INSECT AND RELATED PESTS OF FOLIAGE PLANTS
Aphid Facts
- During most of the year in Florida, aphids give birth to living young.
- Aphids have piercing-sucking mouthparts and thus feed my inserting them into the vascular system of the plant. This is how they are able to transmit
viruses. - Often aphids are detected which are firmly attached to the foliage, swollen and brown in color. These are dead aphids which are referred to as mummies (see photo b). These aphids have been parasitized and killed by a very small, beneficial wasp (see photos d and e). Some of these mummies contain circular holes in the upper body surface, and are hollow when crushed (see photo c). A tiny wasp adult had made these holes in order to escape from the mummy and attack other aphids. If large numbers of these "mummies" are present (relative to live aphids) no chemical controls should be required to achieve control. Sometimes aphids will have a reddish-brown color to them. These aphids are in the process of turning into mummified aphids. In Florida greenhouses, the wasps that attack Aphis gossypii and make these papery mummies are usually Lysiphlebus testaceipes or Aphidius colemani.
- Not all wasps turn the aphid into mummies that look like those pictures in photos b and c above. Some wasps turn the aphids black in color. An adult wasp still makes a round exit hole in order to emerge. These wasps are usually an Aphidius species. This is a
photo of the two different types of mummies and two healthy aphids.
