Hi.

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

How do I either encourage ladybirds into my garden or breed them
myself? Ditto any other useful insects.

TIA, Jeff

"Jeff" wrote in message
m...
Hi.

How do I either encourage ladybirds into my garden or breed them
myself? Ditto any other useful insects.

TIA, Jeff

I seem to remember a ladybird breeding kit being shown on one of the stalls
at Chelsea during the BBC coverage. Can't remeber who was selling it though
:-(
Letting nettles grow in your garden will attract many beneficial insects
including ladybirds, parasitic wasps, lacewings and hoverflies which will
all act as natural pest control.

Jeannie

"Jeff" wrote in message
m...
Hi.

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

How do I either encourage ladybirds into my garden or breed them
myself? Ditto any other useful insects.

TIA, Jeff

You will never get enough predatory insects to make a significant impact on
greenfly. Some people here say birds will eat them (like tits and finches)
however no one has told that to the said birds on my garden who seem to
ignore them.
--
Tumbleweed

Remove my socks for email address

On Wed, 2 Jun 2004 08:57:55 +0100, "Tumbleweed"
wrote:


"Jeff" wrote in message
om...
Hi.

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

How do I either encourage ladybirds into my garden or breed them
myself? Ditto any other useful insects.

TIA, Jeff

You will never get enough predatory insects to make a significant impact on
greenfly. Some people here say birds will eat them (like tits and finches)
however no one has told that to the said birds on my garden who seem to
ignore them.

That was our experience too. I saw tits picking insects off the
undersides of leaves, but they completely ignored the greenfly.
Spraying with soapy water as recommended here was cheap, simple and
effective.

"Tumbleweed" wrote in
:


"Jeff" wrote in message
m...
Hi.

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

You will never get enough predatory insects to make a significant
impact on greenfly. Some people here say birds will eat them (like
tits and finches) however no one has told that to the said birds on my
garden who seem to ignore them.

This kind of thing does very much depend on what your neighbours are doing
and what the wider local wildlife situation is like.

I have few pest problems in my garden here in Cornwall, surrounded by non-
intensively-farmed fields and rather neglected woodland.

In my small Cheshire garden, I seemed to be waging constant and ineffective
war on all kinds of pests. I'm pretty sure this was because the local bird
population was tiny, and mostly pigeons!

I don't know if the fact that every other gardener seemed to have a garage
filled with chemical deterrants of various sorts was cause or effect -
maybe a bit of both.

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

Do you have lots of ants? In my garden they very actively farm the greenfly
and blackfly meaning that beneficial insects are kept well away.

Paul DS.

On 2 Jun 2004 00:50:01 -0700, (Jeff) wrote:

Hi.

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

How do I either encourage ladybirds into my garden or breed them
myself? Ditto any other useful insects.

TIA, Jeff


Roseclear 3 keeps them away and makes the roses grow pretty well too.
John
In limine sapientiae

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!!
--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason, put ransoms
at jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see

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

"Victoria Clare" wrote in message
. 240.23...
"Tumbleweed" wrote in
:


"Jeff" wrote in message
m...
Hi.

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

You will never get enough predatory insects to make a significant
impact on greenfly. Some people here say birds will eat them (like
tits and finches) however no one has told that to the said birds on my
garden who seem to ignore them.

This kind of thing does very much depend on what your neighbours are doing
and what the wider local wildlife situation is like.

I have few pest problems in my garden here in Cornwall, surrounded by non-
intensively-farmed fields and rather neglected woodland.

In my small Cheshire garden, I seemed to be waging constant and
ineffective
war on all kinds of pests. I'm pretty sure this was because the local bird
population was tiny, and mostly pigeons!

I don't know if the fact that every other gardener seemed to have a garage
filled with chemical deterrants of various sorts was cause or effect -
maybe a bit of both.

Victoria
--

Havent sprayed in my garden for donkeys years, lots of small birds (and
pigeons), some plants get covered in greenfly (and decimated by them).
Lupins being a prime example. I know for a fact that the next door neighbour
on one side doesnt spray, the other garden is a fair way away, just grass
fields behind which get cut but not sprayed.

Its often used an excuse that you must have been spraying or someone nearby
must be spraying, if you have got lots of pests. It aint so. The simple fact
is that generally pests like greenfly can vastly outbreed their predators (e
xcept in artificial circmstances such as the parasitic wasps in greenhouses)
and that their numbers are controlled either through seasonal factors (for
example winter) or shortage of food. Pretending that nature will strike a
balance which includes mopping up all the greenfly and caterpillars on your
plants is just that, a pretence.

--
Tumbleweed

Remove my socks for email address

"Tumbleweed" wrote in
:

Its often used an excuse that you must have been spraying or someone
nearby must be spraying, if you have got lots of pests. It aint so.
The simple fact is that generally pests like greenfly can vastly
outbreed their predators (e xcept in artificial circmstances such as
the parasitic wasps in greenhouses) and that their numbers are
controlled either through seasonal factors (for example winter) or
shortage of food. Pretending that nature will strike a balance which
includes mopping up all the greenfly and caterpillars on your plants
is just that, a pretence.

I'm not pretending. Nor did I say that 'nature would strike a balance'.

I still think, (having tried it), that gardening 'organically' in a
small garden surrounded by other non-'organic' gardeners is a bit
pointless. Your stuff will be affected by other people's approach: you
can't pretend you are on a desert island when the council is squirting
weedkiller through your fence.

If everyone else in the area has the same problem, it may (or may not)
not be caused by the use of pesticides, and it might well not go away if
they weren't used.

I don't know of any detailed tests. Do you? So far, we seem to be
working with anecdotal evidence on both sides of the discussion.

I genuinely don't have greenfly problems here. If they aren't being
controlled by predators, what other factors would you suggest? It could
be the soil or climate, but I'm not clear how those interact with
greenfly populations.

The difference in bird and insect life is one of the more obvious
things. I still sometimes get aphid problems on houseplants: putting
them outside usually clears them.

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

"Paul D.Smith" wrote in message
. net...
Do you have lots of ants? In my garden they very actively farm the
greenfly
and blackfly meaning that beneficial insects are kept well away.

Paul DS.


Oooh oooh Nick McClaren will 'ave you for that heresy!!
(Even though they do the same in mine)

--
Tumbleweed

Remove my socks for email address

"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.

if you can see them wriggling, then either your birds are remarkably tame
and let you get within 6 inches, or the wrigglers are not greenfly!

--
Tumbleweed

Remove my socks for email address

"Victoria Clare" wrote in message
.209...
"Tumbleweed" wrote in
:

Its often used an excuse that you must have been spraying or someone
nearby must be spraying, if you have got lots of pests. It aint so.
The simple fact is that generally pests like greenfly can vastly
outbreed their predators (e xcept in artificial circmstances such as
the parasitic wasps in greenhouses) and that their numbers are
controlled either through seasonal factors (for example winter) or
shortage of food. Pretending that nature will strike a balance which
includes mopping up all the greenfly and caterpillars on your plants
is just that, a pretence.

I'm not pretending. Nor did I say that 'nature would strike a balance'.

I still think, (having tried it), that gardening 'organically' in a
small garden surrounded by other non-'organic' gardeners is a bit
pointless. Your stuff will be affected by other people's approach: you
can't pretend you are on a desert island when the council is squirting
weedkiller through your fence.#

Thats not the case with my garden though.


If everyone else in the area has the same problem, it may (or may not)
not be caused by the use of pesticides, and it might well not go away if
they weren't used.

I don't know of any detailed tests. Do you? So far, we seem to be
working with anecdotal evidence on both sides of the discussion.

tests for what? Its a fact that greenfly populations are not controlled by
predators. Thet grow, thrive and survive untol the cold weather comes.


I genuinely don't have greenfly problems here. If they aren't being
controlled by predators, what other factors would you suggest? It could
be the soil or climate, but I'm not clear how those interact with
greenfly populations.

The difference in bird and insect life is one of the more obvious
things. I still sometimes get aphid problems on houseplants: putting
them outside usually clears them.

Victoria
--


A variety of factors makes the difference. randomness for one, nature is
like that. next year I might not have any and you might have lots . Also,
do you spray with water or soap or pinch them off when you see them? I dont,
maybe I should, as killing one greenfly at the start will prevent a huge
number a few weeks later. But is that ecological? is killing them by a
different means any better?

Also, the plants you grow. Not all the plants in my garden have a greenfly
problem, in fact its just the apple and lupins AFAICS. The lilies have a few
lily beetles, but no greenfly, and until I cut it down last week a small
patch of stinging nettles was *covered* in blackfly.

--
Tumbleweed

Remove my socks for email address

On 2/6/04 16:21, in article ,
"Tumbleweed" wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
...
snip 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.

if you can see them wriggling, then either your birds are remarkably tame
and let you get within 6 inches, or the wrigglers are not greenfly!

They are *extremely* tame not to say downright over-familiar! They whizz
past our noses, literally inches away - a chaffinch nearly hit me on the
head yesterday as we both went through the same doorway! Two years ago, my
stepson left his fleece hanging from a wire in the greenhouse and forgot it
overnight. Next morning, a wren was building a nest in the collar, so he
couldn't use that for a while. And another wren built a nest in some bits
and pieces of equipment stored a couple of feet above a potting bench where
there is always someone at work.
These last two years a wren has built her nest *under* a potting bench in
one of the houses and happily flits in and out, whoever is there.
The small double has a lot of stuff actually planted in it, and one side is
a great long bank of Fuchsias. People are walking up and down past them all
day choosing bedding plants etc. and those Fuchsias get many nests in them.
Cake and bread crumbs from the tea room go into a cardboard box in the big
double and birds flock to that. It's only inches away from the till and
there are people moving around constantly, walking past it, watching the
birds and so forth.
They hop onto tables while customers are eating - some flap them away - most
watch in fascination. They hop onto the table in the greenhouse when the
staff are having their morning coffee and cake and if you put your cake down
for a second, they're onto it like lightning! The water trough in the
garden has a small fountain in it and customers sitting at the tables nearby
often find themselves taking part in some bird's bath time, like it or not!

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