- 1 week ago
Aphids can curl leaves, drain sap, and spread fast, but they are often easier to control than gardeners think. Elias Yoder shares a simple, reliable approach for aphid control using plain water, a little mild soap when needed, and a few practical habits that help keep infestations from coming back.
The video explains how to spot aphids early by checking curled or puckered leaves, the undersides of foliage, sticky honeydew, and even ants that may be farming the pests. It then shows how to remove the worst leaves, blast aphids off with a strong jet of water, and use soapy water for stubborn clusters without relying on harsh sprays. Along the way, it also explains why healthy plants and a living garden with flowers and beneficial insects can make a big difference.
Created for viewers searching for aphid control, garden pest control, organic gardening tips, and simple insect removal methods, this calm gardening guide is useful for vegetable beds, roses, beans, fruit plants, and container gardens. It is a practical how-to for anyone looking for cheap, natural pest control and long-term aphid prevention.
The video explains how to spot aphids early by checking curled or puckered leaves, the undersides of foliage, sticky honeydew, and even ants that may be farming the pests. It then shows how to remove the worst leaves, blast aphids off with a strong jet of water, and use soapy water for stubborn clusters without relying on harsh sprays. Along the way, it also explains why healthy plants and a living garden with flowers and beneficial insects can make a big difference.
Created for viewers searching for aphid control, garden pest control, organic gardening tips, and simple insect removal methods, this calm gardening guide is useful for vegetable beds, roses, beans, fruit plants, and container gardens. It is a practical how-to for anyone looking for cheap, natural pest control and long-term aphid prevention.
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00:00You walk out to your garden one fine morning, and your plants that were lush and green just days ago
00:06are curling and puckering and going sickly, the leaves crumpling in on themselves, and when you turn one over, there
00:14underneath is a crawling cluster of little soft green bodies packed together, sucking the very life out of your plant.
00:23Aphids.
00:25And here is the thing folks get wrong, that panics them into reaching for a poison spray, when the truth
00:31is, you can clear a bad case of aphids with nothing but a splash of water, and better yet, you
00:38can set up your garden so they hardly trouble you at all.
00:42Today I will show you how to know aphids, and how to clear them off cheap and simple with what
00:49you already have, and then the real secret, how to keep them from ever taking hold, which is worth more
00:56than all the sprays there are.
00:58I am Elias, and I have dealt with aphids on this Lancaster County ground my whole life, on the cabbages
01:06and the roses and near everything else, for there are hundreds of kinds of them and one for near every
01:12plant.
01:13But here is the good news I will start with, that however many kinds there are, green or black or
01:20white or woolly, on the cabbage or the rose or the bean, the way you deal with them is much
01:27the same for all.
01:28So learn it once, and you have learned it for all of them.
01:32Quick word before I go further.
01:35The old methods my family uses, there is more of it than fits in any one video.
01:40I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
01:46The book is the long version.
01:48If you want it, it is there.
01:50I will not mention it again.
01:52My grandmother taught me the water trick when I was a boy, and I remember not believing her.
01:58I had found her roses crawling with the little green things, and came running, sure they were done for, and
02:05asked what poison we would use.
02:07She just smiled and handed me a bucket, and told me to splash them off good with water, and do
02:14it again in a few days.
02:15It seemed far too simple to work, but work it did, and those roses came back clean and bloomed lovely.
02:24Sometimes the plainest answer is the true one, she told me, and folk overlook it just for being cheap.
02:30I have cleared a thousand aphids her way since, and never yet needed a poison.
02:37Let me hand you what she handed me.
02:39First, let me show you how to know you have them, for they are sly and hide themselves.
02:45Aphids are tiny, soft-bodied insects, and they gather in clusters, colonies, packed in tight together, and they love to
02:54hide in the crevices and the nooks of a plant,
02:57and above all, on the undersides of the leaves, and down low where it is safe and shaded, so you
03:03may not see them at first glance.
03:05What you see first is usually the damage.
03:09A leaf that curls and puckers and crumples in on itself, that is the great sign,
03:14for the aphids underneath are piercing the leaf and sucking out its sap, and the leaf curls up around them
03:21as it is drained.
03:22So when you see a leaf curled and distorted, turn it over and look beneath, and there you will likely
03:28find your cluster of them hiding.
03:31Another sign is a sticky, sweet substance on the leaves, which folks call honeydew,
03:37for the aphids give off this sticky, sweet stuff as they feed, and it coats the leaves below them.
03:43And here is a clever tell that honeydew gives you.
03:46The ants love that sweet honeydew, love it so much that they will actually tend and farm the aphids to
03:53harvest it,
03:54herding them and protecting them like a man keeps cows for milk.
03:57So if you see a parade of ants marching up and down your plant, that is often a sign that
04:03aphids are up there somewhere,
04:04making honeydew for them, and you should go looking.
04:08The ants are telling on the aphids.
04:10And a last sign, sometimes when you water, you will see a milky, funky residue wash off the plant,
04:17or little shed skins and debris fallen on the soil below, all signs the aphids are at work above.
04:25Now to clearing them, and we go from the worst spots to the light, everyday touch.
04:30If you have a leaf or two that is truly overrun, just crawling and decimated and gross,
04:37the simplest thing is to take those worst leaves right off.
04:41Snip or pinch off the few most heavily infested leaves and carry them well away and destroy them.
04:47Do not just drop them in the garden, and that takes the worst of the colony away in one go.
04:53Do not strip your plant bare, mind.
04:56Just take the few truly overrun leaves, and the plant will not miss them.
05:02Then, for the rest, here is the main method, and it is so simple, folks do not believe it works
05:08until they try it,
05:09and that is plain water.
05:12You take a hose or a bucket and a strong cup, and you blast the aphids off the plant with
05:18a good sharp jet of water.
05:20That is all.
05:21For aphids are soft and weak and feeble things.
05:24They cling, but they cling poorly, and a good strong spray of water knocks them right off onto the ground.
05:31And here is the beauty of it.
05:33Once knocked off and away from their plant, most of them never make it back.
05:38They are too soft and slow and helpless, and they perish there on the ground.
05:43So a good blasting can clear 99 of 100 right off and cut a colony down to near nothing.
05:49Do it of a morning, so the plant dries in the day,
05:52and give the undersides of the leaves a good blast where they hide,
05:56and repeat it every few days, or just each time you water,
06:00and you keep them beaten down with nothing but water.
06:03It costs you not a penny and harms nothing,
06:06not the good bugs, not the soil, not you.
06:09And that is a thing worth marking,
06:11for a poison spray kills the good bugs right along with the aphids,
06:16the very ladybugs and hunters that would have helped you,
06:19so you win the day and lose the war.
06:21The plain water knocks off the aphids and leaves every friendly bug unharmed,
06:26which is why it is not only the cheapest way, but the wisest.
06:30Just take a little care not to blast so hard you tear the tender leaves,
06:35a firm, steady jet, not a battering,
06:38and aim it up under the leaves where they cluster.
06:40Now if the water alone is not quite enough for a stubborn case,
06:44here is the next step up, still cheap and still gentle,
06:48and that is a little soap in the water.
06:50You mix a small bit of pure soap into your water,
06:53a true plain soap, a castile soap,
06:57not a harsh detergent, just a little,
06:59and spray that on the aphids.
07:01What the soap does is coat their soft bodies and stop them breathing,
07:05so it smothers them where the plain water only knocks them off.
07:09So the soapy water both washes them away and kills them besides.
07:14Just use a true mild soap and go light,
07:18for too strong a soap can trouble tender leaves,
07:21so a small amount is plenty,
07:22and you can rinse the plant with plain water after if you like.
07:26Water to blast them off,
07:28a little soap to finish the stubborn ones,
07:30and between the two,
07:32you can clear near any aphid trouble there is,
07:35cheap and clean.
07:36Now let me be honest with you about a few things folks are told to use
07:40that I do not much bother with,
07:42for I would rather tell you straight than send you spending on what disappoints.
07:46There is a soft white mineral earth,
07:48a fine powder,
07:50that is sharp as broken glass to a soft insect,
07:53and folks dust it about for pests,
07:55and it has its uses,
07:57but for aphids I find it poor,
07:59for you must dust it all over the plant,
08:01and the first rain or watering washes it right off,
08:04and it is gone,
08:06more trouble than it is worth for these.
08:08Then there are various bought sprays and remedies,
08:11and some folks swear by an oil pressed from a certain tree for pests,
08:16and you may try it if you like,
08:17but I find the plain water and soap does the job without the buying.
08:22And here is one that may surprise you,
08:24the buying of ladybugs.
08:26Now it is true as true that ladybugs eat aphids,
08:29they are the aphids' great enemy,
08:30and I will come to them.
08:32But do not go and buy a box full of ladybugs to dump on your plants,
08:36for two reasons.
08:37They are gathered in a poor way to sell,
08:40and worse,
08:41when you dump them on your plant,
08:43they most often simply fly away home,
08:46off over the fence,
08:47and do you no good at all,
08:49for you have not made them a place they wish to stay.
08:53Bought bugs fly away.
08:55So save your money on all these.
08:57The water and the soap will clear them,
08:59and the real answer is the prevention I will now give you,
09:03which is the whole heart of the matter.
09:06For here is the truth the old gardeners knew,
09:09that the best way to deal with aphids is to never much have them,
09:13and that comes of two things,
09:15healthy plants and a living garden.
09:18Let me take them each.
09:20First, healthy plants.
09:22Aphids, like most pests,
09:24are drawn to the weak and the stressed plant
09:26far more than the strong, healthy one.
09:29A plant that is stressed, poorly, struggling,
09:33gives off something that says,
09:35easy pickings to a pest,
09:37and they colonize it.
09:38But a plant grown strong and healthy and unstressed
09:42shrugs them off far better and is far less troubled.
09:46I will show you the proof of it right in my own patch,
09:49for you will often see it plain,
09:51that in a row of the same plant,
09:53the runty, stressed one in the poor corner,
09:56the one that got too little water or too much
09:59or grew in the worst spot,
10:01that is the one crawling with aphids
10:04while its big, healthy neighbors,
10:06right alongside, stand near clean.
10:10Same aphids all about,
10:12but they take the weak one.
10:13So the first great prevention
10:15is simply to grow healthy plants,
10:18watered right, not starved and not drowned,
10:21fed steady with good compost,
10:24but not forced with too much rich feeding,
10:27given their room and their sun.
10:29A healthy plant is its own best defense,
10:33the same as a healthy body
10:34throws off a sickness
10:36that would lay a weak one low.
10:38Tend your plants well
10:40and you have done the most of aphid prevention
10:43before an aphid ever comes.
10:46And second, the living garden,
10:48and this is the fine part.
10:50Aphids have many natural enemies,
10:52good bugs that hunt and eat them,
10:55the ladybug above all,
10:57and the lacewing,
10:58and others besides,
10:59fierce little hunters
11:01that will keep aphids in check for you for free
11:04if only they are present.
11:05And how do you get them present?
11:08Not by buying them to fly away,
11:11but by making your garden a place they want to live,
11:14a living garden with flowers and variety,
11:17not a bare, lonesome patch of one crop.
11:21When you grow flowers among and around your vegetables
11:24and keep a variety of growing things,
11:26you make a home and a table
11:28for these good hunting bugs,
11:30and they take up residence,
11:32and then when aphids appear,
11:34the ladybugs are already there
11:36to fall upon them
11:37and clean them up
11:38before they ever get out of hand.
11:40So a garden planted as a living whole
11:43with flowers and diversity
11:45defends itself,
11:47its own good bugs standing guard.
11:50That is the old way and the best way,
11:53to work with nature
11:54so that the balance keeps your pests down for you,
11:57rather than fighting every outbreak alone with a spray.
12:01Build the living garden,
12:02and it fights the aphids,
12:04so you need not.
12:05Now let me say a small plain word,
12:08not a who-profits sermon,
12:10for the aphid is no one's scheme.
12:13But notice,
12:14the whole of it came to near nothing bought.
12:17A splash of water,
12:18a little soap,
12:19the pulling of a few leaves,
12:21and above all,
12:22the growing of healthy plants
12:24in a living garden.
12:25There is a great trade
12:27in selling the gardener sprays and powders
12:29and boxes of bugs to fight his aphids,
12:32and here the plain water off your own hose
12:35beats the most of them,
12:37and the living garden beats them all,
12:39and both are as good as free.
12:41So folks come to think pest control
12:44means a shelf of bought bottles,
12:46when it means a strong plant
12:48and a garden full of life.
12:50The old people had no shelf of sprays.
12:53They grew strong plants in living gardens
12:55and let nature keep the balance,
12:58and that plain wisdom serves better
13:00than all the bottles ever will.
13:03So there is the whole of it,
13:04dealing with aphids the old way.
13:06Know them by the curled leaves
13:08and the hidden clusters
13:10and the tell-tale ants.
13:12Clear the worst leaves off and away.
13:14Blast the rest off with plain water
13:17and finish the stubborn ones
13:18with a little mild soap.
13:20Leave the costly sprays
13:22and the bought bugs alone,
13:24and above all,
13:25prevent them by growing strong,
13:27healthy, unstressed plants,
13:29and by making your garden
13:31a living place full of flowers
13:33where the good hunting bugs will dwell
13:35and stand guard for you.
13:37Do these,
13:38and aphids will be a small
13:40and passing trouble in your garden
13:42instead of a plague,
13:43and you will have beaten them
13:45with almost nothing
13:47but knowing and care.
13:50Now I want to hear from you.
13:51Tell me down below
13:53what plants your aphids trouble most,
13:55the roses or the cabbages
13:57or the beans,
13:58and whether you have tried
14:00just blasting them off with water,
14:02for it surprises folks
14:03how well it works.
14:05And tell me your county,
14:07and whether you see the ants
14:08farming them on your plants,
14:10for that is a sight
14:11once you know to look for it.
14:13I read every one.
14:16Next time,
14:17I want to show you
14:18how to bring the good bugs
14:19into your garden
14:20and keep them there,
14:22the ladybugs
14:23and the lacewings
14:24and all the little hunters,
14:26by the flowers
14:27and the plants they love,
14:28so that your garden
14:30fills with its own guardians
14:31and fights its pests
14:33for you all season long.
14:36The old people
14:37did not fight their gardens
14:38pest by pest
14:39with a shelf of sprays,
14:41but grew strong plants
14:43in living gardens
14:44and worked with nature
14:46so that the balance
14:47kept their pests in check,
14:49and so grew abundance
14:51with almost nothing bought.
14:53There is a quiet wisdom in that,
14:56in building health and life
14:58and letting them do the guarding,
15:00rather than battling
15:01every trouble alone.
15:03The people who built this country
15:05with their hands knew that,
15:07and we are only just starting
15:09to remember it.
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