Invasion!

Does it grab your attention if I start this week's post by saying my yard is being taken over by little green invaders? It's true - miniscule green guys are raining down from the trees beside our deck and they have been the bane, the obsession, the major irritant of our spring thus far.

Our neighbour's Manitoba Maple trees are infested with billions (I'm not even exaggerating for effect) of aphids. It's gross. Each stem and underside of every green leaf is completely encrusted with the pear-shaped little guys. Now if all they did was exist peacefully and nibble on the leaves, I don't think we would be too concerned. After all, even though I'm sure the aphids are not great for the trees, the trees technically belong to our neighbour so it's really his call if he wants to save them from the munching pests. We do enjoy the shade and privacy though when we're eating on our deck and for the past five summers, the trees have been a nice bonus to our backyard experience.

All of that changed this spring when our deck, chairs, table and barbecue began getting coated in a very sticky sap-like substance. We learned this was an excretion (read poop) of the aphids, which is deceptively labeled 'honey dew' (how sweet). This substance is what has spurred us to war with the aphids. It is so plentiful on our deck that when we sit at our table to eat a meal or relax, we can actually see it raining down around us.

So what to do? Our crusade started about a month ago and so far the aphids have us beat. We began by pressure washing the trees with plain water in hopes of blasting the bugs away by sheer surprise force. When that didn't phase them we made a point of capturing the plentiful ladybugs (no doubt increased in number this year because of the ready feast awaiting them) and placing them in the tree. But even with many ladybugs chowing on the green invaders, they weren't making a dent. We bought some eco-friendly insecticidal soap and hosed it onto the trees. This seemed positive but we couldn't blast it high enough into the branches to get them all... and I suppose I haven't mentioned that aphids reproduce exponentially and asexually so one little tyrant can multiply to 350 in just a couple of weeks and each of those can do the same.

So my husband built a platform, placed our ladder on top of it, climbed to the top of that, rigged a contraption to get the soap shooting through the pressure washer and he dosed the trees again. We thought this had to work. For a few days it felt like we had them beat. We didn't feel the raining poop. We congratulated ourselves on a job well done.

Last night a wind picked up and every single live leaf blowing down from those trees was still encrusted with living aphids by the hundreds. They're taking over. We're contemplating surrender. Maybe we'll abandon the luxury of our shady deck and spend the remainder of the summer eating on the grass.