What to Do About Aphids on Peppers? A Detailed Guide to Prevention and Control
Aphids are one of the most destructive pests on Earth, also known as plant lice, honeydew insects, and so on, including all members under the superfamily Aphidoidea. So far, a total of 10 families and about 4400 species of aphids have been discovered, of which about 250 species are pests causing serious harm to agriculture, forestry, and horticulture. Let's take a look below at what to do about aphids on peppers!
Damage Characteristics
Aphids on peppers gather as adults and nymphs on the undersides of leaves, tender leaves, flower stalks, and pods of the host, sucking plant sap. Affected leaves turn yellow and curl, and plants become stunted and grow poorly, with severe cases even wilting and dying. In addition, aphids are also vectors of many viruses, causing outbreaks of viral diseases in melons and vegetables and leading to severe crop reductions.
Morphological Characteristics
Aphids on peppers are small, with a body length of about 2.1-2.3 mm, and vary greatly in color, such as green, light yellow, dark green, purplish brown, orange-red, some with a thin white powdery coating, and black head and thorax. There are many types of individuals in their life history, with both sexual reproduction and parthenogenesis, making species distinction relatively difficult.
Living Habits
When aphid population density is too high, or plants age or grow poorly, large numbers of winged aphids appear to migrate and spread, and are carried by wind to expand the range of damage. Winged adults have a strong tendency toward yellow and a negative tendency toward silvery white. They live in warm, dry environments. When the temperature is 18-25°C and relative humidity is below 75%, they can reproduce in large numbers, with late spring and early summer and autumn being the peak periods of damage.
Prevention and Control Methods
1. Clean the field: Remove weeds in and near the field to reduce the source of insects.
2. Cover cultivation: Use the characteristic that aphids have a negative tendency toward silver-gray to achieve the purpose of repelling aphids and preventing disease.
3. Yellow trapping: Use the characteristic that aphids are attracted to yellow by placing yellow sticky traps in the field to trap and kill winged aphids. The yellow board is 1×0.2 m in size, with the yellow part coated with machine oil, inserted between pepper rows, 60 cm above the plants, with 30 boards placed per mu.
4. Chemical control: At the initial stage, use 10% Gaoxiaodagongchen wettable powder at 1000 times dilution, or 50% pirimicarb wettable powder at 1000 times dilution, or 10% Duolaibao emulsion at 1000 times dilution, or 10% Chongmanling at 3000 times dilution, or 50.5% Nongdile at 1500 times dilution, or 47% Lorsban emulsion at 1000 times dilution, etc., used alternately, once every 7-10 days, for 2-3 consecutive times.