Greenfly

Discovered today that greenfly love fennel - oh dear, here they come! Also known as aphids they are prolific - they can be born pregnant so you can imagine how quickly they can spread!
There aren't very many yet and I'm hoping that some friendly ladybirds, lacewings or hoverflies will sort out the problem soon so that I get to eat some of my fennel too! I'd been blaming slugs for chopping them down at the stem and then I found the little monsters in a curled up leaf :-(
 

Comments

  1. G'day to you, I had a same problem last season. And not wanting to use harmfull sprays I used Earth natural dishwasing liquid deluted it in
    One litre spray bottle and added one tea spoon of crushed
    Garlic...and did spot spray daily for a while and that seems to have worked for me...it got rid of othe pests to...I also used it on my grape vines with good result. There might be other ideas I just thought you might wont to hear this one...Cheers ..Roy...

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    1. Thank you Roy
      I shall inspect again this evening and may take some detergent with me, just in case.
      I think I'll also try planting a few french marigolds close to the fennel - hopefully that will encourage hoverflies though the dreadful weather isn't proving popular with the more helpful insects this year!

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  2. Nasty little beggars, only seen 1 or 2 this year, very odd year for certain insects here. Still not seen ANY Honey bees down the plot yet either.

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    1. Not much buglife at all so far. Saw one ladybird larva and put it on the fennel!

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Please leave a comment. I'm very pleased to receive corrections or confirmations of my identification of the creatures we've spotted on the allotment.