Aphids vs. Fukien Tea

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So, aphids have taken up residence on my indoor tropical trees. I've used Neem Oil, which kills the aphids, but the Fukien Tea don't seem to like Neem Oil.

What do the pros use to kill these little bastards without harming the trees?
 

just.wing.it

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Never ending battle when I had mine...
Dunno where the hell they come from...
I've heard that FTea can react badly to Neem oil.
I'd try some hydrogen peroxide maybe...wont hurt the plant
 

shinmai

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When I get them on my roses almost every year, plain old insecticidal soap works well. Spider mites, mealy worms and scale, not so much. For them, I go straight to Sevin insecticide, and have seen no ill effects on apricot, azalea, crab, or grewia.
 

just.wing.it

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Hydrogen Peroxide?!! What concentration do you use?
3%....stuff off the shelf at pharmacy....
I use it year round as a preventative...
But I dont really know if it will impact the aphids or not...
Soapy water is probably best, as previously mentioned.
I have used that in the past with success...I used about 3 drops of dish soap to a quart of water.
 
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I think I'm going to try the soap, seems harmless enough to not KO my trees and bring death to the relentless attacks of the aphids from hell...
 

petegreg

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Insecticides that list aphids. Two applications a week after week and they (aphids) are gone.
 
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So, last night I mixed up some warm water and a Tablespoon of soap, poured it into a deep pot, wrapped the pots up with Saran Wrap, and dunked the Fukien Tea trees in head first.

The number of dead aphids in the water made me smile, eerily.

They are also on my Chinese Sweet Plum, which is too big to dunk, So I'll be spraying that and the other tropicals in the house with the mixture.

I think I've found a winner here...
 
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Soap can dry out the leaves on FT.
Be careful

NOW you tell me, lol. I'll rinse them when I get home. Maybe next time I will rinse them off after having the soap solution on for a few minutes.

If it's not the aphids sucking the life out of my tree, it's the Neem Oil harming the tree, and now the soap may dry out the leaves. I can't win here, lol...

Do you use something different on your Fukien Tea trees @amcoffeegirl?

Thanks for the tip by the way... :)
 
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amcoffeegirl

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NOW you tell me, lol. I'll rinse them when I get home. Maybe next time I will rinse them off after having the soap solution on for a few minutes.

If it's not the aphids sucking the life out of my tree, it's the Neem Oil harming the tree, and now the soap may dry out the leaves. I can't win here, lol...

Do you use something different on your Fukien Tea trees @amcoffeegirl?

Thanks for the tip by the way... :)
I have killed many Fukien tea. That is my only experience. I just do not do well with them.
 
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I have killed many Fukien tea. That is my only experience. I just do not do well with them.

I've had these trees for a while, but I just decided to put them outside this year and they loved it. Now that they are back inside, the aphids... :(

My plan is to keep them indoors from now on, building a display for all of my indoor bonsai and hopefully this will keep them aphid free...
 

petegreg

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... My plan is to keep them indoors from now on, building a display for all of my indoor bonsai and hopefully this will keep them aphid free...
I wouldn't like to disappoint you. My FTs are kept indoors all year round and I can't protect them from being attacked by aphids. Once or twice a year. They're simply aphid magnets.
This year I had only one infestation, few weeks ago. Maybe when I was moving the rest of trees from a balcony through kitchen to my mom's garden for a winter they got infected, who knows. Indoors you can't rely on natural predators present outside so that's it.
 
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Maybe that is the difference, they weren't able to multiply as quickly because of all of the natural predators outdoor. That does make sense. I never had issues with aphids before I moved them outside, and they exploded with growth. I'll continue my research on aphid genocide, I hate these little suckers...
 
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