Green fly

I'm really struggling with greenfly, last year there were LOADS of ladybirds and I encouraged them to overwinter in the tunnel, but they don't seem to have endured the winter very well unlike the aphids which seem to have exploded this year.

Any suggestions , can I buy ladybird larvea anywhere???

Mrs Chopper

 

no but collect your own,

 

Hey Mrs Chopper,

Don't know about buying them, but the larvae feed on Lime trees (Tillia) Used to collect them as a kid & hatch them out in the inkwells on our skool desks

More recently, i've been collecting them from the long grass & nettles at the edge of our plot, they climb up to sun themselves in the morning.

 

I went on a bug hunt yesterday and found one adult, that bugfully munched it's way through dozens of the little green devils before fallen asleep in stuffed to the antenea. but alas could only find the one will try again today.

 

We've got absolutely loads of ladybirds round here; when we had the heatwave in April there were literally many hundreds of them, especially on the laurel hedge in the front, to be honest we were struggling not to tread on them lol.

For this reason we haven't seen a single greenfly yet; fingers crossed.

I do seem to remember a company selling ladybird larva and lacewing larva a few years ago; might have been Wiggly Wigglers????


On a slightly different note we also have LOTS of bees in our garden (which is excellent) and we've only seen an odd wasp despite some reports of swarms of them about???

 

I've only seen one ladybird this year, and not very many around last year. Are they becoming scarce?

 

Spray them with Horticultural Soap (not Detergent like washing up liquid, although that would probably do until the Horticultural soap arrives)?

Horticultural Soft Soap - 250ml: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors

Don't know how much anyone uses, and whether its worth buying a bigger bottle (to save a bit on carriage, overall). It aint exactly cheap.

 

So in that case if I give you my name and address and agree to pay the p&p...

 

Thanks for the ideas, I have been using washing up liquid but though it seems to kill the bugs it touches its hard to treat so many plants thoroughly. They are absolutley everywhere now not good when you are trying to sell plants. I will go on another ladybird hunt, I did see a few down the plot this everying but didn't want to take those as they are busy on the flowers and veg down there.

Mrs Chopper

 

Or "SB plant invigorator" if you want something organic. I have no idea how effective it is though.

"A cheaper alternative is Stergene"

I didn't know that (and I have just ordered some Horticultural soap ... :( ), thanks John

Used some Fairy Liquid (whilst waiting for Soap to arrive) mixed with Neem oil on mine last night. Only did one of each type of plant to see if they are OK before doing the rest. I'm happy to do them every couple of days to see if I can get it back under control.

 

Just been reading through CJ Wildlife's 2011 catalogue/handbook and seen that they sell tubes of 25 adult 2-spot ladybirds; bit expensive though at £21.95....