As everyone has warned black fly have appeared on my broad beans. This
is the first year I've grown them. They've not even set any flowers yet
and several plants have colonies of black fly at the growing tip.

Knowing how useful washing up liquid is against aphids I've tried
spraying them with a relatively strong solution of washing up liquid in
full sunshine. After a few hours the results look promising, sort of.
The leaves below look like they've been splashed with black ink,
presumably from the black flies. They aren't moving any more. It will
probably be an ongoing process to spray them like this but if it works
it is a cheap and relatively organic way of dealing with the pest.

Anyone else tried this against black fly? Was it successful?

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

"David in Normandy" wrote in message
. fr...
As everyone has warned black fly have appeared on my broad beans. This is
the first year I've grown them. They've not even set any flowers yet and
several plants have colonies of black fly at the growing tip.

Knowing how useful washing up liquid is against aphids I've tried spraying
them with a relatively strong solution of washing up liquid in full
sunshine. After a few hours the results look promising, sort of. The
leaves below look like they've been splashed with black ink, presumably
from the black flies. They aren't moving any more. It will probably be an
ongoing process to spray them like this but if it works it is a cheap and
relatively organic way of dealing with the pest.

Anyone else tried this against black fly? Was it successful?

--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

My old next door neighbour when we lived in Leicester was a real old country
woman and swore by this method :-))

Mike

--

....................................
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
....................................

Sorry, I'm not organic. Tried soapy water spray last year.....no effect.At
first sign this year, I used a bug spray. Complete success.
--
Pete C

On Sun, 29 May 2011 20:35:59 +0200, David in Normandy
wrote:

As everyone has warned black fly have appeared on my broad beans. This
is the first year I've grown them. They've not even set any flowers yet
and several plants have colonies of black fly at the growing tip.

Knowing how useful washing up liquid is against aphids I've tried
spraying them with a relatively strong solution of washing up liquid in
full sunshine. After a few hours the results look promising, sort of.
The leaves below look like they've been splashed with black ink,
presumably from the black flies. They aren't moving any more. It will
probably be an ongoing process to spray them like this but if it works
it is a cheap and relatively organic way of dealing with the pest.

Anyone else tried this against black fly? Was it successful?


I've found that a weak soap solution is good for blackfly but you
need to make it stronger for green- or white- fly and I've never been
happy about a strong solution since a treasured rose bush snuffed it
on me following a "treatment". I'm worried that with all the variety
of washing up liquid these days there's something in it that might be
damaging.

One organic solution (pardon the pun) available in the UK is a product
called SB Plant Invigorator. This was originally developed as a plant
feed thing but people found that it clobbered a lot of pests.
Certainly blackfly overnight and Toby Buckland says it kills lily
beetle as well. I'll see if I can find the compostition of it but
don't know if you can get it over there.

That said, here I have yet (this year) to see any black, white or
green flies. Scratches head strongly and gets splinter. This morning I
saw my first ant of the year. Must take myself to an optician,
methinks. It's just that, honestly, I haven't seen any of these bugs
(including ants) yet. No ant-hills in the lawn either, which I would
expect by now.

Jake wrote:
snip

That said, here I have yet (this year) to see any black, white or
green flies. Scratches head strongly and gets splinter. This morning I
saw my first ant of the year. Must take myself to an optician,
methinks. It's just that, honestly, I haven't seen any of these bugs
(including ants) yet. No ant-hills in the lawn either, which I would
expect by now.

My rose cuttings were found by some greenfly, but paradoxically not the full
grown bushes a few yards away. Maybe the greenfly are developing a sense of
discernment and only going for the freshest young plants.


Ian

"David in Normandy" wrote in message
. fr...
As everyone has warned black fly have appeared on my broad beans. This is
the first year I've grown them. They've not even set any flowers yet and
several plants have colonies of black fly at the growing tip.

Knowing how useful washing up liquid is against aphids I've tried spraying
them with a relatively strong solution of washing up liquid in full
sunshine. After a few hours the results look promising, sort of. The
leaves below look like they've been splashed with black ink, presumably
from the black flies. They aren't moving any more. It will probably be an
ongoing process to spray them like this but if it works it is a cheap and
relatively organic way of dealing with the pest.

Anyone else tried this against black fly? Was it successful?

--
I tried it last year. It killed the plants I used it on. It was a cheap
brand of washing-up liquid but, according to an experienced gardener, I
should have used Fairy Liquid.

KC

On May 29, 7:35*pm, David in Normandy
wrote:
As everyone has warned black fly have appeared on my broad beans. This
is the first year I've grown them. They've not even set any flowers yet
and several plants have colonies of black fly at the growing tip.

Knowing how useful washing up liquid is against aphids I've tried
spraying them with a relatively strong solution of washing up liquid in
full sunshine. After a few hours the results look promising, sort of.
The leaves below look like they've been splashed with black ink,
presumably from the black flies. They aren't moving any more. It will
probably be an ongoing process to spray them like this but if it works
it is a cheap and relatively organic way of dealing with the pest.

Anyone else tried this against black fly? Was it successful?

--
David in Normandy. *
* *To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
* *subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
* *by a filter and not reach my inbox.

The water washing up liquid drowns them. The washing up liquid lets
the water gets into their spiracles. But, disappointingly, they
remain attached to the plant. I'd like to see them curl up, fall off
and die!

David in Normandy wrote in news:4de29227$0
:

As everyone has warned black fly have appeared on my broad beans. This
is the first year I've grown them. They've not even set any flowers yet
and several plants have colonies of black fly at the growing tip.

Knowing how useful washing up liquid is against aphids I've tried
spraying them with a relatively strong solution of washing up liquid in
full sunshine. After a few hours the results look promising, sort of.
The leaves below look like they've been splashed with black ink,
presumably from the black flies. They aren't moving any more. It will
probably be an ongoing process to spray them like this but if it works
it is a cheap and relatively organic way of dealing with the pest.

Anyone else tried this against black fly? Was it successful?


David,
Could it be that the black things you think are blackfly are really the
flowers dying off to make way for a green pod?
Please have a look and see.

Baz

On 31/05/2011 18:04, Baz wrote:
David in wrote in news:4de29227$0
:

As everyone has warned black fly have appeared on my broad beans. This
is the first year I've grown them. They've not even set any flowers yet
and several plants have colonies of black fly at the growing tip.

Knowing how useful washing up liquid is against aphids I've tried
spraying them with a relatively strong solution of washing up liquid in
full sunshine. After a few hours the results look promising, sort of.
The leaves below look like they've been splashed with black ink,
presumably from the black flies. They aren't moving any more. It will
probably be an ongoing process to spray them like this but if it works
it is a cheap and relatively organic way of dealing with the pest.

Anyone else tried this against black fly? Was it successful?


David,
Could it be that the black things you think are blackfly are really the
flowers dying off to make way for a green pod?
Please have a look and see.

Baz

Not unless the flowers have also got wings and legs and can walk and fly!

It seems to have killed them anyway. Though they remain attached to the
plants. The broad bean foliage doesn't seem to like the washing up
liquid spray though and it has certainly taken the shine off the leaves.
Hopefully this is the lesser of the two evils and the plants will recover.


--
David in Normandy.
To e-mail you must include the password FROG on the
subject line, or it will be automatically deleted
by a filter and not reach my inbox.

On Tue, 31 May 2011 19:39:16 +0200, David in Normandy
wrote:

On 31/05/2011 18:04, Baz wrote:
David in wrote in news:4de29227$0
:

As everyone has warned black fly have appeared on my broad beans. This
is the first year I've grown them. They've not even set any flowers yet
and several plants have colonies of black fly at the growing tip.

Knowing how useful washing up liquid is against aphids I've tried
spraying them with a relatively strong solution of washing up liquid in
full sunshine. After a few hours the results look promising, sort of.
The leaves below look like they've been splashed with black ink,
presumably from the black flies. They aren't moving any more. It will
probably be an ongoing process to spray them like this but if it works
it is a cheap and relatively organic way of dealing with the pest.

Anyone else tried this against black fly? Was it successful?


David,
Could it be that the black things you think are blackfly are really the
flowers dying off to make way for a green pod?
Please have a look and see.

Baz

Not unless the flowers have also got wings and legs and can walk and fly!

It seems to have killed them anyway. Though they remain attached to the
plants. The broad bean foliage doesn't seem to like the washing up
liquid spray though and it has certainly taken the shine off the leaves.
Hopefully this is the lesser of the two evils and the plants will recover.

Unfortunately, these days, not all washing up liquids are the same.
But fingers crossed ....