101 0rganic ways to get rid of aphids(greenfly and blackfly)

[Andy Hamilton]

Just been down to my allotment to discover that millions of aphids are all over my fennel. It's not even April yet, there should not be that many! I think it will be a pretty bad year for aphids this year as the winter was so mild. So I thought I would start this thread for some ideas of how to get rid of them.

1. I found a ladybird on the fence on the way out. I picked it up and put it on the fennel leaves. Hopefully it will eat its fill!
2. Washing up liquid (ecover) in a spray bottle, squirt the little beggers.

[Shirley]

3. squish them with your fingers.
4. pay the kids to squish them with their fingers - warning... kids can be a bit heavy handed and might just squish the plants too :)

[Trinity]

1. Blast 'em with the hose! (perhaps not the more tender crops).

2. As well as ladybirds... Lacewing and hoverfly larvae adore feasting on aphids.

I have heard on the grape vine that many people swear by shredding banana skins and burying them around plants. Never tried it though... anyone else

[Milims]

Blow your ciggy smoke over them!!!

Napalm or 5 gallons of petrol and a box of matches!! ;-)

[the.fee.fairy]

going alng the cigarette smoke line - steep some tobacco in water, then strain it and spray it on the plants.

[Clara]

Basil.

Worked gobsmackingly well last year. I had a row of beans covered in blackfly, ants farming them like billy-o. So before the next row of beans came up I planted a few basil plants in between the two rows - not a single aphid crossed the line.

Clara x.

[Seagull]

I noticed aphids on the mint plant that I bought from the garden store. Some green ones and some very small almost feathery looking white things (I think they were aphids). There weren't all that many, so I took some scotch tape and made a roll with the sticky side out and dabbed them up with it. It seemed to work well, I'll probably have to repeat the treatment though.

[Shirley]

Interesting re the basil... my basil was infested with aphids!!!

We've got loads of ladybirds in the garden at the moment.. hardly saw one last year but this year I counted about 15 or so at the weekend, several of them were mating - hopefully lots of eggs will be laid as it's the larvae that eat the most aphids YAY!

[Clara]

Strange indeed.

The basil that I used in between my rows of beans was bought in a market, it had smaller pointier leaves than normal and smelled quite strong (sort of medicinal, aniseedish, strange). I wouldn´t have used it for cooking because of this. Sorry but I couldn´t tell you the variety, perhaps some Spanish type?

I bought some again this year but it got killed off in a late frost, so I´m having to raise the normal sort from seed for this purpose. Let´s see what happens.....

Clara x.

[Trinity]

Strange indeed.

The basil that I used in between my rows of beans was bought in a market, it had smaller pointier leaves than normal and smelled quite strong (sort of medicinal, aniseedish, strange). I wouldn´t have used it for cooking because of this. Sorry but I couldn´t tell you the variety, perhaps some Spanish type?

Clara x.

We used to grow something in Hawaii that sounds exactly the same. It was Thai Basil if I remember correctly...

Trin
xxx

[flower]

sorry, lost track of the number but......

sprinkle a light coating of plain flour over the whole plant (try to get backs of leaves too)
next time you water...no more aphids