Aphids, Ants and Holes in Leaves on Snowball Tree

My snowball tree is just over a year old (Roughly) and has some aphids (Black ones) on the stems and ants crawling all over them too and the ants are also all at the base of the tree. Many of the leaves also have lots of tiny holes in them and they have gone kind of lacy, so I'm suspecting caterpillars.

Does anyone have any advice on what I can do to get rid of these pests, without using chemicals, preferably? I did spray them with some water with very diluted washing up liquid in it, but it hasn't got rid of all the aphids and certainly not the ants! I didn't really like using the diluted washing up liquid solution anyway, because it is still chemical and all the water was running down into the roots!

Will the tree be ok without any intervention, or do I need to use something chemical??

 

I don't think the washing up liquid works as well on the black aphids ( It might just be me ) . I normally squash them running my fingers up the branch and if its really bad I get the gloves on, or you could blast them off with a hosepipe. If the viburnum oplus sterile or the other variety its an ideal time to prune if they finished flowering, you can prune the branches off with a big infestation.

The ants are farming the sooty mould the aphids makes when they are attacking the plants, they have a bit of a relationship, the ants help protect them from predators and in return the aphids provide food.

 

You could try putting some jam or honey on a lid or cap in the bush. The ants then forage this and stop farming the aphids, which are then vulnerable to predators the ants may well remove the aphids as potential competition for the food. This approach is used by some trees that secrete a sweet material and even provide hollow spaces for ants that then protect the tree.

 

I have a young dessert cherry that suffered from black aphids and ants during the last two growing seasons. Over the winter I hung a bird feeder in this tree which I am still keeping there and topped up. The idea being that the tits eat aphids while they await their turn on the feeder. It seems to be working now that the tree is actively growing; it even has some fruit. I’ve been keeping a close eye on the tree and have picked off a few leaves with aphids on them but it is nothing like the problem of last year. It is probably too late for success with this method for this year for you but I suggest you put up a feeder over the winter for next year.

 

Thanks all for the helpful replies.

I have been spraying regularly now with the water jet spray bottle and it seems to be helping.

I will look into buying some horticultural soap as soon as I can afford it, as this seems like a good way of getting rid of the bugs.