Allotments 4 All
Produce => Pests & Diseases => Topic started by: Digeroo on May 23, 2017, 15:32:15
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I am really struggling with aphids.
Black on a cherry trees, white, grey and green ones on the blackcurrants, and big black ones on the broadbeans,
Never seen so many, and obviously there are the farmer ants.
Oddly enough the apple tree which suffered really badly is ok. I sprayed it with nettle tea early one as a precautions,
Never had them so bad on the blackcurrants.
What sprays do people use?
I saw a program where they were using a vacuum cleaner to remove aphids, so I have bought a small hand held one and am going to give that a try.
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bayer fruit and veg bug spray its the dogs danglees
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Just to give a little balance ... I would personally NEVER use insecticides at this time of year because it's when the bees are at their busiest ... there would be no way I could use any spray on the blackfly on my broad beans without getting bees too who are pollinating the flowers. I wish everyone would stick to squirting soft soap solution, bicarbonate of soda, hand squishing every day etc. The bees are just too d**n precious at the moment.
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I normally spray the broad beans with a water jet. Normally takes a couple of times to nuts them, but we have no water pressure at the moment.
I think I need something to get rid of the ants. I squished every leaf of the cherry tree and the next morning several leaves were caked in black again. I might have missed a leaf but I do not think so. Loads of ants.
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Struggling here too, they even went for the tomato plants which is unheard of. I haven't seen a single ladybird. What's happened to them?
Yes, hand squishing, squirting on broadies and dipping in soap solution are the remedies here too, luckily there seem to be a good number of bees here. But where are the ladybirds? We need them and their larvae :wave:
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No sign of ladybirds here, no lavae either. We have a fir tree where they normally gather and overwinter - hundreds of them, and there has been no sign of them.
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Garlic water, used as a spray will protect plants from all sorts of pests that don't like the smell - aphids, whitefly and cabbage caterpillars.
Chop up 6 gloves of garlic and pour over 1 litre of boiling water and stir well. Cover and leave to cool overnight. Strain and then add a few drops of washing up liquid to help it stick and be careful to spray directly on the pests as it will also kill beneficial insects. The residual smell should deter more nasties from coming.
Having said that, I find that if you take care to feed the birds all year round, especially sparrows and tits, they will come and hoover up aphids and caterpillars to feed to their chicks who need both the protein and the moisture to grow big and strong.
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I treat blackfly to a soaking in a solution of very mild cheap washing up liquid,(londis ) Whatever Monty says ants are a problem, the black ones farm the blackfly , the red ones remove all the soil from roots and the plant dies. Pyrethrum powder only thing that works, ( you can grow your own Pyrethrum daisy )
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Ants like dry places so watering effectively will protect your plants. They hate the smell of cloves so if you have a nest or a plant with infested roots pour a solution of 5 litres of water mixed with one small bottle of essential oil of cloves (pharmacy or health shop) and they will move on. Cheap, effective and doesn't kill anything else - unlike pyrethrum which is indiscriminate.
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Sounds good to me, I will get going with the garlic and cloves. I have a patch of garlic which has sort of gone wild. It never produced particularly big bulbs so I left if, and each year it pops up.
I am winning with the stinging nettle tea on the blackcurrants, but it does not seem to do much for the black fly on the broadies.
Tried the hoover but a hand held rechargeable one does not do much except for the white fly. The others are too well stuck to the plant. Problem with rechargeables is the time they take to charge versus the usable time.
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We're in Essex and having multiple attacks of black fly on the broads and some grey ones on turnips. A weak castile soap solution seems to deal with them.
I've garlic spray to keep slugs away.
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I'd not looked properly at my broccoli for a few days, when i looked today they have been totally overwhelmed by a grey aphid type thingie, sucked the juice out of the lot by the look of it, must have been such a sudden influx - it's a dreadful year for them, I had to cut down the parsnip I was leaving for seed because it was covered in them, and I've only seen one ladybird all year. And that was on the dustbin! I think it's going to be one of those better-luck-next-time years....
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Been a really good year so far for me in London - Aphid wise. Over wintered broadies are as good as they can get this year - massive crop and not a sign of blackfly. There was a bit actually but I put the hose on blast and they didn't come back. In the past a bit of neem oil and soap seems to have helped.
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Been ising Dr Bronner liquid soap and water and spraying them. Our kale was infested with grey aphid and this is definitely knocking them for six. Starting to see ladybirds now and their larvae
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I too am having a bad year for aphids too this year. The blackcurrant bushes and some of the apple shoots are badly affected. I've tried spraying but is it difficult as they are well protected by the curled up foliage.
The broadies are unaffected though. :happy7:
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I have always maintained that a surplus of aphids is really just a shortage of ladybirds. What have you done to encourage our coloured helpers? I give them hibernation accommodation formed from fairly fine wire mesh dustbin sized filled with woodchip left undisturbed for several years.
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I have always maintained that a surplus of aphids is really just a shortage of ladybirds. What have you done to encourage our coloured helpers? I give them hibernation accommodation formed from fairly fine wire mesh dustbin sized filled with woodchip left undisturbed for several years.
Ants can keep ladybirds at bay to protect their "farm".
Cheers.
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I agree with squeezy, we must look after our bees.
I've found quite a few ladybird larvae on various plants, very happy to see them.
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I was wondering if the reason for so many bugs this year is due to it not being very cold last winter so they all survived, but like everyone else It seems that I have more than my fair share especially ants
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Pleased to say i saw two ladybirds on my broad beans today. they were both orange, one with lots of blacks spots and one with only two spots I think.
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Two heads of the white flowering broad beans had blackfly a few weeks ago so I rubbed them off then sprayed them with the hose. I had to repeat it a couple of times but got rid of them eventually. The purple flowered ones were not infested at all. I harvested some broad beans this past weekend, taking the pods off before they got too hard as Monty advised on GW on Friday. They were delicious.
I haven't had any aphids on my purple sprouting as the butterfly netting that surrounds them has kept all other flying creatures out.
There were a few ladybirds around here in April and May but there are not many about at the moment. I wonder if the extremely hot weather that we had two weeks ago killed them off.
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I remember the hot summers of 75 and 76. You couldn't go for a walk without treading on the masses of lady birds. My then boyfriend used to tease me by singing "crunch crunch crunch go the ladybirds" . I was so slow trying to avoid walking on them.
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After a lean time for them, I saw several ladybirds on my brassicas and roses today. I have put 'hotels' for them in both my rose garden and allotment so I hope to keep them around for a while.
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the fight back has started lol
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Has anyone tried soluble aspirin, 500grm to 1 Ltr water spray on the plant, this makes the plant grow its own defence system.
:coffee2: :wave:
John
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I think that should read 500mg, not 500 gram, that would be half a kilo in 1 litre!!!
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I think that should read 500mg, not 500 gram, that would be half a kilo in 1 litre!!!
:drunken_smilie: whoops:coffee2:
John
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Is the picture from johnny a harlequin? Are they part of the problem?
Just been reading that banana skins repel aphids.