NATURAL REMEDIES TO ELIMINATE PLANT LICE WITH VINEGAR - LIFESTYLE

How to get rid of plant lice with natural remedies like vinegar

Getting rid of plant lice is a real mission for plant and gardening enthusiasts. Whether on your balcony, in the house or in the garden, the poor plant can be attacked by these annoying pests that will harm its health and, in more dramatic cases, lead to its death. Fortunately, we do not have to resort to chemical insecticides which, on the one hand, eliminate aphids, on the other also kill other good insects and damage the plant, as well as causing severe stress. Also because the study of these remedies is now very thorough, for example, here we suggest those against insects ... for you, not for plants!

Before discovering and delving into vinegar as the perfect natural remedy against these parasites, let's find out together how aphids are made and why they are harmful.

Aphids: what they are and why to fight them

Plant lice (or aphids) are very small parasites (we are talking about 1-3 millimeters) that have a pear-shaped and soft body. These tiny insects vary in color and in the presence or absence of wings that allow them to fly from one plant to another. They can be black, yellow, brown and unfortunately also green, such as to be confused with the leaves themselves making it more difficult not only "eliminate them but also locate them. We have aphids with wings, which are able to fly from one plant to another quickly and cause a lot of damage. But there are also wingless ones that settle on a plant and take care of reproducing. The main problem is that the young of aphids are voracious from the start and cause as much damage as the adults.
But why do these insects create problems and are they to be fought? Because they position themselves on the plants and begin to suck their sap, injecting their saliva, called honeydew, which in addition to weakening them by making protuberances grow along the stem, in turn nourishing the colonies of parasites, covering them with a sugary substance that favors the "arrival of other insects and the formation of fungi and parasites that in a short time will lead to necrosis. The main problem is that the aphids manage to form colonies of thousands of parasites and are able to adapt very well to the environment, making the task still more insidious!

Plant lice? Use the vinegar!

Vinegar is really one of the most common but also the best to fight these insects. It should be used by preparing special solutions but it is a real ally in the fight against aphids. But what does it do on plants? Thanks to its acidity, and also by its smell, it is able to drive away insects in general and is able to fight parasites and fungi that harm the health of plants! What do we need to prepare the mixture? Very simple:

50 ml of white vinegar, of good quality, and not the red one which has a lower acidity
2 tablespoons of 100% Marseille soap, here too, watch out for quality
2 liters of hot / boiling water

The procedure is very simple: take a bowl and pour the boiling water; add the Marseille soap and vinegar and mix until you get a homogeneous mixture. Wait for the water to cool down, pour it into a spray and spray it on the leaves and stem where the colonies are. Do it in the evening and don't worry: Marseille soap won't cause any problems for your plant! With a little patience and constancy, you will see that those little creatures will be eliminated!

How to permanently get rid of lice from plants?

You may not know that vinegar can also be useful for preventing the formation of colonies of aphids or other insects or fungi. This time, however, we will not use white vinegar but apple vinegar, another natural method rich in properties. create a blend consisting of:

1 teaspoon of grated Marseille soap
5 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
2 sliced garlic heads
800ml of warm water

Here too the procedure is simple: take a bowl with warm water, add the soap flakes and mix until it melts. Then add the apple cider vinegar and the sliced garlic heads and mix again until you get a homogeneous mixture. . Leave everything to infuse overnight and then pour into a spray and spray the contents on the plants for preventive purposes. Repeat the operation every 10 days, especially in the summer, and see how your plants on the balcony or in your garden or in the vegetable garden will thank you!

Other natural methods against parasitic colonies

To defeat these annoying little creatures, there are some essential oils with repellent action. Among the most used essential oils we have:

neem oil, widely used as a pesticide also for animal fleas and ticks
maleuca oil or tea tree essential oil, one of the most used essential oils also as an antimicrobial for the skin and respiratory system.

Just take a cotton ball, put a few drops of maleuca or neem essential oil and dab the part of the plant on which there are lice. Again, the essential oils do not cause any damage to the plant, which will return to being as bright as ever!