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Congrats on your very fine acquisition, 
thought I was lucky with my plot but you have even out-done me with what's been left. 
If you Wiki Frog Hoppers you get this:
These families are best known for the nymph stage, which produces a cover of frothed-up plant sap resembling saliva; the nymphs are therefore commonly known as spittlebugs and their froth as cuckoo spit, frog spit or snake spit. The final family in the group, Machaerotidae, is known as the tube spittlebugs because the nymphs live in calcareous tubes, rather than producing froth as in the other families.
The froth serves a number of purposes. It hides the nymph from the view of predators and parasites, it insulates against heat and cold, thus providing thermal control and also moisture control; without the froth the insect would quickly dry up. The nymphs pierce plants and suck sap causing very little damage, much of the filtered fluids go into the production of the froth, which has an acrid taste, deterring predators. A few species are serious agricultural pests.
Its your decision about if they are a threat to anything you plant but by clearing the plants which I expect they are on they will more than likely migrate to weeds. I've never heard about them destroying a crop on an allotment but there is always a first time. The bigger threat this year is from slugs and snails with the mild winter we have had.
I will be looking forward to seeing how much progress you make in the next couple of weeks, I know I'd be pulling a couple a sickies so I could go down and clear it up and dig it over.
thought I was lucky with my plot but you have even out-done me with what's been left. If you Wiki Frog Hoppers you get this:
These families are best known for the nymph stage, which produces a cover of frothed-up plant sap resembling saliva; the nymphs are therefore commonly known as spittlebugs and their froth as cuckoo spit, frog spit or snake spit. The final family in the group, Machaerotidae, is known as the tube spittlebugs because the nymphs live in calcareous tubes, rather than producing froth as in the other families.
The froth serves a number of purposes. It hides the nymph from the view of predators and parasites, it insulates against heat and cold, thus providing thermal control and also moisture control; without the froth the insect would quickly dry up. The nymphs pierce plants and suck sap causing very little damage, much of the filtered fluids go into the production of the froth, which has an acrid taste, deterring predators. A few species are serious agricultural pests.
Its your decision about if they are a threat to anything you plant but by clearing the plants which I expect they are on they will more than likely migrate to weeds. I've never heard about them destroying a crop on an allotment but there is always a first time. The bigger threat this year is from slugs and snails with the mild winter we have had.
I will be looking forward to seeing how much progress you make in the next couple of weeks, I know I'd be pulling a couple a sickies so I could go down and clear it up and dig it over.
It looked a bit like it in your pics but was hard to say
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