My runner and french beans are infested with blackfly. Soapy water and
derris liquid have not had a lot of success and although there are lots of
ladybirds this year, they can't cope either. Do I leave them alone, pull all
the plants up or can anyone sugest a different treatment, please.

wrote:

On Tue, 13 Jul 2004 18:32:11 +0100, (sarah)
wrote:

"RichardS" noaccess@invalid wrote:
[-]

I managed to get a tub of generic soft soap from the local chemists -
they had to order it in though (I was surprised when I went there in
the morning, ordered it, and received a phone call in the afternoon of
the same day to say that it had arrived!)

Not particularly cheap at about £5 for a 500g tub, but it does last for
ages.

It was very, very effective against the blackfly on the broad beans,
and this year since the population was knocked back they haven't
returned (so far...).

I might try that first; the only place I'd found it was online at Chase
Organics at something like UKP14 per litre. Which seemed a trifle steep.

You could flood the garden/fill the water feature with Fairy liquid
for that.

Slightly less Ecover, though :-)

regards
sarah


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Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article , "hillier"
writes:
| My runner and french beans are infested with blackfly. Soapy water and
| derris liquid have not had a lot of success and although there are lots
| of ladybirds this year, they can't cope either. Do I leave them alone,
| pull all the plants up or can anyone sugest a different treatment,
| please.

I use Savona (horticultural soft soap), and it works. But you
have to soak the blackfly, so spraying by hand, close up and
under all leaves is essential. If you do that, and it failed,
try again, but perhaps with a slightly stronger solution. Also,
it works better if it is followed by some warm, dry weather, to
shrivel the beggars up.

I don't find Derris very effective.

That last is helpful, as it's all our local shop sells. Do you have a
local supplier of Savona, or do you buy online?

regards
sarah

--
NB. Note change of *usenet* email address:
'amitiel.demon.do.uk' will soon cease to function.
My other email address will remain valid.
Think of it as evolution in action :-)

In article ,
sarah wrote:

I don't find Derris very effective.

That last is helpful, as it's all our local shop sells. Do you have a
local supplier of Savona, or do you buy online?

Effectively online (e.g. by telephone). Green Gardener (though they
are not allowed to list it in their catalogue, for bureaucratic and
monopolistic reasons) or Tuckers (Devon). Either will post a litre,
which lasts for ages.

I don't know if it is any good at eliminating nits from children's
hair, but it probably is, though it isn't licensed for that. Anyway,
it is just soap solution, so is pretty harmless to humans.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.