Ants and Aphids
 

Hi all,

I have a big problem that I hope you can help me with. I have just moved to a new home (up in north Wales) and have a nice back garden, so planed to start growing stuff. I brought a pear tree from the local nursery last week. After a few days it started to droop its leaves, some curled up and others had brown parts to it. I did see orange bugs on two of the leaves, but could not fine any information about them on the net.

Well to day I seen a green aphid, so I phoned the local nursery to fine out what to do and they just told me to use something that they sell called a bug gun. Now this would not have been a problem and most people would of used it, but I have an other hobby; ant collecting. I really love this house because it is my first garden that has yellow ants (L. flavus) in it and I really do not want to harm them. If I use the bug gun, I know it will probably kill them as well as other insects in the garden.

What I would like to know is, is there away to get rid of the aphids without getting rid of the ants? If not could the pear tree survive with aphids living on it?

P.S I can get picture of the tree if you need.

please get pic if you can

Remove the aphids by hand (wearing gloves) or using a sharp stream of water. Cut away and dispose of infested foliage. Capture flying aphids by placing yellow sticky traps near infected plants. Make a nontoxic pesticide by mixing 1 c. vegetable oil with 1 tbsp. liquid dishwashing soap. Add 1 1/2 tsp. solution per cup of warm water to a handheld spray bottle. Hit the aphids directly with above mixture and spray entire plant thoroughly.

Rid your garden of ants. Ants love to eat "honeydew," the sugary sap secreted by aphids, and will keep the aphids alive by fending off predators and carrying the sap makers to other plants.

Ants and Aphids
 

On 2012-05-09, allen73 wrote:

Rid your garden of ants. Ants love to eat "honeydew," the sugary sap
secreted by aphids, and will keep the aphids alive by fending off
predators and carrying the sap makers to other plants.

Yep. Ants literally "herd" aphids. Aphids are ant livestock. Not
likely you'll have one without the other. The best way to lose the
aphids is do it naturally by getting a packet of live ladybugs and
realeasing them on yer plants. I don't know about the UK, but in
California USA, I could buy several hundred live ladybugs for a few
dollars. Many of the ladybugs would fly away, but releasing a portion
of them every day for 2-3 days was enough to eradicate the aphid
problem completely. The ants left for parts unknown, also.

Good luck
nb

--
vi --the heart of evil!
Pitbull: "a gun you can pet" --Bill Burr

Hopefully I had add the picture in the right way.

Ants and Aphids
 

DTHunter wrote:
Hi all,

I have a big problem that I hope you can help me with. I have just
moved to a new home (up in north Wales) and have a nice back garden,
so planed to start growing stuff. I brought a pear tree from the
local nursery last week. After a few days it started to droop its
leaves, some curled up and others had brown parts to it. I did see
orange bugs on two of the leaves, but could not fine any information
about them on the net.

Well to day I seen a green aphid, so I phoned the local nursery to
fine out what to do and they just told me to use something that they
sell called a bug gun. Now this would not have been a problem and
most people would of used it, but I have an other hobby; ant
collecting. I really love this house because it is my first garden
that has yellow ants (L. flavus) in it and I really do not want to
harm them. If I use the bug gun, I know it will probably kill them as
well as other insects in the garden.

What I would like to know is, is there away to get rid of the aphids
without getting rid of the ants? If not could the pear tree survive
with aphids living on it?

P.S I can get picture of the tree if you need.

You can hose aphids off with a strong stream of water, they are not able to
climb back up to feed so they die on the ground. This is not certain to get
them all though. If you have keen eyesight and patience you can pull the
rest off by hand. Also you could spray with one of the less toxic chemicals
such as pyrethrum and if you are careful about limiting where you spray and
the amount of run-off it will not hurt ants on the ground. You only need to
spray the soft tips where the aphids feed. Of course if the ants are in the
tree any insecticide will get them too. The tree may survive aphids
depending on the degree of infestation. The primary problem is they reduce
the tree's vigour by sucking the sap. A secondary problem is that aphids
may be a disease vector.

David

This seems to be a Leaf Blister Mite. These microscopic mites leave foliage spotted with yellow or red blisters, and they can cause the leaves to curl. Affected leaves may fall early and fruit may be blistered. Any infected leaves should be removed and destroyed.

Ants and Aphids
 

DTHunter wrote:
wewe2012;958329 Wrote:
please get pic if you can

Hopefully I had add the picture in the right way.


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Try to focus on the plant not the ground, in particular the growing tips. I
didn't see any aphids there. Which pic shows them?

D

I have only seen a few little green aphids on the day I started this post and the orange bug things the first time. I have been cheacking on the tree daily and not see anymore insects on it.

The pictures were to show you what the leaves and tree looked like, not the insects sorry. I'm also sorry if the pictures are not that good, I only have my phone's camera to use.