"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from Ben Edgington contains these words:

" Jeanne Stockdale" writes:
I have got the same problem - noticed it in previous years but never as
badly as now. There is an earlier posting entitled "greyflies" which
deals
with this. Have just got some"Bug Free" to spray over the sprouts -
only
trouble is it is too windy at the moment to spray

Thanks for that, Jeanne. I somehow missed that thread over the
weekend. Have
now read it, and it looks like I will have to get some insecticide.

Before you do, there are alternatives. Brassicas can withstand salty
water, so try spraying with that; maybe with a squiret of washing up
liquid. Or, if there's enough area of healthy unaffected leaf, just tear
out the aphidy patches and dispose of them. Or, hang some nutfeeders on
canes to encourage bluetits. I have done this to remove really huge
infestations of aphids on trees, the birds clear them in the space of a
day or so.

Just 2p worth to add to Janet's posting. The aphids don't get it all their
own way. If you look very carefully at those colonies you may see shiny
brown/silvery objects that look like dried up aphids -that's exactly what
they are, they've been parasitised by a tiny wasp which lays its egg in the
aphid, the wasp larva feeds inside the aphid and kills it. Look even closer,
possibly with a hand lens and you'll see a single hole in the end of some of
them: an adult wasp has emerged from those to continue the good work. To see
the wasps look closely and don't think big, black and yellow - look for tiny
black insects only 2mm or so long with very slender bodies.

---
Rod

My real address is rodtheweedygardeneratmyweedyisp
Just remove the weedy bits
and transplant the appropriate symbol at.
..