08June is the month of the rose. Hobby gardeners also call this month “rose month” because the roses bloom most beautifully in June. In order for your roses to reach the flowering stage, however, you should protect your plants from pests such as aphids. However, lice on roses can multiply fairly quickly due to the dry and hot weather conditions in April and May.
How to get rid of lice on roses naturally?
Nevertheless, it is not that difficult to control aphids. You can even prevent an aphid infestation. We’ll tell you how to do that below. Your garden roses will bloom fabulously with these tips…
Enjoy the beauty of the blooming roses!
Are your plants or roses infested with aphids?
Aphids are tiny pink or green, pear-shaped insects with slender legs that live in colonies on the underside of rose bush leaves and flower buds. The lice on roses feed on the sap of the plants and can multiply quickly and seriously damage your roses. Signs of an aphid infestation are deformed, discolored and sticky leaves.
Are your garden plants infested with aphids?
lice on roses
How to prevent an aphid infestation
The best way to prevent an aphid infestation is to grow healthy plants in your garden. These must have a well-rooted ball, at least 3 propagating stalks, and healthy-looking green leaves. Bare-rooted roses should have undamaged propagating stems and as many fine hairy roots as possible.
Beautiful garden roses
It’s also important that your garden roses thrive near other types of plants, such as lavender. This reduces the likelihood of aphid infestation.
Excessive fertilization (e.g. with nitrogen) or too little water can counteract this and cause aphid infestation. Please refer to the planting and care instructions when purchasing your rose bushes.
What should you do if you spot an aphid infestation?
Fighting lice on roses
Aphids can be controlled with chemical insecticides and various natural home remedies. Unlike chemical insecticides, the natural ones don’t leave toxic residues on your rose bushes that can also kill other beneficial insects.
Aphids are tiny insects that feed on the sap of plants
Natural home remedies for aphids
If the aphid infestation is low, collect the aphids by hand or rinse with a strong jet of water. Spraying the affected rose petals and flowers with a strong stream of water from a garden hose is very effective, but you will have to repeat it several times. This knocks the aphids off your roses to the ground where they are consumed by natural predators. This is best done in the morning on a sunny day. Repeat the process several times and you will have a positive result in a few days. If necessary, you can remove the badly damaged parts of the rose.
Here’s a natural way to get rid of lice on roses
A strong jet of water can help significantly in the fight against lice
You can replace the water with a homemade soap solution. Mix a tablespoon of soap (unscented) with a liter of water and spray your roses or plants with this mixture for several days.
Spray with soap solution
A homemade nettle decoction is also a natural way to combat lice on roses. Prepare your own nettle decoction using the following recipe and then spray the affected areas for several days until you are satisfied with the result.
Prepare nettle stock:
Ingredients:
- 500 g fresh or 75 g dried nettle leaves (no flowers and no stalks)
- 5 liters of water
Preparation:
- Bring the water to a bubbly boil.
- Pour the boiling water over the nettle leaves.
- Stir with the wooden spoon.
- Let the nettle juice steep for 24 hours and then pour it through the kitchen sieve.
- Now the infusion is ready to use.
Prepare nettle stock and use against aphids
Many predatory insects are useful for your garden and protect your roses and other plants in your garden from aphid infestation. Aphids have a number of natural enemies in the garden. These include ladybird larvae, ladybugs, lacewings, earwigs and hoverflies.
Ladybugs are predatory insects that eat aphids
The ladybugs crawl up the rose bush and start feasting on the aphids. Some of the ladybugs can fly away, for example during the hottest part of the day, because they don’t like full sun very much. Therefore, they are active in the early morning or evening and help us enormously to fight the lice on the roses.
balance in nature
Control aphids/lice on roses with pesticides
Neem oil is a natural pesticide that you can use to control a variety of insects. Spray your roses with neem oil several times until you finally get rid of the pesky aphids. The neem oil inhibits egg laying and thus prevents the lice from spreading further. Therefore, it makes sense to treat the rose petals with neem oil as early as possible.
Only use a chemical pesticide in exceptional cases and always according to the instructions for use, as such pesticides are harmful to the environment. The pesticide penetrates the plant and is absorbed by the aphids via the sap.
Neem oil is a natural pesticide that offers best results
Fighting lice on roses – mission achievable!
