Pests, Diseases and Cures

No digging at all - we've only just bought the house - well at Christmas - so it's been interesting to know what plants & trees we have - I took a twig & leaf to RHS Rosemoor & no they hadn't a clue! Typical!

When we had builders in last year and also had a new patio laid it was covered with ground in dirt and blobs of cement. What didn't clean off with pressure hosing (quite a lot) they cleaned up with with a liquid in a can that said it was brick and concrete cleaner. It came from their builders...

Ray we tend to plant marigolds all over our garden as they attract hoverflies who lay their larvae in or around the flowers who then when hatched eat all the greenflies! Works well for us as we really don't like sitting outside in swarms of greenflies although you do have to watch the slugs...

Honeysuckle is very attractive to numerous moths and those caterpillars could well be the result of their visits. If your plant is big enough to tolerate a bit of damage, it would be interesting to see what any other caterpillars grow into. But that's the kind of thing I used to do as a little...

Bashy.The soap solution doesn't kill the Black Fly, it just stops them being able to stick to the plant in question. The ants are farming the Black Fly.================To try to avoid Black Fly on Broad Beans, you have to remove the tips or top of the plant. Sometimes it works, other...

CH do try the Provado as I have been pleased with it.It even kills off the dreaded Lilly beetle though luckily this year i have managed to at least kill the adults under my shoe,but it is the youngsters that cause a lot of the problems.:eek: If you buy some of the Provado spray it should tell...

It's not the kind of beetle you mentioned, as it is not at all green. It is the exact colour of the mint beetle, although I'm guessing it is not a 'mint beetle'. It is most interested in my lettuces now! I have had to hose off the mints and bring the them inside to save them!I bought some...

They do have contorted leaves as well as the branches. Some people think the leaves are ugly but we quite like them although the tree looks at its best in the early spring when the branches still haven't got their leaves but have the lovely catkins hanging from them. We have had our tree for...

Got it in one .... I'm beautiful enough without it ...:rolleyes::D

Pinch the tips, and feed them.

If you do a search on Flea Beetles I think you will find that this is what your mystery bugs are!

cheers david

will give that a try if the ladybirds don't work!

Looking at the picture on the link you gave, yes it looks like Ladybird larvae, i cant send a pic to show you, because i squished it:oThanks also for the link of insects, i will put it in my favourites for the future.:thumb:

Why didn't you get a really good close-up, Sis, and post it up in Wildlife / What's buzzing.........., too? We love things like that over there. :D If necessary, I get down on the ground and position the critters so I get good pics. Did you see the pics of the marvellous larvae I found in...

I`ve never known them on Marigolds or Tagetes.

Thank you flinty & JarBax, I'll try to remember your comments when I'm panicking cos I see something 'horrible' I do feel bad about killing anything really - hence the cobwebs and spiders that live in my house Only joking - sort of. I can even watch ants but not if they're destroying my...

It`s a physiological disease, Shelby, there is nothing you can buy to treat it. Scorch is caused in one of two ways. Either there are water droplets on the leaves acting like a magnifying glass which increase the warmth from the sun, thus burning the plant. Or, if it`s hot and sunny with a...

SimonJust "spotted" your post - sorry for the pun...Ivy is generally pretty tough but can suffer from leaf spot. You don't say how big it is but with 80% damage, I'd dig it out and get rid of it. Trouble is, even if you replace the soil, the infection might still be lurking on the...

That's great - thanks for the help and link