By Gerbera55
United Kingdom 
hello everyone and i need serious help and any hacks you can provide please. We have a cherry tree in our back garden and have had it for about 9 years. The first few years we had beautiful fat black cherries on it. Then just shrivelled up ones. After investigating we discovered we had black aphids. Since then we have tried each year to get rid of them. We bought pet/bee/bird friendly stuff which you spray on before the flowers appear - didn't work, we tried a couple of other similar sprays to no avail. We even bought 25 ladybirds to leave in the tree as they are supposed to eat 5 thousand aphids in a short time - didn't happen. Does anyone have any advice please as we are at end of our tether and unfortunately the next step is murder!!! of the cherry tree of course though I would like to murder these aphids. thank you in advance.
16 May, 2022
Answers
How large is the tree? If reachable just squish the aphids with your fingers
How bird friendly is your garden? I have blue tits which are forever foraging for insects, maybe try to encourage more birds with hiding spots, shrubs & the like?
Check the trunk for ants using the tree as an aphid farm
17 May, 2022
I'm not sure the problem is being caused by aphids, even if the aphids are cherry blackfly - that usually makes the leaves curl and those leaves may fall, but does not affect fruiting. There is likely another cause, so observation of what exactly happens at various stages seems necessary - for instance, is the tree healthy in terms of the trunk, branches, shoots and foliage? does it set blossom okay? do fruitlets start to form shortly afterwards? If it does, when precisely does the fruit start to shrink and shrivel and does it have any symptoms on those fruitlets beforehand, that sort of thing...
17 May, 2022
Joining in here not to miss the discussion
18 May, 2022
Previous question
« Hi everybody, Got big problem with crabgrass in my lawn. Lawn was only newly laid...
Next question
Have you tried soft soap solution?I am jut about to get some to treat aphids on redcurrants - also desperate so hope it works!
16 May, 2022