Aphids on mint are a problematic site for beginners who have never experienced pest infestation. These destructive insects attack stressed plants, those growing in soils with high nitrogen levels, and seedlings.
While their destruction is slow but sure, you can use neem oil, a sprayer pump, and insecticides to control them. Read on, and you will know the right ways to tackle them.
What Reasons Cause Aphids on Mint?
The reasons that cause aphids on mint are high nitrogen levels, and they can also be attracted to the weak mint plants in the surroundings. Moreover, other reasons that cause aphids to infest on mint are aphids-attractive weeds near the garden, and the lack of natural predators.
– High Nitrogen Levels
Aphid infestation on your mint plants can be due to many reasons, which you must know before beginning the treatment. First, mints grow in areas with high nitrogen levels, which can be the number one reason for aphid attacks. The nutrient stimulates succulent plant growth, which supports aphids’ reproduction.
Mints grow well in areas with high nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium because they need these to have healthy growth. While these nutrients are essential for the plant’s development, the nitrogen makes the environment conducive for aphid infestation.
Aphids like areas with high nitrogen levels because the nutrient favors their reproduction. The nutrient overstimulates plant growth, which aphids can easily feed on, leaving the insects with enough food. This way, the insects continue breeding, damaging your mints, as they are mostly present for the nitrogen content, and so they will develop and increase.
Besides occurring naturally, high nitrogen levels in soils can also be due to the overuse of nitrogen fertilizers. The nitrogen stimulates the production of new leaves in the plant, which aphids quickly feed on. When the pests have enough food supply, they will continue reproducing.
– Weak Mint Plants
Weak and stressed plants are at a higher risk of attack by pests, and aphids are not exceptional, because of the weakened fragrance that the herbs are not able to secrete. While the plant could have survived hard times like drought or overwatering, aphids can quickly kill them, and these are the ways that they will be rapidly stressed.
One of the significant reasons insects and diseases attack plants is due to weakness and stress. Plants can be stressed due to lack of sunlight, drought, overwatering, or disease attacks. Weak and stressed plants cannot fight insect infestation, which can cause their death.
If you notice white bugs on mint plants, check if the mints have enough water, receive enough sunlight, and are healthy. Other insects like spider mites, southern green stink bugs, and Japanese beetles can also infest the weak plant, as there may be fallen yellow foliage surrounding the plant.
– Aphid-Attractive Weeds Near the Mint Garden
You will notice clusters of green or black bugs on your mint if they grow near aphid-attractive plants. These could be big trees growing in the nearby forest or tiny weeds that attract insects, and as they attack the surrounding, you will see them move near the plant too. Check for these unfriendly weeds if you notice any signs of stunted growth on your mint.
Every method you try to eliminate aphids on your mints might not work if there are aphid-infested plants nearby. These could be weeds like sow-thistle, mustard, or a forest with aphid-attractive trees.
In addition, you must also remember how aphids also have tiny, weak mouthpieces that can only pierce through soft leaves. Therefore, you will notice more insects on mint seedlings because they have young and more delicate yet newly growing leaves to feed on.
While you could be in a hurry to know how to get rid of aphids permanently, you should first know where the insects are attacking your plants from. Consider growing the mints farther away if they come from the nearby forest.
– Lack of Natural Predators
If your area lacks natural predators for insects, you could have a hard time with aphids. Some of these are lace bugs, or grasshoppers that will tackle them, but with the absence of them, the aphid quantity may rise.
Farmers can buy these insects to help with aphids and other insect control. There are also different ways to control aphid invasion from mints, but you must first know the reasons for the attack.
This is why, most farmers might not know this, but there are beneficial insects like ladybirds that feed on destructive insects. The sad news is, if you don’t have these insects in your garden, the pests’ population will grow; hence more crop destruction as aphid damage on mint leaves can lead to plant death.
Natural predators are a natural way to control unwanted organisms. They feed on the destructive insects, reducing their population, hence less crop destruction, and so when there is a lack, you will see the aphids growing around with no hindrance.
How To Get Rid of Aphids on Mint?
To get rid of mint aphids on mint, you can spray them with water in a sprayer pump, manually removing the insects using their hands, insecticides, or essential oils. Moreover, you can also grow aphid-repelling plants with mints to control the infestation.
– Manually Eradicate Aphids on Mint
If you want to use natural methods to remove aphids from mints, manually removing the insects from the plants is best. However, this aphid control method requires the gardener to do it at the onset of the insect infestation because it is time-consuming, but not that heavily when there are a small number of them.
If you notice aphids on the mints, crush them between your fingers and kill them, as you can use your thumb and index finger to destroy the insects. However, be careful not to hurt the plant; when it comes to this process, don’t crush the insects between the plant leaves because this can damage the cells.
Also, don’t leave the dead insects on the ground because they can lead to a re-infestation. Instead, you can sweep and throw them in a garbage bin. However, this pest control method won’t work if the aphid population is high because it is time-consuming.
– Spray the Leaves With a Hose
Another natural but faster method to remove aphids from mint is spraying them with water using a hose. Aphids are tiny animals that can quickly be swept by water and easily drown and die.
If there are signs of aphids on your plants, spray the upper and undersides of the leaves with water. Ensure the power setting is high enough to sweep the insects. However, use a moderate setting to avoid breaking the tiny branches.
If there are aphids on seedlings, you will need a lower power setting on the hose to avoid damaging the plant ultimately. Also, allow the soil to dry between the sprays not to cause overwatering to your mints.
– Use Neem Oil Spray
Neem oil spray can be used for aphid control, and this is because the product kills aphids by smothering them. When you spray the oil on aphids, it blocks their skin, reducing their ability to breathe. This suffocates the insects.
The advantage of using neem to control aphids is that it doesn’t kill beneficial insects like ladybugs. The oil also has antifungal properties that can treat fungal diseases caused by aphids on your mints and kill other harmful pests like mealybugs and white flies.
Besides, you can use other essential oils to eliminate aphids and other insects. In short, you must remember how oils like peppermint, clove, and rosemary work perfectly for mint plants, but you should mix them with water so that they wouldn’t harm the mint foliage. This is why you must also ensure you repeat applying the diluted oil until the aphids disappear.
– Use Insecticidal Soap
Insecticidal soap spray is a perfect alternative to essential oils. Unlike factory-made insecticides, it is a traditional pest control method with low toxicity to plants. In this case, the soap kills insects without harming the plant and other beneficial animals.
The insect control method is also cheap because you can make soap at home. You can begin by mixing a cup of peanut or vegetable oil with a tablespoon of dish soap and put it in a spray bottle. When the soapy water comes into contact with the insect skin, it washes away the protective coating causing the body to dry.
When spraying the plant, ensure you reach the top and bottom parts of the leaves. You should also wash the soap away to prevent its effects on your mints.
– Use Stick Traps
To keep your mints free from pesticides, you can also use sticky traps to control aphids. Stick the stakes in the soil to trap the pests, and keep checking the number of insects stuck in the trap. You can replace the traps for more catch, and this is a standard method that doesn’t require any chemicals if you are at the early stage and want to free from them easily.
– Ensure Your Mint Is Healthy
Insects are more likely to attack weak plants, but you can entirely prevent aphids by ensuring the plant is healthy. Start by giving the plant the right amounts of water, exposing it to sunlight, and fertilizing it when necessary.
Also, avoid overfertilizing your mints with nitrogen. Nitrogen supports the production of new leaves in mints, which are easy to feed on by aphids. The insect population grows rapidly due to the constant food supply, and this way, you wouldn’t leave it in a stressful situation.
– Apply Diatomaceous Earth
Another non-chemical method of removing aphids from mint is dusting insects with diatomaceous earth. The product works by drying out the insect’s skin, killing it, so for this, the best thing about DE is that it doesn’t kill the plant but kills aphids as it targets them. However, don’t use it with other beneficial insects and pollinators in your mint garden because it can kill them.
– Grow Other Plants That Repel Aphids
Does mint repel aphids, can be a worrying issue as you see it, but notice that while the scent of mint repels aphids, it is not enough to keep the insects away from your mint garden. Therefore, aphids will still infest and feed on your plants.
However, you can grow other aphid-repelling plants like garlic and onions because these have a more pungent scent. When choosing the aphid repelling plants to grow with mint, ensure they are compatible. Also, avoid growing plants with large leaves because they house aphids and other insects, and you must also remember that these include eggplants, broccoli, potatoes, and cauliflower.
– Use Pesticides
You can use pesticides if the oils, water sprays, and sticky traps don’t remove aphids on your mint. Choose between commercial and organic pesticides, depending on the infestation. For instance, commercial pesticides are non-toxic to humans but kill aphids. You should also select those that don’t kill the beneficial insects and pollinators.
However, commercial pesticides have dangerous chemicals that require you not to harvest the mints for a week or two after application. They also cause environmental pollution. But these would be ideal for controlling heavy infestations or for commercial mint growers.
You can use organic pesticides to control aphids. These are homemade using water, soap, and cayenne paper, so you can go ahead and spray the solution to the mints until all the aphids die.
Conclusion
You can only provide the best solution for aphid attack once you know why they attack your mints so see more tips you will get from the article here:
- Aphids mostly attack plants growing in nitrogen-rich soils, and mint is one of them.
- You should also remove any weeds attracting these insects and stop growing mints with other plants that attract insects.
- You can use natural aphid control methods like crushing them between fingers, spraying with soapy water, and spraying water on the insects using a hose pipe.
- There are chemical aphid control methods like using organic or commercial pesticides, but these harm the environment.
- Since insects attack weak and unhealthy plants, you can prevent infestation by growing healthy mints.
While all these methods can control the aphid population in your mint garden, some work faster than others, you may choose a more natural pest control method if the aphid population is low and a chemical method if the population is high.
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