as "milking" the aphids. The honeydew that is secreted by the insects favors the growth of sooty mold. This is a very destructive black fungus that spreads on plant leaves. The aphids are also responsible for spreading many different viral diseases. What you want to ultimately do is to disrupt the ants from tending to their insect flocks, getting in the house etc. This involves locating and destroying the nest and queen.

Watch this intresting clip about Aphid & Ant Mutualism



Aphid Control
Mix one table spoon liquid soap & one table spoon cooking oil in 4 liter water, shake well and spray. Repeat the process three to four times with gap of two to three days.
Aphid attacked my Allamanda vine. I used this & aphids are gone. Ant Control
Baking soda is poisonous to ants, sprinkle it around your plants to ensure ants will stay away.
Flour & Baby Powder will keep ants from reaching your plants; ants will not cross the powder – so circle your plants with it.
Here is something interesting: it is said if you take a shovelful of ants from one place or nest and put it in another, then take a shovelful from that place and put it where you took the first one the ants will then wage war on one another and do themselves in!

Khabbab, check your Wisteria for Aphids.

One keeps learning. I always thought the ants feed on Aphids. Thank you for making me wiser.

Interesting, I always thought they were helping me get rid of aphids:d

Answer Neem Oil Spray and for Ants just peel an Onion, cut small slices and place a few pieces 3 inches deep in the soil away from the roots of the plant
Ants will disappear

B Shah

tweedle2009 wrote:Interesting, I always thought they were helping me get rid of aphids:d

Muhammad Arif Khan wrote:One keeps learning. I always thought the ants feed on Aphids. Thank you for making me wiser.

I also thought similar, recently find this & shared with you friends.
Brig. Sb, Thanks for your nice comments.

mirafzalkhan wrote:Khabbab, check your Wisteria for Aphids.

Actually ants are not coming from soil so the onion therapy might not work, right? Ants join the wisteria stem on the height of 4 feet about soil and this is the point where thick stems of wisteria join the surface of outer wall. Ants come from inside the wall and start climbing up the dense stems of wisteria. So baking soda and flour therapy is difficult to implement as wisteria is in soil bed but stems are trained up to terrace.

khabbab wrote:Actually ants are not coming from soil so the onion therapy might not work, right? Ants join the wisteria stem on the height of 4 feet about soil and this is the point where thick stems of wisteria join the surface of outer wall. Ants come from inside the wall and start climbing up the dense stems of wisteria. So baking soda and flour therapy is difficult to implement as wisteria is in soil bed but stems are trained up to terrace.

Khabbab, now that is so easy, find the source of ants in wall and sprinkle some copex on it and also at point where stems joins the wall, for adhering wet the surface of wall first . We are not spraying chemical pesticides on plants but it is wall

Man!!! It's a tough life being a gardener who doesn't want birds and butterflies to stop visiting his garden.

i am keeping plants in pots and fed up of small ants. The ants keep on taking the soil out from the bottom of the pots and harvest aphid colonies too. Though i don't have any aphids for the timebeing. I've tried the onion piece as suggested on this forum but it doesn't help. Though the ants are residing in the pot and i've burried small onion pieces on the sides of the pot as suggested but ants aren't effected. Any other advice?

A simple procedure which worked for my pots, just place you pots on trays (plastic or clay) and fill the tray with water. To ensure the water don't travel up in the pot, place small pieces of ceramic tiles, plastic, wood etc beneath the bottom of the pot so the level of water is lower than the base of pot.

Use fresh or dried chillies and blend one cup of dried or 2 cups of fresh chillies with two cups of water. Spray fresh. Use the most hottest chillies. 1 cup = 250 ml