One day, as you were strolling through your local greenhouse, you happened upon a beautiful indoor plant that made your heart skip a beat. It’s a plant that is not available very often, unless you order it through a catalog or on the internet, so your enthusiasm and delight were understandable.

You enjoy walking on the wild side and living your life dangerously - it’s exciting and gets the adrenaline flowing – so you didn’t bother checking as carefully as you should (and could) have for signs of pest infestations before taking your prize possession home.
Strike number one.

Once you got the botanical beauty home, you were too busy/ lazy/apathetic to check, shower or treat it with that alcohol-water-citrus concoction that you routinely spray your new plants with.
Strike number two.

Without further ado, you placed it in its new location at the heart of many other beloved (pest-free) plants, some of which have been growing vigorously for years. You didn’t isolate it even for an hour.
Strike number three.

All your plants lived happily next to each other – your new leafy adoption beaming amongst its newfound and hospitable friends – until an enormous army of evil aphids invaded the entire neighborhood a few days later. The aphids’ origins were traced to your ‘new’ purchase, the one you never checked before bringing it home or bothered to isolate when you did. Tsk, tsk...

The terrible aphid invasion spread throughout your home and the troubles had just begun...


What The Heck Are Aphids?

Aphids, also known by the names of black fly, green fly and plant lice, are one of the most common and despised of all garden pests and indoor plant attackers. These small, soft-bodied, pear-shaped, translucent insects are most commonly green, brown, yellow or white. But they can also be black, red, orange, gray and even pink. In fact they can be represented by a rainbow of colours, which can make identification confusing to someone who is unfamiliar with them.

There are about 4,000 known different species, classified in 10 families. About 250 varieties are an annoyance for gardeners and serious pests for farmers. They can also cause significant damage to houseplants so they are not very welcome indoors either.

These long, thin-legged, two-jointed bugs with a conspicuous slender antenna are slow moving and range anywhere from one to ten millimeters long. Both winged and wingless, the most distinguishing feature in their identification is the pair of cornicles (wax-secreting tubes) that extend towards the end of their body, from the fifth or sixth abdominal segment.

The aphids have quite a peculiar life cycle. In the spring, all of the newly hatched aphids from over-wintered eggs are wingless females. These females have the ability to give birth to live young – miniature offspring called nymphs – without the need to mate. They rapidly reproduce all summer long, which leads to a devastatingly large infestation seemingly overnight. Colonies of aphids grow very quickly indoors if your plants are left unchecked. In the fall, both males and females are produced, which in turn mate to create eggs for over-wintering. Incidentally, winged adults are produced only when it’s necessary for a colony to migrate in search of a host plant.

A small number of winged aphids fly to a suitable plant and deposit immature, wingless nymphs on tender tissues. Once the young aphids have landed, they proceed to feed and increase in size. Within 7 to 10 days, these juveniles mature and begin to produce their own live young. The reproductive process is repeated so quickly and so often that it takes no time at all for a population explosion to occur. When a host plant becomes overly crowded and severely stressed, winged forms of aphids are produced that fly off in search of new plants to feed on. The entire process is then duly repeated on the new succulent host.

As interesting a life cycle as these pests have, they’re still one of the most loathsome around. You don’t want them on your plants.


The Damage They Do

Even if you are not queasy about insect infestations, the aphid type can be quite visually gruesome. These bugs usually appear in clusters or groups on the stems and young leaves of plants – the colonies are mostly visible on the underside of leaves. There can be such a thickness of them along infected areas that the sight of those abundant bodies of destruction piled on top of one another as they try to squeeze in and eat can be a scene right out of a horror film. Nasty.

With their piercing, sucking mouthparts, they extract the sap (juice) out of plants through a food channel in their beaks. Together with drawing out sap, they also inject saliva into their host. Damage includes mutations and stunted growth. Infested leaves can wilt, curl, turn yellow and become severely distorted and puckered; flowers can become malformed. The plant’s vigor will clearly decline so a serious infestation will not go unnoticed for very long.

Transmitting pathogens, mainly viruses, is another trademark of some aphids in their feeding process. Viral diseases are transferred from plant to plant as a result of extracting sap from one and moving on to another.

Aphids can’t metabolize all the sugar they ingest when they suck sap out of plants and as a result they secrete a sticky substance called honeydew. Further damage is caused to a plant’s leaves by a black fungus – sooty mold – that grows on the honeydew that is discharged. It blackens stems, leaves and any other surface it comes in contact with. The presence of honeydew – a sticky substance – or the unsightliness of sooty mold is a principal clue that aphids may be present on your plant. It would be best to inspect your plant regularly – during every watering is ideal and convenient – to spot these vile critters before this type of damage is evident.

Another telltale sign that aphids may be present is the undesirable arrival – and invasion – of ants near an infected plant. Ants and aphids are comrades. Aphids create that sticky substance that ants are so addicted to. They will carry aphids on their backs to move them from plant to plant and certain ants will defend colonies of aphids who will allow the ants in exchange to collect the honeydew. In fact, ants have such an incredible sweet tooth that aside from protecting aphids from predators, they will also protect their eggs and many times shelter the rotten culprits in their nests during the winter. If you notice the recent arrival of ants near your houseplants, consider that aphids are present. Getting rid of the aphids will get rid of the ants too.


No Sympathy For The Devil

Grab the bull by the horns and snuff out every single aphid. Don’t hesitate. There is no room for sympathy. These culprits will explode in population and terrorize your entire plant collection unless you take action pronto. Remember that unlike butterflies, aphids are not endearing. Not at all. Ignore any of their attempts at cuteness; they mean you harm.

In the great outdoors, there are natural controls such as the predatory insects: green lacewings and lady bugs. The lady bug is a voracious eater whose all-time favourite snack is the aphid, chocolate-covered or not. Mmm...mmm... But with indoor plants there are no predatory insects beating a path to your door so you’re pretty much on your own.

The good thing about aphids – if it’s even possible to apply the term ‘good’ when referring to them – is that they are just as terrible at hanging on to their host plants as the equally insufferable pests, the spider mites, so knocking a few off the plant is not inconceivable.

Start with forcefully removing as many of them as possible by spraying your infested plant(s) with a strong burst of water. This manual method of removal washes many of them off and kills quite a few in the process. There is no harm caused to your plant. In fact, your plant will breathe a sigh of relief with the elimination of many pests and the ability to breathe better with cleaner leaves since dust is also removed. Repeat the process often over the next several days and weeks to deal with future generations that have not hatched yet.

After you have knocked off a few of the demons, wash your plant thoroughly. Small plants can be rinsed under the kitchen sink or in your shower. Larger plants can be washed with a sponge or soft cloth. Stroke the leaves from top to bottom, making sure to work through the entire plant. Place added effort on cleaning stems, leaf axils and the undersides of all the leaves.

For added insurance, wash your plant with a soapy solution weekly for 3 – 4 weeks. 1 – 2 tablespoons of mild dish soap – I use Sunlight (cuts through grease and aphids) – is sufficient. Use warm water and wash carefully. Rinse plant with fresh water to remove all traces of soap after you are done.


There are a couple of homemade sprays – there are so many others out there - that have been recommended by houseplant growers who swear by their effectiveness. I have never mixed and used them myself but will list them for you. If you ever do feel courageous enough to try them, drop me a line and share the results.

1. Fill a plastic mister with one part plain rubbing alcohol to three parts water. Use it to mist your infested plant thoroughly on a regular basis. With consistent spraying over a period of time, the insects will disappear. Even after the infestation has been dealt with, you can keep the mister filled and continue to spray your plant each week to deter further infestations. This mixture works well with a multitude of bugs, including the dreaded mealybug and scale.
   
   
2. For a homemade, completely natural insect spray, blend together these ingredients:
   Soak a wedge of lemon and a clove of garlic overnight in enough water to fill your plastic mister (12 – 16 ounces). Remove the lemon and garlic. Add 2 – 4 drops of mild dish soap. Fill your mister with this solution. Shake well and spray your plant with it 3 – 4 times a week until the insects are eliminated.

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