Apple-leaf Aphis
Categories:
Pests and Diseases of Plants
I am sending herewith a small piece from one of my young apple trees. If
you can, will you kindly tell me what the insects are an it, and what I
had better do for them?
The apple twig which you send is infested with the eggs of the leaf
aphis or leaf louse. These eggs are very difficult to kill. A good
thorough spraying with lime-sulphur might, however, get rid of many of
them and would be good for the tr
es otherwise - diluting according to
condition of tree growth. The chief campaign against the leaf aphis,
however, must be made early in the growing season, just as these pests
are beginning to hatch out and to accumulate under the leaves of the new
growth. They should then be attacked with properly made kerosene
emulsion or tobacco extract with a nozzle suited to land the spray on
the under side of the leaves. Unless these pests are attacked early in
the season and repeated if necessary, your apples on bearing trees will
be ruined so far as they attack them, being small, misshaped and
worthless. On young trees the destruction of the foliage is fatal to
good growth.