"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2/6/04 11:58, in article ,
"Jane
Ransom" wrote:

In article , Jeff
writes
Hi.

What insects will eat greenfly (without then becoming pests
themselves)?
I know about ladybirds, but are there any others?

Hover flies.
A hover fly can lay several hundreds of eggs on a plant and each
larvae
will eat up to 400 greenfly during its life time.

I think that wasps also eat greenfly but am not 100% sure.

Some urglers recommend (swear that the problem disappears)
dotting
those bird peanut feeders round the garden. The theory is that a
bird
will have a coupe of caterpillars for starters, a few peanuts and
then a
few dozen green/black/white fly for pudding!!

It works for us, I must say. We have feeders in the garden and
several in
the greenhouses and both are alive with birds. We have wrens,
blackbirds,
blue tits, chaffinches and sparrows nesting in the greenhouses and
all those
plus thrushes in the garden. They feed on the peanuts in winter and
adults
will take them now, too but we often see them with their beaks
stuffed with
'wrigglers' to take to their babies.

Do you still have the blue tits now that they are needed to cope with
the insect pests?
Mine have gone to their summer quarters.

Franz

"Franz Heymann" wrote in message The
bottom line is that it is not really feasible to control pests
with a population of predators. The food supply is far too irregular
to maintain the defending army.

Franz


I think that, while encouraging beneficial insects into your garden may not
entirely solve your pest problems, it does help, otherwise why wasn't the
world covered in greenfly and other pests before the advent of insecticides.

I also think, as another contributer pointed out futher down the thread,
that the magnitude of the pest problem entirely depends upon your point of
view. If you want your garden to be pristine and completely free of all
pests you will probably have to use some kind of insecticide to kill them
and planting nettles et al will never solve your problems, if however, you
don't mind a few green fly, and would rather not use chemicals, then
cultivating plants that encourage natural predators is beneficial to some
extent.

As an aside, I have used this method, togther with companion planting on my
allotment and have never had to spray with anything in 4 years, which I
think is something of a success :-)

Jeannie

On 3/6/04 15:16, in article , "Franz
Heymann" wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
...
snip
It works for us, I must say. We have feeders in the garden and
several in
the greenhouses and both are alive with birds. We have wrens,
blackbirds,
blue tits, chaffinches and sparrows nesting in the greenhouses and
all those
plus thrushes in the garden. They feed on the peanuts in winter and
adults
will take them now, too but we often see them with their beaks
stuffed with
'wrigglers' to take to their babies.

Do you still have the blue tits now that they are needed to cope with
the insect pests?
Mine have gone to their summer quarters.

Franz


I don't know what you mean by summer quarters but yes, the blue tits are
still here and the Little Owls are back, while the rooks are taking their
annual holiday.

--

Sacha
(remove the weeds after garden to email me)

On 3/6/04 15:16, in article , "Franz
Heymann" wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
...
snip

Apart from their own kind, there are no predators here, no cats and
those
that visited were seen off by our Jack Russells. In fact, one of
the
comments we get so often from customers is what pure joy it is both
to hear
the birdsong and see them come so close to people. It does give a
huge
feeling of privilege.

I agree entirely, except that the birds you mention do not actually
eat greenfly and blackfly to any noticeable extent.

Franz


They don't seem especially fussy as to what they eat. For all I know they
also eat some of the biological control predators we use!
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds after garden to email me)

On Thu, 03 Jun 2004 17:56:42 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

I agree entirely, except that the birds you mention do not actually
eat greenfly and blackfly to any noticeable extent.

Franz


They don't seem especially fussy as to what they eat. For all I know they
also eat some of the biological control predators we use!

LOL!

In article , John Edgar
writes


Do you have the right small birds? They're not all insect eaters.
Bluetits seem to be the best for eating aphids, as others have said, and
I often see them eating aphids on the honeysuckle outside the kitchen
window.

How can you have "wrong" or "right" birds in the garden?

wrong or right for the purpose - in this case eating greenfly. If the
only birds in your garden are seed eaters, you are not going to observe
them eating greenfly.

Surely you
get what arrives don't you?

Of course.
Whether they decide to stay around depends on the conditions that you
encourage, but that isn't really relevant to the point I was making.

You can't choose them. I can sort of see
your point though. I cannot stand magpies and chase them away at every
opportunity, so I suppose, for me, they must be the wrong birds. I do
the same with grey squirrels - nasty creatures.

Elegant movers, and not so nasty if you're in a city where squirrels are
not over abundant and any sort of wildlife is welcome.
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

Kay Easton wrote in
:

In article , John Edgar
writes


Do you have the right small birds? They're not all insect eaters.
Bluetits seem to be the best for eating aphids, as others have said, and
I often see them eating aphids on the honeysuckle outside the kitchen
window.

How can you have "wrong" or "right" birds in the garden?

wrong or right for the purpose - in this case eating greenfly. If the
only birds in your garden are seed eaters, you are not going to observe
them eating greenfly.

In my garden, I have observed blue tits and I think also great tits
rummaging round the tips of my rose bushes and honeysuckles. They don't
seem to damage the plants, so I have always assumed they are eating
greenfly ( I don't get that close, so maybe they are up to something else -
dunno what tho).

At any rate, those plants don't have a greenfly problem, though I did find
the odd one here and there when I looked today.

Victoria
--
gardening on a north-facing hill
in South-East Cornwall
--

On Thu, 3 Jun 2004 08:54:04 +0100, Kay Easton wrote:

Do you have the right small birds? They're not all insect eaters.
Bluetits seem to be the best for eating aphids, as others have said, and
I often see them eating aphids on the honeysuckle outside the kitchen
window.

When it comes to birds, the UK differs so greatly from the PacNW
that discussion is moot: entirely different species. But it is
true that encouraging certain species can benefit the garden.

We have a little bird here, the bushtit. (You may have it in the
UK, too, but heaven's only knows if the name is used in the same
way.) I enjoy putting out lumps of suet for them in the winter.
Hang a nice lump of suet from a string so the rats and raccoons
and such can't get at it, and watch the bushtits go to town. I've
seen over a dozen on a single lump.

(They're charming little birds that seem to travel in flocks of
thirty or forty and come swinging through every fifteen minutes
or so as they make their rounds.

I put up three or four such feeding stations every year -- suet
is very cheap at the local grocery store.

Mirabile dictu, it turns out that the bushtits, encouraged by the
suet, also work hard at cleaning up the garden. I had the great
pleasure of watching one closeup through a window while it was
working over a Cytisus battandieri. It took a while to figure out
just what my little feathered friend was doing, but eventually I
could see that he (she?) was methodically searching for, and
eating, coccoons of small caterpillars. My C. battandieri is
alway chewed up by some small caterpillar, and they evidently
pupate in situ.

Next winter, suet in the cytisus.


--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
[change "atlantic" to "pacific" and
"invalid" to "net" to reply by email]

On 3/6/04 23:28, in article
, "Victoria Clare"
wrote:
snip In my garden, I have observed blue tits and I think also great tits
rummaging round the tips of my rose bushes and honeysuckles. They don't
seem to damage the plants, so I have always assumed they are eating
greenfly ( I don't get that close, so maybe they are up to something else -
dunno what tho).

At any rate, those plants don't have a greenfly problem, though I did find
the odd one here and there when I looked today.

Victoria

I have the same impression from the blue tits we see in the garden. We grow
few roses so perhaps we have fewer greenfly, as a result. ;-)
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds after garden to email me)

"Jeannie" wrote in message
...
"Franz Heymann" wrote in message
The
bottom line is that it is not really feasible to control pests
with a population of predators. The food supply is far too
irregular
to maintain the defending army.

Franz


I think that, while encouraging beneficial insects into your garden
may not
entirely solve your pest problems, it does help, otherwise why
wasn't the
world covered in greenfly and other pests before the advent of
insecticides.

To a first approximation it was. Why else did anybody bother to
develop insecticides? {:-))

I also think, as another contributer pointed out futher down the
thread,
that the magnitude of the pest problem entirely depends upon your
point of
view. If you want your garden to be pristine and completely free of
all
pests you will probably have to use some kind of insecticide to kill
them
and planting nettles et al will never solve your problems, if
however, you
don't mind a few green fly, and would rather not use chemicals, then
cultivating plants that encourage natural predators is beneficial to
some
extent.

As an aside, I have used this method, togther with companion
planting on my
allotment and have never had to spray with anything in 4 years,
which I
think is something of a success :-)

I would agree with that. (Or were you just lucky? {:-))

Franz

"Sacha" wrote in message
k...
On 3/6/04 15:16, in article ,
"Franz
Heymann" wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
...
snip
It works for us, I must say. We have feeders in the garden and
several in
the greenhouses and both are alive with birds. We have wrens,
blackbirds,
blue tits, chaffinches and sparrows nesting in the greenhouses
and
all those
plus thrushes in the garden. They feed on the peanuts in winter
and
adults
will take them now, too but we often see them with their beaks
stuffed with
'wrigglers' to take to their babies.

Do you still have the blue tits now that they are needed to cope
with
the insect pests?
Mine have gone to their summer quarters.

Franz


I don't know what you mean by summer quarters but yes, the blue tits
are
still here and the Little Owls are back, while the rooks are taking
their
annual holiday.

I think the blue, great and coal tits disperse into the woods in the
vicinity during the summer season.. They really only overwinter in
and around our garden. The sparrows, chaffinches, goldfinches and
greenfinches are here the year round.
{That is, if we continue feeding them. Pure cupboard love. {:-((

Franz

On 4/6/04 22:06, in article , "Franz
Heymann" wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
k...
snip
I don't know what you mean by summer quarters but yes, the blue tits
are
still here and the Little Owls are back, while the rooks are taking
their
annual holiday.

I think the blue, great and coal tits disperse into the woods in the
vicinity during the summer season.. They really only overwinter in
and around our garden. The sparrows, chaffinches, goldfinches and
greenfinches are here the year round.
{That is, if we continue feeding them. Pure cupboard love. {:-((

Sensible creatures! We seem to have blue tits all year round. BUT the
great tits we had earlier do seem to have off somewhere. I'd love to know
why all these birds follow these patterns - the summer holiday of the rooks
and Little Owls fascinate us. The owls go first and then come back about
now and start that slightly wussy 'wooooo' thing at about 3pm and again as
it starts to get light. It's almost as if the rooks go 'on holiday' and say
to the Little Owls, "Okay, we've been waking them up at 4-5ish every
morning, now it's your turn". Strange but true! AND, we have seen Little
Owl babies up in the Cedar tree (don't know about nests) using it as a perch
while yelling to and fro with Mum and that tree is the hub of our rookery.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds after garden to email me)

Xref: kermit uk.rec.gardening:208634


"Sacha" wrote in message
k...
On 4/6/04 22:06, in article ,
"Franz
Heymann" wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
k...
snip
I don't know what you mean by summer quarters but yes, the blue
tits
are
still here and the Little Owls are back, while the rooks are
taking
their
annual holiday.

I think the blue, great and coal tits disperse into the woods in
the
vicinity during the summer season.. They really only overwinter
in
and around our garden. The sparrows, chaffinches, goldfinches and
greenfinches are here the year round.
{That is, if we continue feeding them. Pure cupboard love.
{:-((

Sensible creatures! We seem to have blue tits all year round. BUT
the
great tits we had earlier do seem to have off somewhere. I'd love
to know
why all these birds follow these patterns - the summer holiday of
the rooks
and Little Owls fascinate us. The owls go first and then come back
about
now and start that slightly wussy 'wooooo' thing at about 3pm

Ours do it at 3 am

and again as
it starts to get light. It's almost as if the rooks go 'on holiday'
and say
to the Little Owls, "Okay, we've been waking them up at 4-5ish every
morning, now it's your turn". Strange but true! AND, we have seen
Little
Owl babies up in the Cedar tree (don't know about nests) using it as
a perch
while yelling to and fro with Mum and that tree is the hub of our
rookery.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds after garden to email me)

Xref: kermit uk.rec.gardening:208634


"Sacha" wrote in message
k...
On 4/6/04 22:06, in article ,
"Franz
Heymann" wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
k...
snip
I don't know what you mean by summer quarters but yes, the blue
tits
are
still here and the Little Owls are back, while the rooks are
taking
their
annual holiday.

I think the blue, great and coal tits disperse into the woods in
the
vicinity during the summer season.. They really only overwinter
in
and around our garden. The sparrows, chaffinches, goldfinches and
greenfinches are here the year round.
{That is, if we continue feeding them. Pure cupboard love.
{:-((

Sensible creatures! We seem to have blue tits all year round. BUT
the
great tits we had earlier do seem to have off somewhere. I'd love
to know
why all these birds follow these patterns - the summer holiday of
the rooks
and Little Owls fascinate us. The owls go first and then come back
about
now and start that slightly wussy 'wooooo' thing at about 3pm

Ours do it at 3 am

and again as
it starts to get light. It's almost as if the rooks go 'on holiday'
and say
to the Little Owls, "Okay, we've been waking them up at 4-5ish every
morning, now it's your turn". Strange but true! AND, we have seen
Little
Owl babies up in the Cedar tree (don't know about nests) using it as
a perch
while yelling to and fro with Mum and that tree is the hub of our
rookery.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds after garden to email me)

On 6/6/04 16:13, in article , "Franz
Heymann" wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
k...
snip
I'd love
to know
why all these birds follow these patterns - the summer holiday of
the rooks
and Little Owls fascinate us. The owls go first and then come back
about
now and start that slightly wussy 'wooooo' thing at about 3pm

Ours do it at 3 am

That, too. But I *expect* owls to do that at 3am.
snip

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds after garden to email me)