Life cycle (Rosy apple aphid)

• Eggs, laid in bark crevices on smaller branches and spurs and at the bases of buds, hatch in early spring before bloom.
• The aphids feed on buds and outer rosette leaves.
• They increase asexually, giving birth to live young. Numbers increase rapidly in May and June and large colonies may form.
• Winged forms are produced and these disperse to the aphid’s summer host plant, plantains.
• Breeding continues on apple into August, even after winged forms have developed if new growth is available on the trees.
• In the early autumn, winged forms develop on plantains and disperse back to apple.
• The individuals that return first deposit nymphs on apple that develop into females.
• Males then disperse back from plantain to apple and mate with the females which lay eggs on the bark that overwinter.