Dig In!

Terry, a gardening colleague, and I were talking about an unusually heavy crop of aphids this summer. My poor honeysuckle vine’s blossoms repeatedly have been coated with black aphids. Terry’s young apple tree had aphids and lots of Argentine ants. (Where you see one you often see the other because ants like the honeydew that aphids secrete when they feed and will protect the aphids from their natural predators.) Terry also noticed many green aphids on new growth on her climbing rose bush.

Neither of us reached for an insecticide spray because, by our natures and our training as master gardeners, we believe in the practice of "integrated pest management,” or IPM. This is a step-by-step strategy that calls for using environmentally sound ways to prevent pests from invading your house, damaging your plants or annoying you — without harming you, your family or the environment.

With IPM, you first try to prevent problems. Maybe aphids are making merry among your roses because you are using way too much nitrogen-rich fertilizer. Lots of nitrogen prompts a plant to pump out the juicy green growth that aphids love.

Next, under IPM, you try other non-chemical methods, such as using a stream of water from your hose to blast the aphids off.

The option of last resort is to use a pesticide. You want to use the least toxic one that still will do the trick. Anytime you use a pesticide you risk killing the "good” bugs that eat the "bad” bugs.

I opted for the water blaster to remove the aphids on my honeysuckle.

Terry, a serene soul, chose patience — but also used a dose of Tanglefoot on her clearly suffering apple tree. Tanglefoot is the brand name of a sticky substance that prevents ants from running up and down the tree. Any ant that tries to cross it leaves a long and visible memory of its time on Earth.

A few days after Terry noticed the aphids and ants on her tree, she saw a new bird hanging out in her garden. It was a Northern Flicker. Guess what they love to eat? Ants! She ran outside to check her tree. The aphids and ants were gone.

And the aphids on her rose bush? Terry knew from education and experience that often aphid infestations are followed by visits from aphid-munching insects. It is nature’s way of saying, "Come and get it.” So she waited. One day later, while inspecting her rose, she noticed a small, green worm eating the aphids "one by one, as if they were grapes,” she said. It was the larva of the syrphid fly — an insect that looks a bit like a honeybee but is much smaller. It had found its way to the buffet table on her rose.

So be patient. Gently guide but still let nature take her course in your garden. You are much more likely to have the garden you want: one that is healthy and humming with the stuff of life.