Aphids and sugar... what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. What does a clean car and clean carpets have to do with Neighborly Pest Management, Sacramento's trusted name in pest management? The answer is everything! The greatest of the benefits of soil injections to prevent aphids in Sacramento is it help keep your cars, yards, and carpets clean. This sounds contrary to common knowledge about aphids. Aphids are typically known for destroying the plants in your garden. However, they will likely damage much more if they infest your yard. This is because of the relationship between sugar and aphids.
Sugar And Aphids
We can help keep your car clean and carpets bright by injecting the soil below your trees twice a year. You won't even know we were there!
We have over 40 years of experience serving the Sacramento area and understand that most people are not aware of the actual damage aphids can do. Aphids are tiny insects. In fact, adult aphids are under 1/4 of an inch long and difficult to observe with the naked eye. They reproduce quickly and feed on plants in your yard or home. Over time, they will damage and eventually kill the plant life on your property.
When determining if you're dealing with aphids, look for the following signs of aphid damage:
- Inspect the leaves of your plants; they may be glossy from honeydew, wilting, or curling around the edges.
- Check to see if gravel is sticking to your feet.
- Look for discoloration of the soil and sidewalks around your property.
- Inspect the exterior of your car for stickiness or stuck-on dust that’s difficult to remove.
- Smell the air; aphids leave behind a sweet smell and often taste in the breeze.
Aphids are called piercing and sucking insects. Just like it sounds, they pierce plants and suck out plant juices from the leaves, stems, or roots of plants. Imagine millions of little bugs sucking out the starchy fluid from every leaf on the trees above your sidewalks and parked cars. They convert that starchy fluid into sugars and literally excrete sugar (monosaccharides or oligosaccharides) all over your property. This sugary waste is also known as “honeydew” and, over time, can even grow a fungus called “sooty mold".
That sweet smell that you can sometimes taste in the air on a warm day under Southern live oak trees is actually aphid excrement. On a hot day, that sugary mist can carry several yards, and there is nothing harder to clean out of your carpet or off of your car than this aphid waste. It takes a heated pressure washer to clean the sidewalks under these trees. And by the time it darkens the concrete or is tracked onto your carpet, it's really too late to do anything about it other than spending tons of money on cleanup. In the end, the best offense when dealing with aphids is a good defense. If you suspect that you have an aphid problem, contact the professionals at Neighborly Pest Management!
How Do Soil Injections Work?
If you’re experiencing an aphid infestation, Neighborly Pest Management specializes in providing professional aphid control services in the form of soil injections to eliminate your aphid population. Furthermore, if you inject your soil before you discover an aphid problem, it will prevent one from developing. Soil injections have several benefits:
- It prevents other pests that might bore into trees.
- It doesn't disturb the landscaping.
- There's non-toxic overspray dowsing everything in sight.
Neighborly Pest Management uses special equipment made especially to perform soil injections, which is unavailable to the general public.
Call your friends at Neighborly Pest Management and ask about our guarantee! We've been Sacramento's trusted Pest Management company for 40 years, and we can help you with your aphids. If you think you have aphids call us today before you spend hundreds of dollars on cleaning up aphids and sugar!