If aphids appear on the lupins, you have to act quickly: after all, these flowering wonders are rarely alone in the bed, but in combination with flowers and trees such as roses, which almost magically attract aphids. As a rule, home remedies help very well and prevent infection.
How can you fight aphids on lupins?
To combat aphids on lupins, you can cut off the affected parts of the plant or rinse them with water. Alternatively, home remedies such as a milk-oil mixture, dishwashing liquid, neem seeds, coffee, or nettle broth can help. Repeat the treatment several times within one to two weeks.
Preventing aphids
To reduce the risk of infection, you can ensure optimal site conditions when creating the flower bed. A loose, permeable soil, a sufficiently sunny location and suitable planting distances ensure he althy plants that have strong defenses and can therefore defend themselves against an aphid invasion. You should also pay attention to a balanced mixed culture: Some plants, such as lavender or garlic, drive away aphids and other pests with their characteristic vapors.
How to fight aphids on lupins
If the lupins have already bloomed, you can simply cut off the inflorescences. This way the aphids will disappear and you can hope for a second bloom. However, you will not be able to harvest seeds using this method because the fruits of the subsequent flowering will not ripen in time. Normally, spraying the affected plants with a water hose also helps. You have to repeat this several times to actually catch all the aphids.
Useful insects
If you simply rinse the aphids off with the water hose, numerous useful insects will be happy about this meal: ladybirds alone eat up to 1000 aphids and are therefore indispensable as pest controllers in the garden. The same applies to beneficial insects such as earwigs, parasitic wasps, lacewings or hoverflies. You can buy larvae and eggs of these animals from gardening stores and spread them where they are needed. An insect-friendly garden - lots of flowering plants, a cleverly positioned insect hotel - ensures that the animals settle and support you in ecological gardening.
Effective home remedies
If the aphid infestation is already advanced, pure water often no longer helps. However, you can add home remedies that can be found in every kitchen. Milk, oil and alcohol, for example, stick together the animals' tracheas and cause them to suffocate. This way they won't come back any time soon and won't be able to produce any offspring. The following remedies have proven to be particularly effective:
- Milk-oil mixture: 1 part fresh whole milk, 2 parts water, a few drops of vegetable oil (e.g. rapeseed oil) or spirit
- Dishwashing liquid: mix a few drops each of dishwashing liquid and spirit or vegetable oil with water
- Neem seeds: Pour 50 grams of neem seeds with one liter of boiling water and let it steep
- Coffee / black tea: cooled coffee or black tea without additives
- Stinging nettle stock: Pour 1 kilogram of fresh, crushed nettles with 10 liters of water and let it steep
Spray the lupins and other affected plants with these liquids and repeat the treatment several times within one to two weeks.
Tip
You can recognize an aphid infestation by stunted growth, black spots on the leaves and shoots and a simultaneous ant infestation. In these cases, however, the invasion is often already well advanced.
