Tunnel apids

[doofaloofa]

First year in the poly tunnel and we are being troubled by green fly

At present i am manually brushing the bugs off with a small pait brush and squashing, and collecting ladybirds

Any other hints on prevention/control?

[diggernotdreamer]

I always try to have something in flower as it attracts in all the beneficial parasitic wasps who feed on nectar, they can parasitise the aphids by laying their eggs in the body of the aphid, turning it into a golden ball. Spray your plants with seaweed to strengthen them, water the ground well and mulch to keep in the moisture, dry environments seem to attract aphids, open your tunnel daily to allow the air to circulate. Touch wood, I don't really get much trouble with aphids

[Marc]

What plants are the greenfly on doofaloofa? I've not been growing early veg in the tunnel recently as it's always full up with plants for sale.
I have a feeling that the material the cover is made from may affect aphids. I remember seeing different cover plastic being sold as affecting insect life as well as plant growth. Different colours/wavelengths of light and that sort of thing. Is it one of those green coloured reinforced covers?

[doofaloofa]

Thanks DnD, I always wondered what the golden balls were

Marc, the seedlings are the things mainly affected notably tomatos, but also peppers, cabbage, celery, , q's

oinion seedling left alone

When you talk about the cover do you mean the tunnel plastic?

[Green Aura]

We grow tagetes in the polytunnel - one next to each tomato plant. They seem to help with blackfly (never had a problem on years we've grown tagetes - quite bad other years) and as we've never been bothered with greenfly, I'm guessing they help with those too!

[safronsue]

Haven't got a polytunnel , yet, but growing borage has brought loads of ladybirds in to our garden