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Pollen beetles (rounder shape than the thrips) thrive on my Elder bush/tree, and then the birds eat all the berries

I was going to ask about freezing elderflowers as I fancy making elderflower flavoured cider.I had the thunderfly thing and any that didnt hike up the side of the bowl and get collected on a teatowel have gone in the brew. Shades of dead rats in minature. didnt notice any off flavours when i syphoned it into the demijohn so imagine all will be well

it'll\probably be the best cordial you've ever made! You'll never be able to replicate it cos you'll need the exact amount of bugsfor that special flavour!!

extra protein.

And a light, crunchy texture.


Only joking. I'll get my coat

Yes I too had bugs when I made elderflower cordial last week but just shook them out over the sink,did my thing and strained through muslin and it tasted fine and I froze half my cordial in ice cube trays as it goes off after a few weeks and I hate waste!!

We make a lot of Elder wine and syrup, and our flowers always have the same thunderflys, tons of them. There are so many that it came to the choice of either not using the elder flowers or not worrying about the bugs. Now we just shake out as many as we can, let those run away who have the sense to, and throw the rest into the pot or the brewing bucket. In both cases they rise to the top and are filtered out. They have no taste and don't seem to influence the outcome of the wine or syrup at all.

I've got a few this year (they are crawling round the kitchen windowsill having found some fruity brew there, but they can't get into the bottle). I usually give the elderflowers a good bash/shake before putting them into the plastic bag, so most of the wildlife doesn't come home with me - saves time later.

Yep, mine were crawling with what I now know are thrips. Wish I hadn't brought them into the house as I don't want them infesting my houseplants. I dried the flowers I had left over from winemaking, and obviously they are free of bugs.