Bad Aphid Year?

It's years and years since I've known aphids as bad as this year.........loads of plants afflicted but worst is the Honeysuckle. I don't think it'll recover this year, despite copious amounts of washing up liquid spray. Anyone else think this is a bad year for aphids (both green and blackfly)? And I can't remember when I last saw a ladybird!

 

Yes definitely. It's pretty bad in my garden and I've only seen two ladybirds up to now.

 

Well if you think ladybirds will solve the problem, you are going to have a bad year.
Like all pests you need to act at the first sign, and with something that will actually kill them before they become an epidemic, and minimal spraying is all that is needed.

That way you dont spend all summer spraying, supposedly harmless soapy products trying to catch up.

I know a lot dont agree, but a couple of sprays early on, at the first signs, with something that actually works, saves a lot of soap latter on.

 

Yep never seen so many but then the garden is also full of ladybirds so it's swings and roundabouts

 

Wiped them off the beans the other day.

 

Our allotment broad beans are devastated with black fly this year despite me spraying them continually with washing up liquid/water.If we had plenty of rain it would wash them off and my beans would fill out for me to be able to pick them but I haven't got time to try and wash the little blighters off

I have been placing ladybird larva onto the beans and have only seen a couple of ladybirds feeding and let's face it the size of a ladybird and their larva it isn't going to take too many blackfly to fill their tummies

Even when we have been out walking we have seen blackfly on many wild weed plants plus an Elderberry tree had the blackfly on them so it must be a bad year plus all my rose bushes are full of them and all the tits have taken their youngsters over to the woods to fatten themselves up ready for the winter so none in the garden to eat them.

Definitely a bad year for aphids and I blame it on the weather

 

I'm not one to use chemical sprays. My garden is for wildlife as much as it is for me so I'll stick with the washing up liquid, knowing that you have to keep doing it. The trouble with the chemicals is they kill the non target species.

 

Lucky you to have ladybirds this year..........wish we did.

 

So which aspects of this years weather make it such a bad year for aphids?

 

OK, so can you guarantee that soapy water will only kill aphids.
Actually washing up liquid is a chemical spray, and one that is not passed for use as an insecticide.
I now we all think its harmless because we wash our dishes in it, but would you like to drink it?

 

Hope I don't jinx myself, but very little aphid aggro here so far.
Like others have perhaps seen only one or two ladybirds this year.

 

Very little aphids this year , I have caught a few on the new shoots of the creepers but that's about it , I think in new gardens aphids are a problem as you haven't the balance of good and bad insects to sort each other out , plus I think overfeeding with nitrogen encourages soft grown in the plants and makes they more of a " all you can eat buffet"
my personnel thoughts

 

My apologies @Redwing ,I meant to say that it is a bad year for the veggies due to the infestations of blackfly that are smothering our broad and runner beans.

This damn tablet never writes what I want it to write and always gets things wrong.I seems to have a mind of its own whenever I want to post anything on here

 

There are a lot around this year.
Black fly appear to pick their favourite and stick to that but the others seem to be everywhere. I have a Philadelphus that was covered and a real pain to contain but then a Teasel grew up through a large Acanthus and they all descended on that instead. So much as I hate Teasel I may grow a couple next year just for the blackfly.
With the aphids come the black ants as well.

Gramps used to grow Nasturtium with his broad beans for the black fly. It worked.