Learn how to get rid of aphids on plants naturally and easily with this simple 3 step method. Aphids can be both an indoor and outdoor plant problem. A good regular watering and plant inspection schedule to spot issues before they become big problems is key.
Get Rid of Aphids Indoors Or Out
Indoors is actually a lot harder to keep bugs under control. Without any help from predator insects that would normally be found outdoors, indoors the population will explode very quickly.
As soon as you notice aphids or any bug problem indoors take action immediately.
Identification Of Aphid Problem
First you need to know for sure that you have an aphid problem. Aphids can be green, yellow or even black depending on the species. Look on the stems and undersides of leaves, particularly the lower ones.
Leaf curl is often the first obvious sign of damage. Flip the leave over, you will likely see aphids on the underside of the leaf. They suck the juice out of the leave resulting in it’s death aka the curling effect.
The aphids in all of their stages are soft bodies and easily squished.
More than likely you will also see a lot of ants crawling on the plant. Ants tend to aphids like little farmers. They like to eat the sticky sap that aphids excrete as waste. The ants are not directly hurting the plant though.
3 Steps To Get Rid Of Aphids
#1 Remove Severely Infested Leaves
You will often see severe leaf curl where the aphids have sucked the life out of the leaves. They will also be heavily populated inside the curl of the leaf.
Remove all leaves that you see like this, especially on indoor plants, to knock down the population quickly.
#2 Blast With Water To Get Rid Of Aphids
Indoors
If you can take the plant outside or to the bathtub or the sink in winter time and give the plant a good blast of water. Be sure to get the undersides of the leaves and the stems as most of the larvae will be there.
Aphids are not mobile at their nymph stage so they often cannot get back on the plant. This may be all you need to do to get rid of aphids on your plants.
Indoor growing: after Step 2 immediately proceed to step 3. This won’t be enough but it does give you a huge head start.
Outdoors
Quite often a good blast of water on the plant to knock the aphids off will give the predator insects a chance to catch up with their work and bring the aphid population in check.
Prior to moving on to step 3 you could invite predator insects to the plants that are infested. Finding some adult lady bugs and placing them on those plants is a great natural way to get things under control.
If however, after a few days to a week you still see that the plant is infested and suffering move on to step 3.
#3 Neem Oil Spray
I like to save this as my last resort as anything you spray on your plants, organic or not, is typically not selective in what it kills.
I use a chemical free spray with neem oil and essential oils that works wonders both inside the house and out to get rid of aphids. (Link to recipe here). Its chemical free which is super important both because I want safe things in my house and on food that I will be consuming.
With Aphids it is usually best to spray down the plant at least 3 times every 3-5 days when treating indoor plants. Outdoors you may only need to do it once or twice. This will ensure you got any that were missed and also got any new larvae that hatched before they can start reproducing.
It’s also important that you spray down more than just where you see them so any neighbouring plants or maybe just all your plants!
The neem oil will leave a bit of sticky film on the leaves which I will leave their for a while after I am done spraying. This will ensure that any last stragglers don’t have a chance of taking hold again. Eventually I will take my plants back to the tub for a good washing with water (my tropicals especially love bath time since it’s pretty dry in the winter).
Good quality pure neem oil can be really hard to find locally. You can order the one that I use by clicking this link.
Leaf Drop
You may find that some plants drop a few leaves both from being sick and absorbing the spray through its roots. It is generally only a few and I would much prefer this to loosing the whole plant. I do like to make sure I soak the soil good so that any critters that are hiding also don’t have a chance.
Quarantine Sick Plants
If you can separate the plants that you know for sure are sick from your others then do it. Keeping the sick plants in a room of their own until you are 100% sure they have recovered and no new bugs have shown up will save you a lot of headache and time treating other plants.
I hope you enjoyed learning how to get rid of aphids naturally with this simple organic aphid control guide.
Wishing you the best of luck with your plant babies!
Another troublesome bug that can plague your garden is flea beetles. These are not near as easy to get rid of as aphids. Learn how to get ahead of a potentially devastating flea beetle infestation with my blog post Flea Beetles Destruction In Your Garden? How To Identify Damage & Organic Control by clicking this link.
