It seems to me that in order to have fresh homegrown fruit and vegetables
on the table it is sometimes neccessary to use some chemical control.
This has been interpreted as pesticide, and yes I use pesticide when I have
to but not by any means my first line.
I would like to know how others in this group go about getting rid of
insects. For example my 2 cherry trees have been infested with blackfly
and I dowsed them with liquid soap to no avail and had to use Provaro in
the end. Problem solved. Likewise with whitefly on the brassicas and moth
on the peas.
In a nutshell, nothing seems to work. Just pesticide. That works.

Baz

On 27/06/2013 16:16, Baz wrote:
It seems to me that in order to have fresh homegrown fruit and vegetables
on the table it is sometimes neccessary to use some chemical control.
This has been interpreted as pesticide, and yes I use pesticide when I have
to but not by any means my first line.
I would like to know how others in this group go about getting rid of
insects. For example my 2 cherry trees have been infested with blackfly
and I dowsed them with liquid soap to no avail and had to use Provaro in
the end. Problem solved. Likewise with whitefly on the brassicas and moth
on the peas.
In a nutshell, nothing seems to work. Just pesticide. That works.

Baz

I just use insecticides when I have to, at present we have loads of lady
birds around so I am busy moving them around the place.
Things like red spider I do spray as soon as I see them, I can't wait
for biological thingies to arrive as they can take up to 10 days.
In the "Old days" we sprayed everything every 2 weeks, one week for
pests and the other with fungicide.
It gets me you have all these "Holier than thou" who would never(So they
say) spray with anything, but if they so much as find an aphid on a
lettuce they bought in a supermarket they are the first to complain.
David @ a damp side of Swansea Bay

On Thu, 27 Jun 2013 15:16:11 GMT, Baz wrote:

It seems to me that in order to have fresh homegrown fruit and vegetables
on the table it is sometimes neccessary to use some chemical control.
This has been interpreted as pesticide, and yes I use pesticide when I have
to but not by any means my first line.
I would like to know how others in this group go about getting rid of
insects. For example my 2 cherry trees have been infested with blackfly
and I dowsed them with liquid soap to no avail and had to use Provaro in
the end. Problem solved. Likewise with whitefly on the brassicas and moth
on the peas.
In a nutshell, nothing seems to work. Just pesticide. That works.


We do not grow fruit or vegetables so our 'pest' problem is quite
limited. Having said that I do use chemicals when necessary, mainly
weedkiller, except in the areas specifically set aside for
wildflowers, where we leave things alone unless there is very bad
infestation, in which case I cut the problem out and dispose of it.
--
rbel

In message , Baz
writes

I would like to know how others in this group go about getting rid of
insects. For example my 2 cherry trees have been infested with blackfly
and I dowsed them with liquid soap to no avail and had to use Provaro in
the end. Problem solved. Likewise with whitefly on the brassicas and moth
on the peas.
In a nutshell, nothing seems to work. Just pesticide. That works.

I have had a very strange experience this year. In Reading I have a
smallish back garden with three apple trees, three plum trees and a goat
willow. This last I planted there some fourteen or fifteen years ago by
mistake (I didn't know what it was because I found it growing in one of
my pots). By the time I identified it, it was rather too big to move and
so there it was, getting bigger and bigger until it was taller than the
house! So early this year I decided to do something about it. I cut it
down to about seven foot in height.

The relevance of this story is about to become clear. The willow struck
out with dozens of new shoots which are now a foot or more long and are
thick with aphid. I thought about trying to get rid of them - until I
noticed that my plum trees, normally very attractive to aphids, were
completely clear and look more healthy than they have done for years.

I relate that for what it's worth!

David

--
David Rance writing from Le Mesnil Villement, Calvados, France

On Thu, 27 Jun 2013 18:28:00 +0100, David Rance
wrote:



I have had a very strange experience this year. In Reading I have a
smallish back garden with three apple trees, three plum trees and a goat
willow. This last I planted there some fourteen or fifteen years ago by
mistake (I didn't know what it was because I found it growing in one of
my pots). By the time I identified it, it was rather too big to move and
so there it was, getting bigger and bigger until it was taller than the
house! So early this year I decided to do something about it. I cut it
down to about seven foot in height.

The relevance of this story is about to become clear. The willow struck
out with dozens of new shoots which are now a foot or more long and are
thick with aphid. I thought about trying to get rid of them - until I
noticed that my plum trees, normally very attractive to aphids, were
completely clear and look more healthy than they have done for years.

I relate that for what it's worth!

You may want to look up 'sacrificial planting' - from memory
nasturtiums are a good aphid attractant.
--
rbel

In article , says...

It seems to me that in order to have fresh homegrown fruit and vegetables
on the table it is sometimes neccessary to use some chemical control.

I've not found that. I never spray against insects.

I do occasionally make a woodash/ comfrey/ seaweed / bracken leaf slug-
exclusion-zone around the stems of newly planted out brassicas, but only
till they get established. I also tear off any patches of butterfly eggs
I notice on brassica leaves.

I leave it to the birds to control green and blackfly and slugs. We
encourage a very large number of birds to the garden; plus frogs and
hedgehogs.

Janet.

On Thursday, June 27, 2013 4:16:11 PM UTC+1, Baz wrote:
It seems to me that in order to have fresh homegrown fruit and vegetables
on the table it is sometimes neccessary to use some chemical control.
This has been interpreted as pesticide, and yes I use pesticide when I have
to but not by any means my first line.
I would like to know how others in this group go about getting rid of
insects. For example my 2 cherry trees have been infested with blackfly
and I dowsed them with liquid soap to no avail and had to use Provaro in
the end. Problem solved. Likewise with whitefly on the brassicas and moth
on the peas.
In a nutshell, nothing seems to work. Just pesticide. That works.
Baz

I find spraying water upwards under the leaves works on black & greenfly


NT

On Thu, 27 Jun 2013 15:16:11 +0000, Baz wrote:

It seems to me that in order to have fresh homegrown fruit and
vegetables on the table it is sometimes neccessary to use some chemical
control.
This has been interpreted as pesticide, and yes I use pesticide when I
have to but not by any means my first line.
I would like to know how others in this group go about getting rid of
insects. For example my 2 cherry trees have been infested with blackfly
and I dowsed them with liquid soap to no avail and had to use Provaro in
the end. Problem solved. Likewise with whitefly on the brassicas and
moth on the peas.
In a nutshell, nothing seems to work. Just pesticide. That works.

Hi Baz,

I use the equivalent of Provado on new maple growth when aphids show up,
if I don't the growth is distorted and not vigorous. I only spray where
the infestation is too thick to pick off by hand, and only as needed. If
the maples are in flower, I don't spray.

I use glyphosate around the base of plantings and on the driveway. Also
fungicide when rot gets out of control, but avoid systemic or drenches as
that can easily disrupt the soil balance.

I've never been able to get rid of whitefly, only serious cold has done
it!

-E

--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

Outside, I don't get much problem with anything other than slugs, so I just grow things that aren't instant slug food.

Indoors is a different matter. Red spider is less of a problem after the 6 wet summers we've had, which is fortunate, as it hasn't been warm enough for the predators to be effective.

Mealy bug on the cacti is a nuisance, so I go through the whole collection twice a year and hand pick, and I do spray badly affected plants (it's virtually impossible to get all the mealy bug off a Stenocactus) once or twice in the winter when I haven't got bees and hoverflies coming in and out of the greenhouse.

White fly can be hand picked when in small numbers, and vacuumed if they get out of control. I don't like the yellow sticky papers because they're indiscriminate. But butterwort attracts the whitefly and not the bees and hoverflies. Aphids can be hand picked, or washed off with a jet of water if desperate.

My main problem has been fungus gnats which feast on the fleshy roots of cacti and hippeastrums. I'm defending against those by a layer of chippings on the top of all the pots, which makes them less attractive to egg-laying females. And I've found Nicotiana sylvestris acts as a good fly-paper for them - it's too sticky for them to be able to get off the leaves.

And I do have a barrier of (non-metaldehyde) slug pellets just inside the greenhouse door.

Don't put me in that bracket, please. I've never found an aphid on a supermarket lettuce, but I haven't worried when I've found one on one of my own, so I can't see that I would be complaining.

On 27/06/2013 22:20, kay wrote:
David Hill;986183 Wrote:

I just use insecticides when I have to, at present we have loads of lady
birds around so I am busy moving them around the place.
Things like red spider I do spray as soon as I see them, I can't wait
for biological thingies to arrive as they can take up to 10 days.
In the "Old days" we sprayed everything every 2 weeks, one week for
pests and the other with fungicide.

Indoors is a different matter. Red spider is less of a problem after the
6 wet summers we've had, which is fortunate, as it hasn't been warm
enough for the predators to be effective.

Unfortunately, the only effective spray against red spider mite
(Westland Plant Rescue Bug Killer Ornamental Plants) has been removed
from the market due to its thiamethoxam content. But, IMO, it was the
abamectin in it which was effective against RSM, not the thiamethoxam.
The latter, being a neonicotinoid, had little if any activity against
RSM as they seem to be resistant to neonics. Abamectin has some
systemic activity, so it can act on RSM which avoid the spray and then
feed on leaves sprayed with it.

I have emailed Westland to see if they have any plans to market an
alternative product containing abamectin.

--

Jeff