Help! Who has a cure for cherry blackfly?

My five or six year old cherry Stella, is suffering from a serious blackfly infestation. Most of the growing point leaves are affected. Bearing in mind that cherries should be pruned in summer, I am thinking of cutting off all the affected growing points. I had planned to prune for shape anyway this summer and this problem is making me more likely to do this now rather than later. Any advice would be very welcome, both on what to do now and future management plans.

 

@Redwing Hi, cherry trees do suffer from this, you can prune it now. But there's probably ants there as well farming the aphids for there nectar.

 

It's the usual dilemma! Wait for natural predators like ladybirds, lacewings and wasps to gain control or spray. If you spray, whether with soapy water () or an approved insecticide, it's very difficult to get into the curled up leaves. And a systemic treatment is a non-starter on edibles. I grit my teeth and wait for the predators to get busy, but it would certainly help to remove the worst-affected shoot tips.

 

I don't like using a systematic out side, because of other insects. You could wait and see what happens,

 

Finally, some replies. Thanks @Logan I took the decision a few days ago to prune out all the affected shoots which was almost ALL of the new shoots. No predators around now unfortunately...in fact I haven't seen a ladybird for ages. So the shoots have gone onto the compost bin and I'll probably prune this young tree for shape later on in the summer. I also had a good look at the remaining leaves and sprayed soapy water on anything that looked like a blackfly. As an aside, it seems kind of a bad aphid year to me.....scale insect on my lemons, greenfly on my roses........