Talkback: Aphids - Talkback - gardenersworld.com

13/07/2011 at 17:56

All the greenfly are in my garden, on my roses, sweetpea's and lettce. I have seen loads of ladybirds at work in the hants area. Oh and i have had no end of trouble with slugs since we had rain, they have even found a way round the copper tape!

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13/07/2011 at 18:04

Very few aphids of any colour in my garden too, Pippa, but I do have lots of ladybirds so they could be the reason. My big worry is a fox which has dug beneath my Bramley apple tree and made a den underneath it. The tree has tons of fruit on it. There is a front and back door to the den but I do not know how deep it is. The fox leaves its droppings at the front door!

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13/07/2011 at 23:43

No problem with the aphids in Belfast. They are everywere? My indoor coriander wes even swarming with them! I couldnt tell you when I last seen a Ladybird in my garden, I could do with a few though.

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14/07/2011 at 08:10

Aphids are around in Peterborough, but possibly not in the proportions of previous years. Perhaps they're missing the luscious shoots encouraged by summer rain, which we have NOT seen in any meaningful quantity for months. Broad bean pods have a nice overcoat of blackfly, and 'soft' bedding like nicotiana has greenfly. There are a few woolly aphid appearing on my apple trees, but I treat at first sight with the soapy spray SB Plant Invigorator. I'm also using this as a regular preventive spray on greenhouse cucumbers to avoid red spider mite and whitefly taking hold, and it appears to be working.

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14/07/2011 at 15:05

I have loads of blackfly on my runner beans, well I did have until I washed and squashed a lot of them off with a rag and a bowl of water. I have left some for the numerous ladybirds that I also have in the garden.

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17/07/2011 at 07:44

I know where the blackfly are, on my nasturtiums!But I guess they are doing their job as sacrificial plants because my broad beans and runner beans are free of bugs. What I want to know is where are all the ladybirds that used my garden as a 4 star hotel all winter and then disappeared just when I needed them?!

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17/07/2011 at 16:42

My runner beans are also black with aphids! Did I read about epsom salts solution being an answer? If so does anyone out there know the quantities to use? I've used a purchased pesticide but they quite like it cos they seem to be multplying.....HELP!

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17/07/2011 at 17:39

Not as many aphids as usual but still enough to be a nuisance here in S.E. Ireland. I was amazed to see ladybirds this Springtime but, alas, not one has been sighted this summer!!

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17/07/2011 at 23:27

I have been inundated with lavender beetle this year!!!

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17/07/2011 at 23:29

not too many aphids they usually smother the leaves on my sycamores.... but my lavender is covered in lavender beetle!

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20/07/2011 at 18:56

not a major problem in my garden in Skye but one month ago they swarmed over one of my indoor basil plants wiping it out. The other one escaped along with my chillies but 2 days ago they were all over the basil and chillies. I rescued the chillies but the basil is in a sorry state. These are tiny grey variety........anyone know hoe to stop this?....being a beginner its quite disheartening!

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21/07/2011 at 11:23

I can spare a few from the masses of aphids on my lupins, if anyone's missing some.

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21/07/2011 at 17:43

tried companion planting for the first time this year and guess what it really works...... nasturshums with everything, particularly round my broadbeans, runnerbeans and french beans. Have to say marigolds are great for slugs.

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21/07/2011 at 20:45

And does it not make the vegetable garden look pretty too, gardengirl! Have you tried Limanthes douglasii "the poached egg plant) as a green manure. Dig almost all of it in, in the spring, and what is left will flower very early and you will find very few weeds can compete with it. Phacelia is very pretty too as a green manure and it is so much cheaper and more efficient than chemical fertilizers.

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23/07/2011 at 09:46

Well, it looks as if, on average, there may well be fewer about than in most years....but apologies to those of you who do have amassive infestation of aphids!!! The control that is the buzz word at the moment it seems is full fat milk, the creamier the better sprayed on to aphids....

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23/07/2011 at 11:07

Why waste full fat milk on you have to do is buy a packet of cosmos seeds for nectar for the adults and the larvae of hoverflies will devour the aphids for you. Anyone with elder or rowan in their garden or limanthes douglasii, sedum spectabile, solidago, buttercups and a myriad of other flowers will have lots of hoverflies at present. I have been trying to photograph mine for the magazine but the click of my camera seems to be a real putoff.

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27/07/2011 at 09:55

I have a philadelphus with tips covered in blackfly. These are being eaten rapidly by black bugs with two orange zig-zag lines along their backs. Can anyone identify these bugs? I am anxious lest they turn out to be more of a pest than the blackfly.

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28/07/2011 at 17:03

i just realize that my coriander has tons of aphids!!! SOS

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08/08/2011 at 21:17

alan w, those black bugs are ladybird larvae, so please dont squidge them. They will eat an enormous amount of aphids.

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28/11/2011 at 18:43

Ive had blackfly infestations on my pieris and japanese maple.Ive also had promlems with whitefly and greenfly on my hollyhocks,fuchsias and roses.

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