Help!My beans have black fly!!!!

[happyhippy]

Now that is a good idea!Thankyou for passing it on!xx

[Millymollymandy]

Can I just say that normally I have very healthy nasturtiums without a caterpillar or a black fly whilst the local populations of said beasties is happily munching away on my veg.

This year the black fly are now on my nasturtiums which I'm quite sad about because I love the riot of colour they provide!

My 2nd sowing of broad breans has green fly just to make a change but these are much easier to shake off or splash off with water than the tenacious blackfly. However a nice ladybird has arrived on the scene and the aphids seem to have gone..... and the latter sown broad beans are doing MILES better than the early sown ones. I think the early planting/cold isn't such a good thing?

[Rosendula]

My broad beans have a lot of blackfly. It was only the few in the middle of the patch at first, and as there were ladybirds on there too, I decided against the washing-up liquid thing. However, it's really spreading fast now, and there are plenty of ants about, so I'm thinking perhaps the ants are farming the blackfly. It's not too much of a problem, as my broad beans have just about finished, but I'm wondering whether to pull them up and feed them - blackfly and all - to the chickens, or leave them there as a sacrifice plant to stop the ants simply moving and setting up a farm on my other plants (I've just noticed a few blackfly on one of my parsnips). What do you think?

[happyhippy]

Well the second spraying of soapy water has done the trick again.I'm wondering,does the black fly just go for beans in particular?If so I think I'll skip growing them next year.I just hate the sight of those bugs all over my nicely growing beans!

[citizentwiglet]

I was about to scream 'nastertiums', but Graham got there first!!!! It's true - no sign of either nasty in my raised bed in the community garden, though I do have to fight through nastertiums to get to anything in the first place....but that's a very small price to pay! People without nastertiums in their beds are definitely seeing more bugs, from what I understand.

[Millymollymandy]

Aaaaaargh I've just noticed that my peach tree is literally dripping in honeydew and is so covered with green fly you can barely see the undersides of the leaves - just what happened two years ago with blackfly - already the fruit is going black and the leaves are starting to shrivel up. I've been so concerned about watering it and everything else I haven't looked up, just been stooping down underneath it to get to the lettuce!

[Rosendula]

The nasturtiums don't seem to have worked on the greenfly I've had in the past. I have an apple tree in the back garden, and it's usually surrounded by glorious nasturtium, plus loads of weeds. The ants have been farming aphids on the weeds there for years, and so that's been my excuse to leave the weeds - to keep the aphids off the apple tree. This year I have chickens and they have eaten all the weeds and the nasturtiums, so the ants have taken their aphid farm up the apple tree . I did intend growing some near my new raised beds - I had heard of them been good for blackfly, and although I hadn't actually seen the evidence, I wanted that huge splash of colour. Unfortunately, there aren't enough hours in the day, so my splash of colour is just a few marigolds in with the tomatoes, and a few petunias here and there. Next year, I will be more organised (have I said that before?) I will have nasturtiums near the beds, and more weeds near the back garden!

I think I'll cut down a few of the beans and feed them to the chickens, and leave the rest of them there to keep the blackfly off my other veg.

[Shirleymouse]

The nasturtiums sound like a great idea. I'm still waging war against the black fly on my beans. Yesterday I spend ages squashing them with a small piece of kitchen roll then sprayed them with soapy water again and they look much better today. Is there anything I can plant that would attract ladybirds? I haven't seen a single one this year, they are missing out on the all-you-can-eat aphid buffet!

[Christine]

http://www.greengardener.co.uk/product. ... roduct=177
25 ladybirds for £14.99 and get 25 free
It's a lot of money - but my sister bought me 25 ladybirds and 25 larvae plus a ladybird mansion for my birthday.

Good tip about the nasturtiums, Graham - shame mine didn't come up this year from last year's seeds! If I'd realised their importance, I could have sown some more.
Anyway, that's a 'what I'd do differently' lesson for next year!

[Millymollymandy]

I don't know if it is the hot dry weather but I'm seeing blackfly on a lot of my flowering plants which don't normally get it, the peach tree is so infested with greenfly I'm going to have to prune all the young shoots off or else the fruit will have had it (I can't dislodge them with a hosepipe jet) AND my nasturtiums have got blackfly for the first time ever!

[happyhippy]

Wow what a nice surprise I found this morning.No I still have black fly(although numbers have subsided)but on closer inspection.......we also have.......................ladybirds! Could not believe my eyes,I found atleast 10,all eating away happily!How brilliant is that?So happy,and also grateful they have arrived!

[Millymollymandy]

Excellent, that is a nice surprise isn't it!

[happyhippy]

Just a quick update of the black fly front!Well on close inspection last week we counted over a dozen ladybirds,and even saw some baby ones(cute.. ).I do still have black fly on the beans but numbers have been heavily reduced.Thankyou to all that helped me out with advice/idea's,much appreciated!xx

[Millymollymandy]

Is everyone experiencing a wonderful plague of ladybirds because my peach tree was saved by a sudden invasion of not just ladybirds, but also bees and wasps eating the honeydew and orangy coloured beetles (not sure what they were doing) and hoverflies which I think were also eating aphids. In just 3 days they ate millions of greenfly and my tree was saved. It was the most incredible thing I have ever witnessed in nature. Here's a photo but a photo just can't do it justice as you don't get the big picture.



Ladybirds have moved on to other things now but I don't think I've got a single aphid left in the garden!

[happyhippy]

Incredible what nature can do when you need some help hey?After reading on this thread about ladybirds,I was hoping and praying some would find my black fly!A couple of days later I was incredibly happy to find they had come to my rescue!Amazing!