How to control wolfberry aphids? Latest technical method tutorial

When planting wolfberry, the most important pest is the aphid. Under suitable conditions, it can occur 15 generations a year, with extremely strong reproductive capacity, which will lead to weakened tree vigor and reduced yield, seriously affecting the economic returns of growers. So how should wolfberry aphids be controlled? Let's take a look at the detailed introduction below.

1. Symptoms

Aphids, also called honey insects or greasy insects, begin to break out from April to May each year. They can reproduce for several generations annually and have strong reproductive capacity. When they break out, larvae and adults gather on the leaves, continuously sucking the sap from the leaf tissues, causing the leaves to deform and shrink and the tree vigor to weaken. This leads to reduced photosynthesis in the leaves and less synthesized nutrients, so the flowers and fruits do not have sufficient nutrients to grow, causing the fruit-setting rate to decline and yield to decrease. After fruit setting, the fruits may also lack sufficient nutrients to grow, resulting in lower quality.

2. Occurrence pattern

The aphid outbreak period is from April to May. At this time, each branch of the plant has dense aphids. In the high-temperature summer period, the density of aphids decreases, but a small number of aphids still remain on the branches. In autumn, the aphids on new shoots rise again and continue to cause damage. Until November in winter, due to falling temperatures and food shortage, female and male aphids begin to produce male aphids. After mating in this way, female aphids begin to lay eggs in branch crevices. After winter, the eggs hatch and continue to cause damage.

3. Control methods

In early spring and late autumn, prune the plant's residual branches, diseased and pest-infested branches, and the dead grass and fallen leaves in the field, and take them out of the field in a centralized way to burn, reducing pest and disease sources. Cleaning the field once in spring can greatly reduce overwintering pest sources. When aphids break out, manual capture can be used, or branches with aphids can be pruned off. Natural enemies of aphids can also be used for control. Minute pirate bugs, green lacewings, ladybugs, aphid parasitoid wasps, and hoverflies are all natural enemies of aphids. They can be protected to control aphid numbers.

The above is an introduction to wolfberry aphid control technology. We hope it can help you. If you want to learn more related knowledge, please follow us.