Summer is coming and protecting your garden from insects like ants and aphids is essential. Here’s how to do it naturally and cheaply.
With the warm season, plants wake up and with them also the small pests that attack them to get nourishment. In this article we will see a really effective repellent for the defense of the garden, in particular for ants and if you have fruit trees.
How to protect plants from ants and pests
Among the major problems for plants are certainly attacks by insects . Those that most commonly colonize our green areas are aphids and ants, which must be kept under control as they reproduce very quickly and in large quantities. But why are both ants and aphids often found together ? The ants themselves are responsible for the appearance of aphids, as they are the ones who “distribute” them on the various plants and then collect the honeydew, a very important nutrient.
Honeydew is a sugary substance rich in carbohydrates that is produced by several insects, including aphids. Ants are attracted to honeydew and use it as a food source . This substance provides a cheap source of energy for ants, which they can use to build their colonies and survive.
In the meantime, to produce honeydew, aphids feed on the plant, weakening it and taking away all the substances that make it alive and vigorous , causing it to wither if action is not taken in time.
So it is very important to check your plants and act promptly if you find aphids and ants that want to colonize them. Today we will see a natural but very effective method to get rid of the problem and to defend the garden. All you will need to make this solution is water, lavender essential oil and vinegar . Let’s see how to make it.
The homemade solution as a garden defense
Get a liter of warm water into which you can pour a few drops of lavender essential oil. Lavender essential oil , hated by ants , can be obtained through steam distillation. In this process, lavender flowers are placed in a boiler and subjected to steam, which releases the essential oils from the flowers. These will then be collected and refined. The final result is a pure and concentrated lavender essential oil, which is why it is advisable to always choose organic products with a reliable origin . Lavender is a particularly unpleasant smell for ants, so natural essential oil is a fundamental element to keep ants away.
As a final step you will need to add 100 ml of apple cider vinegar.
This ingredient, with its persistent odor, will make life difficult for aphids as it clogs the pores through which they breathe . Furthermore, being an excellent degreaser, it will also clean the plant from the honeydew that aphids secrete. In this way, associated with the repellent action of lavender, the vinegar will eliminate the primary source of nourishment for ants , which will no longer have any reason to stay on your plants.
Now all that remains is to mix everything and pour the solution into a spray bottle . For the method to work, all you have to do is spray this mixture on the plants attacked by aphids and ants until they have disappeared . The advice is to proceed during the cooler hours of the morning and evening, so as to avoid the sun from burning the plants.
