Aphids And Other Plant Lice On Chives: How To Get Rid Of Them

In general, pest infestation by plant lice, especially by aphids or scale insects, is very rare in chives. Nevertheless, these pests sometimes choose the actually unloved chives – either because the other food supply is not available or the infested plant was already weakened in advance.

Aphids
Aphids, which are about two millimeters in size, are one of the most common pests and can be found on almost all plants. They feed on the sap of the plant and therefore cavort mainly on the leaves. In most cases, an infestation is only noticed when the infested plant is already covered with a sticky layer – the excretions of aphids are very sugary, which attracts especially sooty fungi and ants. An infested plant is best showered with a hard jet, so that the pesky little animals are rinsed off. For this purpose, it is best to pack the pot in a plastic bag. Then you can water the chives with diluted nettle broth.

Woolly and mealybugs
Also leaving sticky excretions are the mealybugs or mealybugs, which also feed on the plant sap. These plant lice are very rarely found on chives and usually infest chives kept indoors. You can recognize an infestation by the sticky sap, which – just as with the aphids – often appears covered in black. The little animals, which are between two and five millimeters in size, like to hide behind a kind of white absorbent cotton that protects them from external damage. Shower the infested plant with a hard stream of water, although if the infestation is severe, you probably won’t be able to avoid radically cutting down the chives anyway. Mealybugs are very difficult to get rid of.

Tips & tricks
Infestation with pests is rather unlikely if you cultivate your chives in the garden or on the balcony – mealybugs in particular almost exclusively attack houseplants. An aphid infestation on chives, on the other hand, is very unlikely if you have other plants on the balcony.