On Tue, 31 May 2011 19:39:16 +0200, David in Normandy
wrote:

On 31/05/2011 18:04, Baz wrote:
David in wrote in news:4de29227$0
:

As everyone has warned black fly have appeared on my broad beans. This
is the first year I've grown them. They've not even set any flowers yet
and several plants have colonies of black fly at the growing tip.

Knowing how useful washing up liquid is against aphids I've tried
spraying them with a relatively strong solution of washing up liquid in
full sunshine. After a few hours the results look promising, sort of.
The leaves below look like they've been splashed with black ink,
presumably from the black flies. They aren't moving any more. It will
probably be an ongoing process to spray them like this but if it works
it is a cheap and relatively organic way of dealing with the pest.

Anyone else tried this against black fly? Was it successful?


David,
Could it be that the black things you think are blackfly are really the
flowers dying off to make way for a green pod?
Please have a look and see.

Baz

Not unless the flowers have also got wings and legs and can walk and fly!

It seems to have killed them anyway. Though they remain attached to the
plants. The broad bean foliage doesn't seem to like the washing up
liquid spray though and it has certainly taken the shine off the leaves.
Hopefully this is the lesser of the two evils and the plants will recover.

Unfortunately, these days, not all washing up liquids are the same.
But fingers crossed ....