5 Ways to Get Rid of Aphids in Your Garden Naturally

Sometimes it’s the tiniest pests that are the most frustrating, and dealing with aphids in your garden is proof of that. These tiny green bugs are no bigger than ⅛ of an inch, and yet they love to take up residence in your garden and go to town on your plants with their insatiable sap-sucking tendencies. 

These little guys reproduce (asexually) every 20 to 30 days, giving birth to up to 100 live pregnant nymphs that begin reproducing in as little as a week. Knowing that, it’s easy to see how an aphid infestation can spread like wildfire before a gardener even notices there’s a problem. 

Fortunately, there are a handful of ways you can get rid of aphids in your garden, many of which don’t involve pesticides that can harm your garden’s ecosystem.  

Hose Them Off 

It sounds simple enough, but one of the easiest ways to get rid of aphids is to simply spray your plants down with a hose, advises Annette Hird, horticultural expert and gardener at Easy Urban Gardens. This is also environmentally friendly and gives your plants a nice, cool drink. 

Prune Infested Areas 

If you can identify areas of your garden (or parts of plants) that are very infested, pruning the area can help manage aphids. “If you catch them early, you can simply prune infested branches,” says Ngan Nguyen Rawlings, PhD, senior specialist of global controls at ScottsMiracle-Gro. 

Introduce Good Bugs  

Biological control of aphids is an environmentally friendly way to address this problem while also nourishing your garden. The idea, Bishop says, is to think about how nature herself would handle the issue. 

“Aphids are at the bottom of the insect food chain, and as such have a host of natural predators,” she says. “Earwigs, ladybugs, and parasitic wasps are all voracious feeders of aphids, and can remedy an aphid outbreak almost as quickly as one takes hold.” You can purchase these biological controls online or at many local garden centers, then release them in the garden.  

Dr. Rawlings also says you can plant flowers and herbs that naturally attract these good bugs, such as sweet fennel, spearmint, and sweet alyssum. 

Protect Young or Susceptible Plants 

Covering seedlings, young plants, and otherwise susceptible plants (like those recovering from disease or infestation) can help, too. “You can protect plants with floating row covers that let in air, light, and moisture but keep pests out,” Dr. Rawlings says. “Just remember to uncover mature plants that need pollination.” 

Apply a DIY “White Oil Spray” 

For another natural method to get rid of aphids, DIY your own “white oil spray” by combining ¼ cup of dish soap with a cup of vegetable oil (like canola or sunflower) in a spray bottle. Shake vigorously and spray onto your plants.

“The oil will suffocate the aphids and the dish soap helps the oil to stick to them,” Hird explains. “You just want to be careful that there are no ladybird nymphs on the plants as this will also kill them. Ladybirds in your garden are the best defense against aphids because the nymphs feed on them.”