Grow Your Own Magazine

Today I found some blackfly on my broad beans. I have taken off the growing tips on these plants - will I have to spray them or will taking off the tips be enough? (they werent badly infested luckily)

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Kim



http://kimbos-veggies.blogspot.com

Hi Kimbo - first year for me with broad beans, and when I found some blackfly on some of the tips last weekend, I nipped the whole lot off (wash off blackfly and steam the tips - yummy) and after very close inspection this week - voila! - not one blackfly!

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Hazel
www.hazelandjanesallotment.blogspot.com
update Sat 15/11/2008......there's gold in them thar...compost bins!......

I picked off all my blackfly last year, but they kept coming back, aargh. this year I have hundreds of ladybirds, so that might help a bit. You can also plant nasturtiums as a sacrificial crop...when they get infested with blackfly chuck the whole lot in your Dalek

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

You could always spray with soapy water or insecticide!! You can try squishing the little b*****s, but that's really messy and I haven't found it effective. Main trouble is that ants farm blackfly, milking them for the sugary stuff they excrete, so the ants move them from plant to plant and the blackfly themselves multiply like crazy. Really don't know what the solution is, Kill the blackfly or kill the ants. Both easier said than done, I'm afraid.