12-05-2003, 02:27 PM
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Broad Bean Tops
In article , says...
In article , Tim Tyler wrote:
Nick Maclaren wrote:
: In article , Tim Tyler wrote:
:Steve Harris wrote:
:: The pods are just starting to form on my "The Sutton" plants so I topped
:: them to deter blackfly. Then I steamed them and they really are rather
:: nice :-)
:
:Ants seem to like mine. They are busy "milking" them from underneath.
: Er, I don't think that he meant that he steamed the blackfly,
: nutritious though they are :-)
...and *I* meant the ants are "milking" my broad bean tops! They sit
under the young leaves and eat little black spots in the centres of them.
I presume they're after the juices, but am not really sure what's going on.
No sign of any blackfly here yet ;-)
Get a magnifying glass and look harder! As far as I know, there are
no British ants that do that, and it is almost certain that something
else is causing the black spots and the ants are after the honeydew
that the something else secretes.
I can easily believe that ants would collect the sap where a plant
has already been damaged, too - it is a convenient sourece of water.
But most ants have the wrong sorts of jaws to gnaw holes in leaves.
I can't, of course, say that no species of ant in the UK does it,
and we would need an entymologist to say for sure.
Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
Ants certainly drink the sap from my asparagus plants when I snap them off.
Doesn't seem to do any harm.
--
Jonathan Ward
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