Allotments 4 All

Will I ruin the chance of fruit forming if I spray my pear tree with a soap solution to try to get rid of greenfly? The flowers are beginning to fade now and (I think!) incipient fruit are forming, but some stems are covered in greenfly - already!

Tricia

I'd wait a couple of days... until petal fall to be sure, if you are having the hot days it won't be too long!  :)

our fruit trees are full of birds eating and collecting any bugs for their little 'uns  :)

There are now quite a lot of little black ants on the tree now - and the greenfly are almost gone, so hopefully they will stay gone!

Tricia

Greenfly don't do any lasting damage to the tree..I often find that by the time I'm planning to take any action against the bugs some predator insects are already started to move in to sort it all out  ;D
So..wait another week and see what happens..and then wait again.. ;)

I just have to say whenever anyone complains about the wildlife, that the problem is not so much an excess of aphids etc, more a shortage of ladybirds. I provide my ladybirds with overwinter residential accommodation (woodchip) and in return they sort out the aphids for me (though they do struggle with the dreaded blackfly of beans). Last spring I had whole committees of excited ladybirds "welcoming" the rosy apple aphids so my apple crop was barely touched.