Quote:
Originally Posted by Billit
after checking my runner beans on a regular basis for black fly I seem to find that when I find the black fly there also seems to be a lot of activity with the ants running up and down the stems,it has occured to me that the ants seem to be the main carriers of the fly,is there anyone else who may have seen this happening.
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It is well-known that ants farm aphids. Wherever you find a large congregation of aphids, you can be sure that ants are behind it. If you can succeed in controlling or distracting the ants, that can often be a sufficient method of getting aphids under control. Later in the summer, you'll probably find that that the hoverflies and ladybirds eat the aphids faster than the ants can replace them.