In article , Tumbleweed
writes

3 years of studying ecology at university. And I cant say I did greenfly in
particular, but its to do with the mathematics of how fast they grow
compared to their predators. They simpy outbreed them.

If you haven't got greenfly, you won't have anything for the predators
to live on. Gardening in a wildlife friendly way involves maintaining
all levels of the food chain - take out the lower links and you'll lose
the whole chain.

OK, I know you're not trying to garden in a wildlife friendly way. I
think your aim is different from mine. If you can tolerate a low level
of greenfly - greenfly are present, but not killing plants - then the
predator approach works very well and has lots of added advantages in
terms of birds, butterflies and so on.

If you want a sterile garden with not a single greenfly in sight, then
you're going to have to resort to pesticides. In doing so you will, of
course, kill beneficial insects as well, but your plants will look
pristine.


because the human one might kill the first ones, the ones that gives rise to
the thousands on a plant. The birds presumably arent going to bother until
there is a large jucy amount of them as it woudnt be energy efficient just
to look for single greenfly. THough I've never seen any of the small birds
in my garden eating greenfly. Lost of other insects but not greenfly. Too
small to botherwith?

Do you have the right small birds? They're not all insect eaters.
Bluetits seem to be the best for eating aphids, as others have said, and
I often see them eating aphids on the honeysuckle outside the kitchen
window.


--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm