Pacific Pests, Pathogens and Weeds - Online edition

Pacific Pests, Pathogens, Weeds & Pesticides

Green peach aphid (350)


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Summary
  • Worldwide distribution. On fruit trees, and many vegetables. An important pest.
  • Damage: (i) feeds on sap causing distortions and wilts; (ii) produces honeydew leading to sooty moulds; and (iii) spreads more than 100 viruses.
  • Adults, 2 mm long, greenish-yellow, sometimes with brown tinge, winged or wingless, giving birth without fertilisation (in the tropics). No males. 
  • Spread by winged forms, and also in wind and storms, and trade in plants.
  • Natural enemies: predators and wasp parasitoids (Aphidius and Aphelinus).
  • Cultural control: weed; certified seed (beans); avoid planting down-wind from infested crops; remove volunteers; grow flowering plants to attract wasps; inspect crops often - remove infested plants or leaves (or spray); use plastic mulches, row covers; control ants with boiling water; collect and destroy debris after harvest.
  • Chemical control: PDPs (chilli, derris, neem, pyrethrum); soap solution, white or horticultural oils. Note, synthetic pyrethroids will kill predators and parasitoids (but useful against ants).
Common Name

Green peach aphid

Scientific Name

Myzus persicae


 AUTHOR Grahame Jackson
1Information from Swaine G (1971) Agricultural Zoology in Fiji. Her Majesty's Stationery Office. London; and CABI (2016) Myzus persicae (green peach aphid) Crop Protection Compendium (https://www.cabi.org/cpc/datasheet/35642); and Waterhouse DE, Sands DPA (2001) Classical biological control of arthropods in Australia, ACIAR Monograph no. 77, 560pp.; and from Capinera JL (2020) Myzus persicae (Sulzer). Featured Creatures. Entomology & Nematology. UF/IFAS, University of Florida. (http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/veg/aphid/green_peach_aphid.htm). Photos 1-6 Mani Mua, Sigatoka Research Station, Fiji.

Produced with support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under project PC/2010/090: Strengthening integrated crop management research in the Pacific Islands in support of sustainable intensification of high-value crop production, implemented by the University of Queensland and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

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