Aphids or Plant Lice
There are several species of aphids, but those most commonly seen are little green ones.
Nearly all delight in feeding upon the sap of young tender[G] shoots. They thrust their tiny sharp beaks into the stem, and, with their hind legs or claws in the air, suck the juices into their soft little bodies. The sap is turned into honey-dew in their stomachs, and ants use them for their cows! But they give them honey, and not milk. Perhaps ants like honey-milk better than we like cow’s milk. Aphids seem very insignificant. They are helpless little creatures, and are very easily killed. Indeed, they are so stupid they don’t seem to know when they are being killed. Even though they are stupid, they do a great amount of harm in the garden, stealing the vital fluids of the plants.
They multiply so rapidly that their many enemies do not do away with all of them, so almost all gardeners use a “spray” to kill them.
One of the most interesting of their enemies is the—