It is always the same bamboo lice and aphids that attack the leaves and stalks of bamboo plants from March onwards. Here you can find out more about the most common types of lice and methods on how to reliably get rid of them on bamboo plants:
How can you successfully combat bamboo lice?
To effectively combat bamboo lice, use beneficial insects such as ladybirds, earwigs, hoverflies, lacewings and parasitic wasps in the bamboo garden. In addition, you can regularly shower the bamboo with a hard jet of water and use biological lice killers such as horsetail or nettle solutions.
- Aphidoidea
- Scale insects
- mealybugs and mealybugs
Why aphids and ants attack bamboo together
Aphids attract ants with their sweet excrement, which like to eat it. To do this, the ants protect the aphids and eagerly breed them. To do this, they transport the sucking insects to bamboo leaves and stalks that are not yet infected.
Aphids use their proboscis to specifically tap into the plant's pathways. This deforms the leaves and causes discoloration. In extreme cases, parts of the bamboo dry out and die. Sooty mold fungi usually settle on the excreted honeydew. They cover the leaves with a black coating. It is advisable to destroy the bamboo to protect other plants from virus attack.
Where scale insects hide
Scale insects cannot be seen with the naked eye. Because they hide under their brown protective shield. They mainly attack the bamboo stalks and suck out the plant sap. The robust bamboo plants only react visibly when so much plant sap has been sucked out that parts of the plant die.
Conventional sprays do not reach scale insects hidden under their protective shield. Only products such as plant protection sticks (€11.00 at Amazon), which are inserted into the soil and distribute their active ingredients over the roots, work even where no spray can reach them. Dried signs indicate dead scale insects, but soft signs indicate those that are still alive.
Mealybugs and mealybugs prefer Fargesia
Like all bamboo lice and aphids, mealybugs and mealybugs suck the sap from bamboo plants. What sticky juice residues on leaves and stalks prove. They also form whitish cotton balls that can be found on the leaf stem. Particularly on Fargesia you can discover the white, light brown patterned lice under the stalk sheaths.
Regular preventive measures help to avoid bamboo pests and bamboo diseases. One of the most permanently effective and natural lice killers is to establish useful opponents in the bamboo garden such as:
- Ladybug
- Earworms
- hoverflies
- lacewings
- Parasitic wasps
Also important: Shower bamboo regularly with a hard jet of water, targeting the undersides of the leaves to wash away the pests.
Tips & Tricks
Organic lice killer recipe – fill bucket with horsetail or nettles, cover with water and let it steep. After a day, the biological lice killer is ready. Spread undiluted on the bamboo using a plant syringe. Repeat application often.
