Which insects and other animals eat aphids?

Aphid infestation is fought not only with insecticides or folk remedies, but also with biological methods. For example, it is well known that ladybugs and some other insects, as well as birds, eat aphids. It is important to learn how to recognize them, as well as create conditions for their active reproduction.

External signs of aphid damage

You can determine the damage to a plant by several signs:

• aphids were found on the green part - larvae or adults;
• the plant looks clearly painful - the leaves turn yellow, lose their elasticity, and then fall off;
• weak inflorescences that do not give ovaries;
• a viscous, sticky substance is felt on the surface.

Usually aphids are found on the back of the leaves, located in the depths of the flowers. The larva emerges from a laid egg in less than 2 weeks. Its life cycle is approximately 1 month. The larvae begin to actively feed, absorbing juice with nutrients from the plant.

Adults can be blackish, green, white. They develop rapidly and become females (there are no males in aphids). These individuals quickly give rise to other larvae, and due to their biological characteristics, they fertilize alone, without the participation of a partner.

Aphid-eating insects

Many types of insects are predatory. They actively eat representatives of other species, especially during the growth period (after the larva hatches from the egg). The main enemies of aphids are ladybugs, wasps, and lacewings.

ladybugs

It is widely known that the ladybug eats aphids. This is a natural enemy of pests, which is able to destroy them in large quantities. There is evidence that one ladybug eats up to 50 aphids per day, and both adults and their eggs are eaten.

However, not only adult cows feed on aphids, but also their larvae. They grow quickly, so they need a lot of nutrients. It is known that one larva eats up to 80–100 individuals and their eggs per day.

What adult ladybugs look like is known to most summer residents, but not everyone saw their larvae.

Ladybugs lay orange, oblong, squash-like eggs. Further, a rather large larva emerges from the egg, which looks like a beetle with 3 pairs of legs. It is painted black, however there is a bright yellow pattern in the center of the same color as the eggs.

In addition to aphids, ladybugs eat other pests:

• leaf beetle;
• ticks;
• scale insects;
• worms;
• whitefly;
• small caterpillars.

Often, different types of ladybugs are used in pest control and at a professional level. For example, there is a story about how at the end of the 19th century on orange plantations in California, worms were bred, which destroyed most of the crop. Then the scientists sent 500 ladybirds there, which actively multiplied in a year and quickly coped with all the worms.

Lacewing

These flying thin-winged insects are green. Each individual is capable of destroying up to 150 pests per day, eating both adult representatives and their eggs.

Laceworms reproduce with eggs, from which the larvae hatch within 2-3 weeks. Immediately after birth, the larvae begin to actively eat aphids and some other insects.

However, lacewings themselves can become a victim of pests - for example, they are actively eaten by ants that "graze" aphids for the sake of receiving the sweet nutritious liquid they release (the so-called honeydew).Therefore, many lacewing individuals lay the fibers obtained from aphids on their backs, due to which they disguise themselves as a pest and become protected from ants.

Sand wasps

These are flying insects with a black head and abdomen, on which alternating stripes of bright yellow are visible. They are known to kill many pests.

When attacking, the wasp injects a substance that paralyzes the victim, after which it finally destroys it. Thanks to this, the wasps also eat about 100–150 aphids per day. Along with them, they can kill bees, competing for the possibility of pollination of flowers. In Russia, sand wasps are found, but not as often as in other countries (they mainly live in the tropics).

Other insects

Other insects that also eat aphids include:

• cicadas;
• crickets;
• ground beetles;
• earwigs;
• riders;
• hover flies.

All these species live on the territory of Russia and feed on aphids. However, it is ladybugs, lacewings and sand wasps that are most useful. Therefore, you need to learn how to distinguish them visually, so as not to destroy them along with real pests.

Aphids and ants

Although the ants themselves are not garden pests, they cause indirect damage. The fact is that these insects live in commonwealth (symbiosis) with aphids, forming mutually beneficial relationships. Aphids give off a sweet, nutritious liquid - honeydew. It is used by ants as a carbohydrate source. In "gratitude" for this, the ants protect the aphids in every possible way, destroy insects that threaten its safety. Also, scientists have repeatedly observed how ants help aphids move to new plant bushes.

Birds feeding on aphids

There are a lot of such birds - almost all known species eat insects:

• sparrows;
• warblers;
• goldfinches;
• orioles;
• tits;
• flycatchers;
• redstarts;
• gray warblers;
• bluethroats;
• wrens, etc.

These birds are insectivorous, but they also feed on grains, grains and other plant foods. Therefore, to attract them to the garden, you can make small feeders so that they constantly fly in and destroy aphids and other pests.

We create conditions for garden defenders

Often, gardeners in the fight against insects begin to use powerful universal insecticides. These toxic substances are deadly not only for pests, but also for insect protectors. Therefore, if aphids have been seen on bushes, stems or fruits, natural (biological) methods of protection can be used first.

If you do not need to take special measures to attract ladybirds, since they are ubiquitous, then in the case of other insects, you can use additional methods:

• Along the perimeter of the garden, next to the beds, cultivated plants with a pungent, pronounced odor are planted - dill and parsley are the most accessible.
• If a plant or a whole garden is already affected by aphids, a small container is placed next to it, where sawdust or wood chips are placed. Beneficial insects will hide in it, so that they can successfully reproduce and attack the pest.

For birds, you need to put additional drinkers and feeders, which can be made from scrap materials with your own hands. If you have the skills, you can make "capital" feeders made of wood, birdhouses. Then the birds will begin to actively eat insects, due to which the aphid colony will be almost completely destroyed.

Prevention

It is always easier to prevent a problem than to deal with its consequences. Therefore, along with the listed measures to attract natural enemies of aphids, you can also use other methods of prevention:

• Find and destroy anthills. This can be done with boiling water, hot ash from a fire or stove, finely chopped garlic (cloves and herbs), urine, soda, tar, cinnamon.
• Remove excess weeds at the end of each season.Before planting, remove all dead wood, leaves and debris.
• Examine grasses, bushes and trees closely for signs of damage.
• Whitewash apple trees and other garden trees. It is better to do this both in the fall (in October) and in the spring (in April), since moisture dilutes the whitewash.

Thus, the fight against aphids is quite possible without the use of special chemicals. However, if this pest has spread too abundantly on the site and there is an affected plant in almost every garden bed, insecticides should be used. These can be such means:

• "Spark";
• Corado;
• Actellik;
• "Fufanon";
• "Commander";
• "Fury" and others.

Processing is carried out in strict accordance with the instructions, after which most of the pests die. However, later it is better to use only natural methods of protection, so as not to destroy beneficial insects.