Hey everyone. Reaching out to you all for help. I have noticed leaf curl on my 3-4 year old cherry tree. The tree has never blossomed and now pretty much all of the new growth has these little black bugs which I have identified as black cherry aphids. I have a feeling these little bugs have prevented the tree from flowering as there are so many of them. Does anyone here have any ideas as to how to eliminate them? Now along with these black aphids I have seen quite a few black ants climbing all over the tree. On top of that I have also found there to be as a best guess several hundred ladybug eggs that have hatched. Now being from southern Ontario we have high humidity and quite hot days. HELP PLEASE Here are 2 photos of the tree and you can see that the leaves are darkening and curled up and are only the brand new shoots.
Use Tanglefoot to prevent the ants from protecting the aphids, and the ladybugs that you mentioned should be able to eventually destroy the aphids. To make the job easier for the ladybugs, I would prune off the curly leaved shoot ends that don't have ladybug adults or larvae already eating aphids. Your tree seems to have plenty of healthy leaves and shouldn't be badly affected by the aphid damage.
Hi Maverick, I'm also in Southern Ontario. I'm not sure how old my tree is but it seems quite established. I'm in my second year battling these little f***ers. I think the precipitating factors for my tree was a severe pruning (it was let to grow early up to the telephone wires) and cats using the garden as litterbox (ammonia.) Last year, after noticing them I started to put duct tape, sticky side out, around the trunk to prevent ants taking them underground to over winter them. If it rains, gets full of aphids, or otherwise loses it's stickiness it needs to be changed. Every couple/few days seems to be good but it's difficult to remain ever-vigilant! Last year ladybugs canr in to feast bit it was too late. We got no cherries, the tree was a disgusting sticky mess. I also sprayed horticultural oil last Autumn, after leaf fall (believing the aphids lay eggs in the bud sites) Come spring I sprayed the hort. oil again and pretty much forgot about it... unt I'll l I saw ants marching up and down the tree. And this time I knew what it meant. So, I got out the duct tape. I was pleased to see it deterred the little ants. Then the BIG ants started. I noticed they were getting up into the tree by a branch that was touching the fence, so I cut that off. Then I realized the tape was but a little obstacle for them. They are big enough that they can unstick their feet... and they persisted and the tree soon became infested. We plucked all the curled leaves we could find but we can't reach all the branches. The tree had bloomed beautifully and there were very many promising green cherries which as the tree became overrun soon turned white and shriveled. I can see ladybugs moving in now, but once again they're too late. I even found some aphids on a nearby mustard weed, so tjay means they've started to take wing and spread. I have vacant land behind the backyard where I will never be able to control the wild mustard that grows there. This summer I planted garlic which I hope will make the tree unpalatable to the aphids next years, as well as ground cover which I hope will make the cats s**t and p**s elsewhere!! I'm feeling really defeated. I wish I could get to the point of worrying about birds and squirrels stealing the fruit again!! Feel free to private / direct message me.
Maverick, Tanglefoot is a a sticky paste that is spread in a ring around the trunk of the tree below the lowest branches. It can damage tender bark; so, it is usually applied on top of a layer of tape that protects the bark of young trees. Tape is ineffective for older trees with irregular bark; I apply it directly to the bark of my large trees, which have thick bark that doesn't damage easily. Tree Tanglefoot is the kind that you should use; it will work better than the tape described by Hammer Grower. Also, for young trees protect the bark with some kind of stretchable tape (sticky side on the bark), not duct tape or masking tape. I use plastic electrical tape; but it is not ideal, since the end begins to unravel after a few months. I wrap one turn of thin plastic insulated wire around the tape to hold down the end of the tape. The ends of the wire are twisted together loosely so that they can unravel slowly as the tree grows.
What I do to prevent root weevils from climbing up into certain rhododendrons is to first put a water-repellent fiberfill around the trunks of the shrubs and then wrap duct tape as tightly as I can around that. The duct tape never comes into contact with the bark and the fiberfill prevents insects from crawling under it. Then, I smear Tanglefoot on the duct tape. It's kind of funny that I never find root weevils stuck in the Tanglefoot - they seem to know better. Most important is that I do not see the unsightly, tell-tale notching of leaves I have come to know as being caused by root weevils. What a job though! You have to be part-contortionist to pull it off.
I think I'll be trying the Tanglefoot goo. From HomeDepot.ca it's $13 I guess I was hoping this wouldn't be a multi-year problem, I had never even Googled it before today! Vitog and Margot - how long would you say it remains sticky in the heat and/or rain? I suppose if it can stop root weevil it should stop big ants no problem! High hopes for cherries in 2022!! Vitog - do you use tanglefoot as your only defense successfully or do you also use a spray or something else? I'd love to hear follow up from the folks who were struggling 16 years ago. Amazing this forum and thread has been around so long! I know I discovered it 2 years ago when the aphids first attacked.
I actually split the modern discussion from the discussion of 16 years ago (which is here: Black Cherry Aphids!! HELP!! ), as I received a bunch of notices of expired email addresses bouncing back the forum notifications.
HammerGrower, the Tanglefoot remains sticky all summer and doesn't need to be renewed until next year. However, you still have to keep watching it because debris can fall into it, creating paths for the ants to use. On older trees with irregular bark, ants will often find routes under the tanglefoot; and these need to be blocked with spots of added Tanglefoot. Also, make sure that no part of the tree above the Tanglefoot touches anything else, like a fence or wire; if there is a route to the tree, the ants will find it. If the Tanglefoot is applied early enough, there is usually no need for spraying insecticide. I normally prune off almost all of the new growth on my fruit trees in late spring to keep them from growing larger; that eliminates the clusters of infested curled leaves at the growing tips of the new shoots. On particularly susceptible trees, such as Prune Plums, which often have aphid infestations even without ants, I have resorted to insecticide use.
