Honestly I think if you feed the birds in the spring and set up nesting boxes you'd have a lot more enjoyable and effective solution. Rhode Island should be rich in birds hungry for those bugs.

You'd have to get rid of your cat(s) but then most house fed cat's don't fool with hunting birds.

Mrs G, the black aphids are common on cherries and are difficult to control. Keep an eye out for distorted leaves on the upper part of the tree, that means the aphids have come back. I don't use triazicide, maybe with it they would be easier to control. I rely on tanglefoot on the trunks to keep the ants off which eventually eliminates the aphids.

Agro, I have an orchard filled with birds and they don't eat aphids. It sure would be nice if they did.

Scott

Birds of course the right species enjoy eating aphids as do yellow jackets and several species of bees and lots of other 'pests'.

Try these:

Black Aphids are tasty too:
http://www.small-farm-permaculture-and-sustainable-living.com/natural_pest_control_aphids.html

As aphids are near the bottom of the food chain an infestation serious enough to do major damage or kill a plant is a indicator of the unnatural absence of other predators.

Of course if you are surrounded by commercial crop lands then the environment you live in is likely to be largely unnaturally devoid of aphid predators.

It's the presence of predators that keep aphid and spider mite as another example populations under control for example on a patio plant you keep out side in the summer but come winter, when you bring the patio plant indoors those patio plants often succumb to aphid and spider mites infestations away from their predators during the winter.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aphid Control Chickadee example

Agro, if chickadees eat aphids it is not enough to make an appreciable impact. I have chickadees and I have never seen them near my aphid infestations (which I also have a lot of).

Scott

We have all types of bees species and bird species and only have problem in winter with container plants when brought indoors. The aphid & spider mite populations explode and kill the plants in a matter of weeks. Outside and the predators chow down.

So you need many, many other predators too but if you live near cropland or in suburbia you are likely missing most of those other predators as most lawns and croplands are fertilized, herbicides, and pesticide controlled monocultures devoid of traditional predators.

Sorry that if you live in a predator poor area. The region I live in is 'economically backwards' so there is hardly any large urbanized tracts or cropland and if a plant you bought has a problem the plant almost invariably was delivered to you with that problem from the seller / grower.

I think if I lived in the middle of Iowa or places like the that are devoted to pesticides and herbicides I might be fighting the same poison resistant pests that you are.

Thanks Scott. I'm about to net the cherry tree as the fruit is about to turn color. I have never seen black aphids on my apples before. Time to bag my 'few' apples this year anyway. Many thanks as always, Mrs. G

Agro, I have lots of predators in my yard. The ladybugs are by far the best predators for aphids. Unfortunately they take awhile to get the population up. My rosy apple aphids are finally under control without any sprays, the ladybugs finally kicked in. The green plum aphids were starting to take over so I had to lay some oil on them. At this point I see tons of ladybug larvae on the leftover green plum aphids so I think the ladybugs will keep things under control for the rest of the summer. The black cherry aphids are like the green plum aphids, they reproduce so quickly that there is no way ladybugs can catch up with them.

Scott