Gleann na Bearu community garden<\/a>, hoping to save the Irish Seed Saver seeds for the next growing season. By the time we spotted the little pests, we were only able to rescue a handful of seed pods, the rest of the plants were too late to save.<\/p>\nHow to recognise a Mealy Cabbage Aphid Attack<\/h2>\n The first symptom of an attack in vegetable Brassica that include greens such as kale, cauliflower, cabbage, turnips, swede, broccoli and calabrese are small, bleached patches on the leaves. You will then notice that the patches become yellow and the leaves crumple. Small, wingless, bluish-grey aphids up to 2.6mm long cluster together, often on the undersides or tips of the leaves.<\/p>\n
Non Chemical Control for Mealy Cabbage Aphids<\/h2>\n Vigilance is the number one control.<\/p>\n
If you spot aphids of any kind early enough, you can rub them off with your finger tips or blast them with the hose if the plants aren’t too delicate.<\/p>\n
Remove and destroy infected leaves and stems, don’t compost them; the pests will simply move from your compost heap back to your plants.<\/p>\n
Provide Habitats<\/h3>\n Providing habitats for natural predators such as parasitic wasps, ladybirds, hoverflies, lacewings, spiders and predatory flies will help with organic pest control. Herbs such as Calendula, chives, feverfew, yarrow, dill, fennel, marigold, angelica and caraway will attract ladybirds, as will leaving patches of stinging nettles. Avoid sprays of any kind. Even ‘natural’ soap sprays are indiscriminate, killing the beneficial insects as well as the pests.\u00a0 There’s a lovely list of plants that attract beneficial insects on the Permaculture News website<\/a>.<\/p>\nI hope you haven’t suffered a serious aphid attack in your garden but if you did, which ones have been the most problematic for you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mealy cabbage aphids are a serious pest that can have a devastating affect on brassica crops. Vigilance and beneficial insects are key to organic control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[563],"tags":[301,2511,2216,10,1568],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n
How to get rid of Mealy Cabbage Aphids without Chemicals<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n