This is perhaps a case of 'prevention being better than cure'. The moment you see a neighbour with a healthy crop of rhubarb, ask them for some of the leaves when they crop it. Boil them in water. Drain of the liquid. Put it in a normal household spray, once empty, and use the contents to kill off your aphids. THEN, make sure you keep enough stored away in the shed for the remainder of this year, plus some for next year before rhubarb is available. That will safeguard your honeysuckle next year.
Thanks I'll give that a go! My friend has rhubarb growing 👍🏻
Lots of info here … especially how to identify and encourage the natural predators … but don’t forget, if you wipe out all the aphids this year there’ll be no good for all those beneficial insects that you need to stay around. The aim is to achieve a balance … https://magazine.scienceconnected.org/2021/04/ladybirds-and-other-natural-pesticides/
That's a really interesting read, thank you 😊 definitely keen to avoid chemical warfare after reading threads here, and Dave Goulson's book 'The garden jungle'.
I had thought about buying ladybirds as I have never seen any near that part of my garden but its quite an exposed spot, and I'm not sure if they'd stick around 🤔
There is some argument that ladybirds need a certain critical mass of aphids for the lady birds to remain and thrive in an area, else there just isn't enough to eat.
It seems that some years I might be seeing these tipping points in my garden. If I make an effort to try and stay on top the aphid situation, I don't see many ladybirds. In the last few years I seem to see more. But I may be imagining it. To notice ladybirds we have to looking for them, interested, in the garden a lot, paying attention. It's a fine balance. Hopefully between sparrows and ladybirds and hosing and not minding as much, I can find some kind of balance.
I did have a pink and cream honeysuckle for some years, but it got so uniformily crusted with blackfly that I took it out. Other types of honeysuckle in the garden were fine, but that one, you couldn't see the flowers for the crusting. It looked like it was permanently covered in black fungus.
I occasionally use my fingers to wipe the 'first crop' of aphids from a rosebud or three in the spring, but for the past five years or more I've not had to do more than that ... the hoverflies, wasps, ladybirds, lacewings and of course, the bluetit and sparrow families that live here see to them for me.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Lots of info here … especially how to identify and encourage the natural predators … but don’t forget, if you wipe out all the aphids this year there’ll be no good for all those beneficial insects that you need to stay around. The aim is to achieve a balance … https://magazine.scienceconnected.org/2021/04/ladybirds-and-other-natural-pesticides/
Thanks for this link, really useful. I've just noticed a massive aphid infestation on my honeysuckle and one solitary little ladybird (living it's best life right there). I'm hoping it's going to release it's pheromone and invite all it's friends to the Ladybug Picnic (and if you're of a certain age, you now have a happy little earworm!)
It's knowing what to do with things that counts - Robert Frost
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I had thought about buying ladybirds as I have never seen any near that part of my garden but its quite an exposed spot, and I'm not sure if they'd stick around 🤔
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.