If you will mix a couple of teaspoons of liquid dish soap into a liter of
water, and spray that on aphids, they will die and you will be rid of them
for awhile. If they come back, do it again. It is harmless to plants,
except those that have wax or oil coating their leaves for protection.

Dwayne

"Bob" wrote in message
om...
I have a damson tree which has produced an enormous quantity of fruit
in both the past two years.

Unfortunately its leaves seem to be the favoured food of all the local
aphids. The infestation was so bad last year, that all the leaves had
been sucked dry and had fallen off before the fruit had even ripened.

Not surprisingly, this year the tree has had practically no blossom
(and what little there was seems to have been frosted off), so I
assume I won't be getting any tasty damsons this year.

Is there anything I can do to get rid of the bugs this year (mostly
whitefly I think), to give the tree a chance to rebuild its strength?
I'd prefer a non-chemical solution (sorry!), but I'll spray if I have
to. Last year the nearby Euphorbias were smothered in ladybirds, but
they had all vanished by the time the tree needed their help :-(

Bob