Some aphids can be washed off with a hose down with some water or you could squash a few between finger and thumb or you could try collect some ladybirds if you could find them and they could make a meal of them.
While Rhubarb is still around, boil some of the leaves, strain off the liquid, leave to cool, and use that in a spray gun to anoint your aphids. Make more than you need and keep for after rhubarb has died back, but aphids haven't?
Yes it’s honeysuckle ... aphids love it but a healthy plant usually copes and outgrows it ... we have several honeysuckles and by attracting birds such as bluetits and predatory insects like hoverflies, lacewings and ladybirds to the garden we don’t have a problem with aphids. In the first few years however, we dealt with the aphids in a way that didn’t harm the other insects ... ie we squirted them off with a jet of water from the hose, or in a bad case we sprayed with a weak solution of washing up liquid in water.
Hope that helps ... and welcome to the forum 😊
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thank you all. I’m new to gardening and have found this forum so helpful already. I definitely don’t want to use any chemicals so I will try a few of these ideas. We have three honeysuckle bushes and one is looking lovely and full and one is looking very sad. It’s completely coated in the aphids. I’ve never seen so many.
We have 4 honeysuckles in our garden - three have never been troubled by aphids (yet!) but the fourth is constantly under attack - no idea why! I spray it every week with a soap solution and that works to an extent - but the little beggars still keep coming!
Weaker or less healthy plants make easy targets for aphids, and if the plant doesn't grow fast it is more affected by their activity. Maybe one plant is in a less favoured position, so dries out faster or gets more windburn or too much sun.
Honey suckles grow naturally at the woodland edge or along hedgerows, so like plenty of shade and moisture at their roots. If you check up on these things you my be able to make you plant happier. Fast growth means leaves don't stay small and vulnerable for long and more leaves produce more energy for more growth, so a few aphids have less impact on the plant overall
They are in a similar position, though neither gets much shade. I was planning to blast them with the hose this afternoon but I noticed a few ladybirds have found their dinner and laid some eggs so hopefully they will have a feast and rescue the plant.
I have an elder that is infested with black aphids but yesterday I spotted 4 ladybirds so I will let them get on with it. I would have felt a fool with a hose out in this weather anyway.
Can anyone please tell me what this plant is and how I can stop it from being eaten?
Posts
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.