Pests in a garden are always a worrying event. Sometimes we get helpful bugs like honeybees or ladybugs, but often we get harmful bugs such as aphids that feed on roots. These little bugs seek out plants to suck liquids for food, but that can mean our lovely flowerbeds or vegetable gardens get sucked dry.
Yet not all aphids are created equal. Several different species can look alike, and identifying them can be one of your best tools to understand how to deal with them. Identifying root aphids can be hard, but we’ve compiled 9 tips to help you spot them.
Try to Spot Eggs Early in Spring
The aphid life cycle is a precise one. In winter the parents lay their eggs on root plants, and these eggs hatch in the spring. It’s always best to keep a vigilant eye during the winter for small little bulbs wrapped in a waxy web. These eggs will appear white, often hidden away under the plant’s leaves right above the ground. This is the best time to get rid of them if you’re able to spot them.
In spring when the weather warms up, they will hatch. Baby aphids are extremely small, like tiny grains of rice smaller than 1/16 of an inch. They get to work quickly and will grow into adults within days. If you didn’t see the eggs and they hatch, this is the second-best time to get rid of aphids before they start to mate and expand to other plants.
Look for Aphid Nests Near Your Roots
Once aphids become adults, they’ll build their nest larger and larger. The waxy colony homes will expand around the roots. These might look like flattened cotton or a mass of spider webs, but of course crawling with tiny aphids. These colonies might also move into the plants and below ground slightly, but rarely. It’s best to raise the leaves of your root plants to check underneath.
Keep an Eye Out for Galls
While not very common to root plants, aphids can occasionally cause deformations in larger plants called “galls” which are good to look out for. They can be easily spotted like a bulbous wart from the plant’s stems. Aphids often make colonies within these galls.
Identify Aphids by Their Shape and Size
Adult aphids can come in many different colors, but are typically the same shapes. Here’s a quick breakdown:
- Adult aphids tend to range in size from 1/16 of an inch to 1/4 of an inch–about the size of a grain of short rice.
- Aphids that don’t have wings can be identified by their body’s teardrop or triangle shape. This is very distinctive and sets them apart from other bugs.
- Some people mistake them for a similar bug called “mealybugs”. Mealybugs are shaped more like pills, however.
The best way to identify aphids from any other bugs is from their two protruding prongs from their rears. These are called “cornicles” and despite the various shapes and sizes of aphids, they will always have these.
Please do note that female aphids grow wings when they are ready to mate and move to a new area. These wings can be long and slender, and the aphids can have a different shape. However, they will be among normal aphids. These winged aphids are a sign that the colony has expanded too much. If they take flight, other sections of your garden or nearby areas can be infested as well.
Check Their Color
Colors of aphids can range from pink to light green to dark brown. There are thousands of distinctive types of aphids. Try to check which ones are common in the area where you live before attempting to identify your infestation.
However, root aphids commonly come in four colors: Light green, yellow, gray, and white. These colors can be especially hard to spot around roots near the ground. Aphids are also covered in a waxy residue that can mask their colors, but most often this waxy covering is white or gray.
Three select species of root aphids can have different appearances:
- Hawthorn Carrot aphids have a yellow or light green color with a light wax covering
- Parsley or the standard Hawthorn aphid are a simple gray
- Tulip Bulb aphids have a white appearance, and their covering is more dusty than waxy
Watch for Damage to Plants
Oftentimes aphids can go unnoticed. We might be too busy to notice the tiny critters hidden among our root plants, but you can tell by what they do to the plants and the damage they cause.
The first and easiest sign of aphids is damage to the leaves and flowers of your plants. You’ll start to notice the leaves wilt or shrivel, they may not bloom, or their growth will be stunted. As aphids suck the moisture and nutrients from plants, they quickly overpower the plant’s resources. If this progresses farther then the leaves will start to yellow and dry up.
Many gardeners might mistake the damage aphids do as other common gardening problems, such as:
- Wilting or not growing caused by not enough water
- Stunted growth caused by not enough fertilizer/nutrients
- Yellowing or dying leaves caused by poor soil keeping
Before you blame your gardening practices for your plant’s state, first check for aphids!
When the leaves start to die away, it doesn’t exactly mean that the plant itself is dying. The plant will preserve its main body and sacrifice the leaves if needed. This means you can recover the plant if you catch the aphids quickly—but after long enough, the plant’s main body will wither away as well.
Root aphids tend to stay lower towards the root body of a plant, but sometimes they will venture up the leaves and feast there. This is often a sign that the colony has expanded too far, so if you see them at this stage, they have begun spreading much too far. You’ll easily spot them under the wilting leaves.
Honeydew Is a Big Sign
Honeydew is the waste product that aphids give off. This honeydew is a sweet, waxy liquid that can appear sticky like clear honey on the plant. Finding honeydew on your plant is a surefire sign of a root aphid infestation.
Look for Other Bugs That Love Honeydew
Through the production of this honeydew, aphids can attract the attention of predatory bugs. For root plants, this often means ants will come following the sweet honeydew scent. Ants will also eat away at the aphids and possibly the plant itself. This might be the reason why ants have flooded your garden, but you can’t find aphids.
This honeydew also attracts ladybugs. Now, many gardeners know ladybugs are helpful and even use them as a natural insecticide as they do not damage plants as much as other bugs. This is a good sign that they have come to eat aphids and other bugs like mealybugs, but is still a sign that there might be aphids. If you have plenty of ladybugs and no other signs of aphids, you can probably bet that the ladybugs can handle your infestation. However, keep a close eye for any signs of a colony getting out of control.
Fungus
Honeydew as well can cause fungal diseases to collect on plants. This fungus is extremely harmful to the plants and has been known to kill entire trees and forests. This is why it’s best to stop aphids before this fungus can grow.
Two common fungi that harbor in this honeydew are:
- Powdery Mildew is, predictably, white and powdery. It often collects in spots on leaves that quickly spread.
- Black Sooty Mold, which is similar to the above, is instead black and can be hard to spot on darker leaves.
How Do You Know If You Have Root Aphids?
We covered a lot of information, so here’s a quick summary:
- Check around for aphid nests at the base of your rooted plants
- You can identify aphids by looking for small, triangular bugs with two prongs poking out their rears
- They are typically green, gray, or white
- Their honeydew is like a clear, waxy honey, and it attracts predatory bugs and fungus
Identification is the best solution
Aphids can cause such great damage to our beloved root vegetables and bulb flowers. They can be hard to spot as their nests blend into the plant and ground and go unnoticed, and their bodies can look similar to other bugs. We hope the tips we provided help you gain the confidence to spot root aphids and help you fight an infestation!