Aphids are good at spreading overnight on your healthy plants. Aphids are not a single insect; they refer to a group of small insects that belong to the Aphididae family. Some of the aphids love to destroy our eggplants over other veggies. In this article, I have shared some working methods to get rid of aphids on eggplant.
What did I mean by working methods? Well, I have tested these methods on my eggplants and they worked really nice on aphids.
Let's first get an idea of what are aphids and how they work. Don't worry this is not going to be boring and you will get to learn something new.
Have you ever noticed the timing of eggplants getting infected by aphids? The eggplant plant grows slowly for the first few days of the plantation, after a few days the plant catches a much faster growth rate suddenly.
This is when the leaves look much healthier, greeny and the plant gets ready for blooming and fruiting.
This stage of your eggplant is aphids' favorite.
The aphids will find your eggplant at this stage. Before you take any steps to stop them, they will be all over the fresh leaves.
Aphids are really good at cloning and sap-sucking.
Cloning? yes, you heard me right! Aphids don't need male partners to give birth. Even newborn aphids carry babies inside them. A single aphid can produce 5-6 baby aphids or even more in a single day. This is why we see aphids spreading overnight.
When the aphids find a scarcity of foods, some of them fly away in search of new fresh leaves.
Due to the lack of food, the final generation of aphids get wings on their back to fly away.
Effective methods to get rid of aphids on eggplant
I am going to describe a few methods and those are in a specific order.
The first method is the most effective method and the last method will be the least effective method. I assure you all of these methods will work on eggplant aphids.
Let's start with my most preferred home remedy to kill aphids.
Baking soda with dishwashing soap
Take 1 liter of water in a container. Add 1 spoon of baking soda. Now add 1 tablespoon of dishwashing liquid soap. Then add 1 tablespoon of any vegetable oil. I prefer to use olive oil.
That's all. Now mix it well and pour it into a spraying bottle. Spray on the infected areas of your plants. Make sure you don't leave any mature aphids.
Disclaimer: Do not spray during the mid-day when the sun is on the top of your head. Due to the vegetable oil or cooking oil, the plant can get sunburnt.
The measurement I have provided to make the solution suitable for the eggplant plants. Stronger mixture might be good for other plants with thicker leaves.
If you want to use this mixture on other plants, make it lighter first and then test it on a few leaves.
Let's break down why I am using those components to make an "aphids killer solution".
Water is the base for our mixture here. It will help us to spray evenly on the plants.
The pH level on the eggplant's leaves is ideal for those aphids. We need to alter the pH level. We can decrease or increase that. I choose to decrease the acidity level by using Baking soda. (You can use lemon juice as well to increase the acidity.)
Dishwashing soap: I am using it as a surfactant. It will break down the protective waxy coating on aphids. This causes dehydration to the aphids on the eggplant and they will die.
Vegetable oil is the substance that is responsible for blocking their breathing with oily layers on them.
One more reason I am using it: oil increases the adhesive property of the solution and everything will stick to the leaves and aphids for a longer time. Longer time, longer action...
I do use dishwashing soap to get rid of mealybugs. You can check: how to get rid of mealybugs - my tested methods.
Friendly tip: Spray in the evening and wash the leaves off the next morning before the leaves get high sunlight heat.
If you are too late to treat the aphids your eggplant leaves can show curling symptoms just like this:
Dried garlic powder
Get some dried garlic powder. You can also make it at your home.
Now whenever you notice a few aphids on your eggplant plant, sprinkle dried garlic powder all over your plant.
It really works. A friend of mine suggested this and I am really thankful to him.
How does garlic powder work on aphids? Strong smell and sulfur content! that's the answer.
Aphids don't like the sulfuric smell of garlic at all and the residue from garlic can make the plant less palatable to aphids.
Insecticides we can use to get rid of aphids on eggplant
| Insecticide Name | Main Ingredient |
|---|---|
| Neem Oil Spray | Azadirachtin (Neem Extract) |
| Insecticidal Soap | Potassium Salts of Fatty Acids |
| Pyrethrin Spray | Pyrethrin (Chrysanthemum Extract) |
| Horticultural Oil | Petroleum or Plant-based Oils |
| Garlic Spray | Garlic Extract |
| Spinosad Spray | Spinosad (Derived from Soil Bacteria) |
I have heard people saying "Bring some ladybugs, they will eat the aphids".
Ask these questions yourselves:
- You are paying money to the nurseries to bring ladybugs. Are you sure that all the aphids will be eaten up by your ladybugs?
(This is why I spent time describing how fast aphids can spread) - Are you confident enough that ladybugs will not leave your garden or not fly away?
I think you get my point.
It takes a lot more time in experiments (killing the pests) than writing how I did that. Want to help me write more? Consider subscribing to this site. I will be super happy. ( I check notifications for each subscriber I get 😄)
