Aphids

Soft pin-head-sized insects in green, black, or pink, clustered thick on new shoots and the undersides of young leaves. Leaves curl and stick with the honeydew they excrete, which also invites black sooty mold and ants.

Pest112 plants we cover get aphidsmostly annuals

Pest checklist

Four things to look for. If most of them match what you are holding, you are in the right place.

Pin-head insects packed along new shoots
On the undersides of young leaves, not the old ones
Leaves curled and sticky to the touch
Ants running the stems, or black sooty mold

What gets rid of them

Gentlest option first. For most backyard cases the first one is enough, so try these in order and stop as soon as it works. If you do spray something, the product label tells you how — please read the notice further down.

1Blast them off with water
A hard hose spray every few days knocks colonies off faster than they reestablish; most never climb back.
Try this first
2Insecticidal soap
Coats and dries out the soft bodies on contact. Spray the undersides where they cluster.
insecticidal soap spray
3Let the predators build up
Ladybugs and lacewings eat aphids steadily, so stop spraying and let them arrive. Bought ladybugs are adults only and most fly off within two days, so they are a weak substitute for resident ones.
4Neem or horticultural oil
Smothers what soap misses and slows the next generation.
neem oil concentrate plants

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Which plants get aphids

Every plant we cover that gets aphids, grouped by type — tap any one to open its page. A note beside a plant came from that plant’s own entry, because the same pest can be a minor nuisance on one plant and a serious problem on another. Plenty of plants we do not cover get it too.

trees14

shrubs10

vines6

perennials22

biennials4

annuals45

bulbs6

succulent1

KalanchoeKalanchoe blossfeldiana

houseplants4

Plant families hit hardest

Related plants often share the same problems, so if one plant in a family has it, check the others. The largest group here is Asteraceae, with 16 of the 112 affected plants.

Asteraceae16 plants
Brassicaceae11 plants
Fabaceae8 plants
Rosaceae6 plants
Apiaceae5 plants
Malvaceae5 plants
Rutaceae5 plants
Solanaceae5 plants

When to treat

Treat as soon as you see them. A young colony wipes off with a hose; an established one takes weeks.

On specific plants

Brussels Sprouts
Growing
Bt program; blast aphids out of sprouts early or they colonize.
Flowering Cherry
Dormant
Dormant oil for scale/aphids.
Hops
Growing
Strip lower leaves; resistant cultivars ('Cascade' is forgiving); soap for aphids.
Nasturtium
Growing
Blast the aphid-covered stems with water or snip them out — that's the trap working.

Timing only — the label is the law

This page tells you when to watch for aphids and when treating is worth considering. It is not a recommendation to apply any particular product. Read and follow the product label before you spray — under federal law the label is the legal instruction, and using a pesticide against it is illegal.

Check the pre-harvest interval. Every product that’s cleared for an edible crop sets a minimum number of days between spraying and picking. Find it on the label before you spray anything you intend to eat.
Check the re-entry interval before you or anyone else works in the treated area again, and use the protective equipment the label names.
Confirm the product is registered for your crop in your state. This page groups many different crops together, and a product legal on one of them is not legal on all of them — state registrations differ too. Your state pesticide agency or local extension office can confirm both.
Rates and mixing instructions come from the label, never from us. We don’t publish them because they differ by product and formulation.