6 June 2023

Customer Question – Aphids in plum tree?

Q. “Hi Jonathan, I have two young plum trees infested by white fly. I have cut off the worst branches but it is building up again. What would you advise? I am thinking lady birds?” Kind regards, Lesley

A. Thanks for the message and these are aphids otherwise known as greenfly and NOT whitefly. People often mistake the dried out shed skins of aphids as whitefly? The easy way to tell is do they fly off if you shake the tree? If they do then yes they are Whitefly but if not then they are aphids like these ones. Establishing Ladybirds is the answer but aphids are fast breeders so you need to try and clear some before introducing ladybirds. If you have a hose, I would bast the aphids to remove as many as possible (they cannot pick themselves up so die on the ground) and wash away the sticky honeydew which ants may be  after. Are there any ants running up and down the truck? If so pop some Barrier Glue / Glue Band or Vaseline around the truck to stop them as the ants will protect the aphids from the aphids as they harvest the honeydew they produce. Establishing ladybirds does take time, so release some Ladybird Larvae into the trees and then these will feed on the aphids before turning into adults – the larvae  take 3-5 weeks to pupate and turn into adults and then these will breed to produce the next generation of ladybird larvae.

Control aphids naturally by introducing native British Ladybird Larvae with release bags into the trees. Green Gardener only supplies British Adalia bipunctata ladybird larvae – we do NOT supply Harlequin ladybirds. The Ladybird Larvae come in packs of 100 with a cotton release bag. They are sent by 1st class post with food included and each 100 larvae is supplied with a release bag i.e. order 500 larvae and you will receive 5 x release bags. Ladybird larvae eat 100’s of aphids each day, so by introducing them into trees / hedges aphids can be controlled naturally. Being mobile, the larvae will quickly spread out into the canopy to search out and devour aphids & introducing the larvae is easy with our cotton release bags.

Once you have released the ladybirds, avoid using chemical sprays and as the ladybirds breed, over a period of time the number of beneficial insects in your garden will increase (and you will see more ladybirds) and the number of pests will decrease.

I hope this helps. Kind regards Jon @ Green Gardener

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