On 2012-05-09, allen73 wrote:

Rid your garden of ants. Ants love to eat "honeydew," the sugary sap
secreted by aphids, and will keep the aphids alive by fending off
predators and carrying the sap makers to other plants.

Yep. Ants literally "herd" aphids. Aphids are ant livestock. Not
likely you'll have one without the other. The best way to lose the
aphids is do it naturally by getting a packet of live ladybugs and
realeasing them on yer plants. I don't know about the UK, but in
California USA, I could buy several hundred live ladybugs for a few
dollars. Many of the ladybugs would fly away, but releasing a portion
of them every day for 2-3 days was enough to eradicate the aphid
problem completely. The ants left for parts unknown, also.

Good luck
nb

--
vi --the heart of evil!
Pitbull: "a gun you can pet" --Bill Burr