Plantain is summer host for rosy apple aphid

Rosy apple aphids leave apple trees in the summer to live on plantain, studies by Dr. Elizabeth Beers and colleagues at Washington State University show. Reporting to the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, which funded the research, Beers said the literature indicated that the rosy apple aphid migrated to weeds during the summer, but that had not been observed in the field. Her studies show that both broad- and narrow-leaf plantain are summer hosts of rosy apple aphids and that the insect does move back and forth between the weeds and fruit trees. The scientists looked for aphids on weeds […]