"Janet Baraclough.." wrote in message
...
The message
from "Franz Heymann" contains these
words:

By the way, if you used "organic" means other than the highly
ineffectual ladybirds to control aphids, you are also killing off
your ladybirds. They will simply die of hunger if there are no
insects around for them.

Is there research that shows they don't simply fly away to find aphids
elsewhere?

Janet.


Last year I had hundreds of ladybirds living on a patch of Euphorbias. A
month later they had all flown away and the neighbouring plum tree was
swarming with aphids - so a fat load of good they were.

I've used no insecticides in the garden in the 3 years I've been here, and
the fruit trees are being eaten alive! In the past two years, all the
leaves had been sucked dry and had fallen off well before autumn. The
"natural balance" obviously doesn't occur at a point compatitble with what I
want from the garden, so I'm beginning to think that spraying may be
required to give my trees a chance!

Bob