A big part of gardening is discovery and learning. This year, I have learnt a few things about my veggie patch.
For the first time, my garlic crop is suffering from an infestation of black aphids. Below is a photo of the most infested plant. They just love sucking the sap out of the leaves and stem. And here was me thinking that garlic had no natural pests. I was so wrong.
I have been keeping an eye on them for the past week, hoping that a beneficial insect predator would come along and cull the infestation. So this morning when I checked, it had just got worse and no friendly insects in sight. Instead of losing my entire crop of Australian Purple Garlic, I had to take action.
Sap sucking insects do not like being sprayed with Eco-oil. It gets clogged in their spiracle and they suffocate. I rarely uses a spray, but this infestation was not going to get better by itself. Eco-oil is an organic product made from plant oils and an allowed miticide and insecticide in organic systems.
This stuff is easy to use and I added 5 ml to 1 litre of water in my spray bottle, and sprayed the entire crop of garlic. It took about 6 litres to spray everything, and I must say that the garlic looked much better this afternoon. The instruction mention that I should spray again in 3-5 days, so will give them the once over on Thursday to make sure.
Tomorrow I will share another gardening problem that I have experienced for the first time. It has to do with broad beans.
Has anyone else had this type of infestation?
that eco oil is interesting… might have to have a look at it, for the desperate times.
I sprayed our apple tree leaves with euc oil spray (bit of euc oil at the bottom of the sprayer, filled up with water). Ditto the hairy caterpillers. neither aphid nor hairy caterpillar liked it!
I won’t use it on ‘food’ (direct) plants though iykwim or near blossoms etc and I am wary of it because I don’t want to kill helpful bugs/too much in the soil etc
euc/water combo sprayer – it’s a ripper for inside the house for those tiny little cockroaches though, as a general spray n wipe etc
forget this stuff in plastic containers (DON’T FORGET they destroy Nature and our beautiful (once was) planet). just use the ash from your jarrah logs after your fire in winter (good time for garlic). you can also buy charcoal from a number of sources including the local health food store.
I had the same problem last year and used the same solution, if you didn’t treat your garlic there is a high likelihood of the aphids actually killing the garlic.
Interestingly I had Russian garlic in amongst the affected garlic that showed high resistance to black aphid.garlic is a true wonder food and I wish you every success with it.cheers with a beer Pete
I had a small infestation on my chives, but I dealt with them by squashing them with my hands, but then, it was a smallish problem.
Wow I have never seen black aphids. I wonder if they are a cooler climate insect. I had aphids on my roses but I noticed there was also a lot of lady birds too. Two days later the lady birds had gotten rid of all the aphids. Good luck it would be awful to loose all your garlic.
Hi, I am from a cooler climate and have never seen black aphids on garlic.
“@“ the moment my garlic is clean, hope it continues. We always pray nature takes it’s cause, but sometimes we do have to intervene. I do hope the garlic gardeners with black aphids can control them soon & am very sorry I don’t have any suggestions.Best wishes.
try ash from your fire. it works for everything even fruitfly. i just throw it at the base of all my friut trees, strawberries, veg etc (which i throw over the top. it also enhances the production and flowering obviously. great stuff. Nature heals all!
the homeo sapien (lit trans WISE man) is intent
on destroying everything NATURE created
to suit his every whim….. (martina c hagues 2017)
I haven’t had this problem yet and like you thought garlic was nearly impervious to anything! Thanks for the heads up!
The exact same thing has happened to my garlic. Yesterday I was looking at it and contemplating spraying oil. This is first for me too. Thanks for the timely post Gavin.
Donna
We had these critters two summers ago. They basically wiped out our chives and killed off our tree-onions (aka Egyptian walking onions). Must admit, I didn’t try the Eco Oil, but to be forewarned is to be forearmed, so I know what I will do if they show up this year !
Hi Gavin
Blast! I too have noticed them on my garlic in the past few days. Never had them before. I have been squashing them, will monitor and see how it goes.
Cheers
Sharon
Will have to check my garlic. Don’t think thay are infested. However today I noticed black aphids on my plum and apricot trees. Not sure what to use as both have set fruit now. Any suggestions?
use a basic pyrethrim spray. It will not harm the fruit and has a very short lifetime breaking down very quickly. Focus on the new growth because that’s where they will all be. You may have to repeat in four or five days to get rid of any stragglers.
Also check for ants as they farm the aphids for the sweet juice they produce. You can get collar guards or treatments for the trees to prevent the ants climbing the trees and bringing more aphids.
My garlic is OK but they looooove garlic chives and pretty much wiped mine out last year
Great news everyone. The little buggers have reduced in number by over three quarters, with some plants showing no infestation at all. I will still give them a follow up spray on Thursday just to make sure, as it has rained quite a bit over the last few days which tends to wash off the eco-oil
Gav x
Just wanted to know if you have had the black aphids on your picked garlic, that’s when we get them, and I want to know how you would go about getting rid of them then.
Pest management is such a struggle in organic farming, made only worse by the massive tolerance for the strong pesticides that the big monocultures have generated. In Nicaragua some farmers use a solution of boiled red chilis around the base of plants to deter insects that climb stalks. It worked to get the ant infestations out of our tomato roots. I’m not sure, but I think it can be applied to leaves in a lower concentration. Generally it’s used as a preventative measure. Maybe worth a try for aphids?
Why wud u boil th chillies? Us remove most of th strength n nutrition. Better to just soak th chillies in tepid water.
I had some a few years ago on my chives. Surprised the hell out of me as I’d never heard of them before – I didn’t even bother to look closely for a few days as I thought it was dirt. Double checked when the rain didn’t wash it away, and had to Google. I knocked them off with a white oil mix and luckily haven’t seen them since.
We had this problem 2 seasons ago on our garlic. I reluctantly sprayed with pyrethrim when I realised no beneficial insects were going to help. Unfortunately I must have left it too long, and the garlic collapsed. when I tried to harvest what was left it had turned to mush
I haven’t had them since, thank goodness
Cheers Kim
I had this problem last year on my garlic and chives and this year they have attacked the garlic chives as well. Apparently they like damp conditions. I find pyrethrum works well, particularly if you get an infestation early in the season before the ladybirds are around much.
I’ve also had this problem for the past few years on garlic and garlic chives. Lucky my leeks, spring onions and onions dont suffer from them. Last year I tried squirting them daily with the jet spray and squashing them but – no luck – they returned and wore me out. This year I’ve been spraying with Eco Oil every couple of days – they have reduced but not gone. With the price of Eco Oil, it might not be worth it .
Hi,
Found this forum researching for my Mum (I’m a keen veggie/fruit Gardner myself) .
Was expecting to see someone suggest white oil. Also a safe, organic product and a great home remedy used by gardeners for aeons which may be a cheap alternative to the Eco-oil.
Any thoughts?
Cheers
Mick
Hi Gavin
Thanks for the tip re-aphids and garlic. I have been spraying mine with a natural aphid spray pyrethrum, it seems to work for a few weeks then their back again; same infestation as you have been having by the photo you posted. I have not experienced this before with my garlic so was quite shocked and miffed, I just hope my garlic bulbs are healthy when I harvest them. They seem very persistent.
Nellie
our garlic at school is completely infested with these little creatures! we are getting the kids to squish them, hopefully they don’t make their way to our leeks an spring onions.
Best of luck.
I used a mix of vegetable oil and dishwashing liquid and sprayed them. It worked well. But do you have any suggestion about how to get my garlic back to health?
I have lost countless crops of garlic and spring onions to this pest, may be a cool climate pest. looking forward to trying oil sprays. Cheers
I wish I had found your website before pulling up my bed of garlic. They were just too healthy. I had spotted them a few days ago and sprayed them with insecticidal soap but they came back with a vengeance. The poor garlic lost the battle. I found something humorous while looking for a solution should this happen again — it was to make a solution with garlic!!!??? Now I have a bed that I should be prepping for tomatoes but am afraid of what may be in the soil.
I found them en masse in my garlic chives this morning for the first time. Already too late so I dug them up and skrayed with Sevin to kill any in the dirt. Fortunately I have a friend that goes them so can just ask for more. Good luck.
I had same aphids on my garlic. I hosed them off but they came back with a vengious. Then sprayed with Yates Success and killed my whole crop. Now have to wait till next year. We spray our citrus trees with eco oil so will also spray garlic , chives and spring onions as well.
always the greedy white gene wants to use chemicals, detergents etc etc. Nature has always a cure (and it saves the planet!). i’ve been using ash from my fires in autumn and winter (i keep some for the summer months in a box just in case). i’ve never had any infestations in my veg patch or on my nut and fruit trees. usually just pouring some around the roots is good enough (not hot!) or i throw it across the tree if its starting to fruit. it also encourages flowering and so you’ll get a bumper crop every year. i know the healthiest and most long-lived tribe in the world uses the same methods. now we’ve got duckduckgo that makes research easy! and the charcoal i keep. it’s the best cure for everything in my rescues’ medical cabinet (toxicity, inflammation, infection, anaesthetic/pain). this makes also for a much greener planet (eg you’re not purchasing horrible plastic that is Nature’s worst enemy).
It happens to me in early part of October this year.
It is interesting that the aphids do not attack kale and other greens nearby. They only cling to chives and garlic plants.
The garlic plants are not happy right now. They are turning yellow and collapsing.
Hope they will not return next year.