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UTAH COUNTY — If you and your fruit trees have been plagued recently by swarms of what appear to be small gnats, you’re not the only one. But the minuscule bugs congregating in flying hordes across Utah County aren’t gnats or flies, they’re aphids.
Utah State University issued a news release Oct. 11, clarifying the species and cause of the insects, after the USU Extension office received a number of calls from concerned Utah County residents who reported seeing “clouds and clouds of (insects)” in what looked like a Biblical plague.
“Our fruit trees, our whole yard and out to the road has been overtaken by fruit flies. Thousands and thousands of them,” resident Julie Frost told USU. “They land on us and try to fly in our mouth and in our nose. This has never happened before. What can we do? What should we do?"
According to USU Extension, the insects are aphids and have been flying to “woody plant hosts” to prepare to lay eggs while feeding on apricot and plum trees. The warm weather and abnormally hot summer also contributed to the vast number of aphids this year.
“The tiny dots on the leaves are young aphids, not eggs. When those young aphids mature, they mate and lay cream-colored eggs in cracks and crevices near buds,” USU said.
Fortunately for residents, a host of aphids in the fall does not necessarily mean even more in the spring. The flying aphids will soon be killed by the coming winter, as will most of the eggs they’ve laid.
According to USU Horticulture Assistant Margaret Seaver, Utah County residents who hope to rid themselves of the pesky bugs should “just wait for a hard frost.”
