On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 18:07:52 +0100, Chris Hogg wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 14:04:53 +0100, blaadyblah
wrote:


Hello.

snip Giant Willow Aphids and Introduction

What can I do to get rid of them? Preferably without using
particularly ecologically unfriendly or harmful chemicals, my garden
is not exactly organic, but I do try to minimise the use of noxious
substances if at all possible and I've not had cause to use any for
several years, if it can be avoided I'd prefer not to start again now.

Flick.

Many people here swear by a spray of soft soap or household detergent
for attacking aphids and many other garden pests (see the thread on
blackfly). I use Fairy Liquid, but I guess any detergent will do. One
good squirt into a 5 litre pump sprayer, but the concentration isn't
critical (fill the sprayer with water first, then add the detergent,
otherwise you get loads of froth). But whether it'll work on those big
beasties, I've no idea.

Apparently not... that was the first thing I thought of and I tried it
ten minutes after I found them. They're still alive if a little sudsy!
Perhaps I'll have to keep going at them. I'll be out there wiping them
off tomorrow at this rate.

We had them on a willow in our garden when I
was a teenager, and IIRC they were the size of match-heads and on the
branches, not the leaves.

Yup, they're definitely on the large side, and they're hanging around
in patches on the underside of the branches towards the bottom of the
tree. The little ones are about the size of match heads, but there
were one or two super-bugs when I took a look early this evening, I'm
not sure I want to get on the wrong side of them, these things were a
quarter of an inch long!

Flick.



--
I'm not concerned about the glass being half full or half empty.
I've always got another bottle.