Advice about dealing with a heavy aphid infestation on fruit trees
cwoodall28
Posts: 1
I'm a very inexperienced, new gardener so I'm looking for a bit of advice as to how best to deal with a bad infestation of ants and aphids.
A year or so ago I was gifted with 6 or 7 miniature fruit trees, it's taken some time but most of them sprouted up this year and flowered and pollinated very well. As this is the first year they've produced fruit I'm not entirely sure what type of tree each of them are, so far it seems we have 3 apple and a pear tree.
At the start of spring I noticed that there were a few ants on one of the trees and after some research I became aware that ants often attract aphids. Stupidly I didn't keep as close an eye on it as I should have done and now the ants and aphids have spread to some of my other trees. When I returned after a holiday, quite a lot of the underside of the leaves were black with aphids (should be a picture below). I did cut the worst leaves and branches off and thoroughly washed and scrubbed all the others but a fair few of the leaves at the top are going pale and curled and some of the branches are going soft and bendy and are very green inside. Within a week the same had happened again and I once again washed the leaves clean but I can see the aphids are already returning again. A friend suggested wrapping the sticky fly tape around the trunk to catch the ants, preventing them from protecting the aphids, thus making the aphids more vulnerable to other predators, but I'm not sure how effective this would be?
As thetrees are miniature they're within reach of my two dogs and obviously it's edible produce so I wasn't sure about the use of chemicals/pesticide but constantly washing the leaves down doesn't seem to be deterring them in any way, shape or form. I have been informed there's less harmful/more organic sprays that may help but I'm not sure what to be looking for or if there's a better solution to the problem? Also will my trees return to healthier state if I'm able to sort and control the problem? I've noticed the apples are no longer really growing properly but the roots and trunk of each tree still seem strong and most of the leaves are very green and healthy (albeit a bit holey because of some pesky caterpillars).
Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks 
Posts
Your friend is on the right lines. Google 'fruit tree grease bands'. Once you have those in place, the ants will not be able to climb the tree to 'farm' the aphids and protect them from predators like ladybirds. Ants feed off the sugary liquid which the aphids excrete as waste and they carry young aphids to fresh new growth. Use a hose spray attachment to blast off the aphids for now but try and help nature to achieve balance by collecting (or even buying) ladybird larvae and placing them on your trees. Also try hanging bird feeders on the trees to attract tits which will happliy eat the aphids while waiting for their turn at the feeder.