Thanks all for the bug advice. The Deutzia looks manageable with a soap spray (I do have bird feeders, insect boxes...etc and a constant stream of birds, hover flies... and we're near a small culvert so get some dragonflies) but the maple and cherry (the cherry is 15ft+ high and the maple was 10ft+) and were absolutely covered on every stem. I'm still not sure how to handle an infestation on a large scale.
Soap is bad for hoverflies and all the other good guys. Stick to the hosepipe. Easy enough to find a spray head that can be turned to jet or shower depending on whether you're blasting or watering.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
You have to keep at it. It's not one blast and you're done. They really are horrid things but I don't believe that we will ever get rid of them. And if the birds like them, I suppose we shouldn't want to.
...by the time I finish cataloguing all the plants my wife planted, I'll be an expert - and I won't need the cataloguing tool anyway!
What I decided to do this time with the bugs (when I looked they were quite widespread) was to trim off the infected tips (the bugs only only appeared to hit the tips) as the plant is big enough with the spring growth anyway. That obviously hasn't affected the flowering - and the bees are constantly buzzing around it.
Just identified the next plant - Hypericum androsaemum L...... two down......
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