What does a cotton aphid look like?

Cotton or melon aphids, Aphis gossypii, are highly variable in size and color, varying from light yellow to dark green or almost black. Although size can vary based on environmental conditions, adult aphids tend to be about 1/16th inch in length, are soft bodied and pear shaped.

Do aphids attack cotton?

Aphids also infest on cotton crop. The young growing tips die, leaves will shrink and may bend backwards. The gum like honey dew is noticed on the infested branches and leaves later Black sooty mould is formed due to the excretion from the fungi after consuming the honey dew excreted by aphids.

What do aphids do to cotton?

The resulting larger aphid populations damage cotton by sucking sap from plants, stunting plant growth and yield, and fouling leaves and bolls with honeydew—all of which translates into economic loss for cotton producers.

What damage do aphids cause?

Low to moderate numbers of leaf-feeding aphids aren’t usually damaging in gardens or on trees. However, large populations can turn leaves yellow and stunt shoots; aphids can also produce large quantities of a sticky exudate known as honeydew, which often turns black with the growth of a sooty mold fungus.

What does a melon aphid look like?

The body is quite variable in color: light green mottled with dark green is most common, but also occurring are whitish, yellow, pale green, and dark green forms. The legs are pale with the tips of the tibiae and tarsi black. The cornicles also are black.

How do you control melon aphids?

Spray melon vines with a strong jet of water from your hose. This action is often enough to kill the majority of melon aphids, as well as small pests such as thrips and mites, that feed on the melon stems and foliage.

How do you control aphids chemically?

Seed treatment with imidacloprid 60 FS @ 10 ml/kg seed keeps the crop free from sucking pest for over a month.
Spray NSKE 5% @ 2.0 ml/l OR clothianidin 50 WDG @ 0.075 g/l OR imidacloprid 17.8 SL @ 0.25 ml /l OR acetamiprid 20 WP @ 0.2 g/l OR thiamethoxam 25 WP @ 0.2 g/l.
Stem smearing:

Do aphids fly?

Although aphids cannot fly for most of their life cycle, they can escape predators and accidental ingestion by herbivores by dropping off the plant onto the ground. They are often attended by ants, for the honeydew they produce and are carried from plant to plant by the ants through their tunnels.

How do I get rid of melon aphids?

You can often get rid of aphids by wiping or spraying the leaves of the plant with a mild solution of water and a few drops of dish soap. Soapy water should be reapplied every 2-3 days for 2 weeks.

Do banana peels really work for killing aphids?

Natural Pest Repellent Avoid using potentially hazardous insecticides to repel aphids and ants from the garden by using orange and banana peels to keep the pests away. Cut up banana peels to bury 1 to 2 inches deep in the soil around plants that are prone to aphid infestations to repel and remove aphids from the area.

What kind of aphids are on cotton plants in Texas?

Cotton Aphids In Texas, three species of aphids, or plant lice, feed on cotton plants as secondary pests: the cotton aphid, the cowpea aphid, and the green peach aphid (Fig. 1). Secondary pests, such as aphids, become a serious problem when broad-spectrum insecticides targeted at primary pests disrupt natural control.

Is there any way to keep Cotton aphids under control?

In general natural enemies keep aphids under control but the use of insecticides for other cotton pests can reduce populations of important predators and parasites and the aphid population will flare.

How often do Cotton aphids invade Scout fields?

Scout fields infested with cotton aphids twice a week since aphid numbers can increase rapidly (Fig. 35). From plants across the field, sample 60 leaves divided among the top, middle, and lower portion of a plant to determine actual infestation levels.

Why are there so many aphids in my cotton gin?

The honeydew-contaminated lint from such bolls is stained, sticky, and of lower quality, making it difficult to harvest, gin, and spin the fiber (Fig. 34). Natural controls such as parasites, pathogens, predators, and unfa- vorable weather can keep aphid populations below damaging levels.