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blackfly

LavandeLavande Posts: 171
in Wildlife gardening

I know birds eat aphids and greenfly but do they eat black flies too?  I noticed two stalks of my philadelphus were covered in tiny black flies and I cut the tips off, sprayed them, wrapped them up and put them in the bin.  I'm just wondering, instead of trying to get rid of them like that - if i could put the stems on the bird table because the flies stayed on them even when I'd snipped them.  image

Posts

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384

    The birds keep the green aphids down for me, but they don't seem to like blackfly around here.  Perhaps they taste nasty?  I'm not going to test that theory though! image

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • Peanuts3Peanuts3 Posts: 759

    ah my philadelphus was covered in blackfly too yesterday, obviously a favourite plant with them image

  • flowering roseflowering rose Posts: 1,632

    They do indeed .

  • LorrainePLorraineP Posts: 218

    Am I right in thinking, as we have had quite a mild winter there will be more bugs than usual?  The greenfly on my lupins are enoumous and prolific!  image

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384

    Lorraine, those are a specific kind of aphid called (not surprisingly) 'Lupin aphid':

    http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=653

    They are indeed huge and birds seem to avoid them too!

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • LorrainePLorraineP Posts: 218

    Thanks for the info & link, Bob.   image  Will commence battle with them tomorrow.

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