I have an aphid control question

[amatbrewer]

My neighborhood is plagued with aphids. The neighborhood is filled with maples, birch and other assorted trees, most get little to no care. Every year my wife’s flowers and my kids Service Berry get aphids. I have seen some signs of aphids in the neighborhood trees and the Service Berry has already experienced repeated plagues of them the likes of which I have never seen before. I have tried Neem oil, and Sevin Dust in the past and again this year. This year the oil did little to nothing, and while the dust did work, it only did so for 1-2 weeks. Since then I have been using a soap spray (1Tbs of dish soap, 1tsp of cayenne, 1 Qt water) which gets rid of them for a few days, but I am having to apply it at least weekly.

My biggest worry is this causing an infestation in my other trees. I know in past years when I did not stay on top of them, they attached my Wisterias and I am terrified that the shishigashira I am attempting to air layer will become infested. My kid wants to eat the service berries so I don’t want to use anything toxic on it (beyond what I have already done), and I live in an agricultural area where the reduction of beneficial insects due to the over use of insecticides is already a problem that I would prefer not to add to if I don’t have to. So I am not sure what my options are.

Any suggestions or advice?
[FYI my kid would disown me if I even suggested removing the Service Berry, so that is not an option]

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

To get rid of the aphids in our fruit trees, we tried almost everything.
Until I came up with a plan; we have ladybugs, we have larvae munching on aphids, we have neem oil, but the issue is that the aphids are protected by an army of ants.
Nothing gets past the ants without being eaten alive.
So we poisoned the ants.
The ants came back in full force a year later, now resistant to the poison. The balanced was tipped and instead of 1 huge colony, we now had several.

And then it hit me. Quite literally. I got my hair stuck on a piece of fly paper hanging from the ceiling in the living room. Lightbulb!
That stuff just can't be washed out. It doesn't dry, it doesn't solidify, it's just sticky for months. It's not even toxic, so any flies landing on there live for about a week and die from lack of water.
So we checked all branches; everything close to another access route was cut down. And the trunk got a triple-wrap of regular fly paper, costing me less than a dollar.
It blocked the ants highway, they could not go up or down anymore. The ladybugs took over within a week and dealt with the problem.
I can safely say we have a 80% aphid reduction ever since I started wrapping the trunk of our trees with cheap ass fly paper.

The best offense is a solid defense, or was it the other way around? It's both. I provided the tree with a defense and removed the offense from the aphids.

It did not solve the issue entirely, but it's manageable now.
Do keep in mind that rough bark will leave access routes for ants underneath the fly paper. I used pieces of wax to close those, but wood filler, clay, paper and other materials could work just as well.

Yes, I know it looks ridiculous. But 12 extra buckets of cherries and 4 extra buckets of plums can soothe that pain quite easily.

 

[Jzack605]

How often are you fertilizing? They can actually be a sign of over fertilization. They like the high nitrogen content, especially the new growth. Slow release fertilizer can help this, especially if implemented as part of a plan.

 

[amatbrewer]

How often are you fertilizing? They can actually be a sign of over fertilization. They like the high nitrogen content, especially the new growth. Slow release fertilizer can help this, especially if implemented as part of a plan.

Didn't know that. Thanks!
If anything I under fertilize my bonsai, working on correcting that, and don't fertilize my landscape plants at all.

 

[Mike Corazzi]

I started Bayer Tree & Shrub Feed and Protect this year and haven't found one aphid or scale on anything.
The granulated product.