Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Wildlife Wednesday - aphids

In my garden I'm rather loathe to use insecticides, however, Mr E is quite fond of them, so bugs in my yard can be free-living or killed, depending who has time to be out there!

At the moment, it's my space, so things are free. I have Orchid Beetles on my orchids but I just can't kill them even though they kill all the flowers off. I have aphids on my new jasmine leaves. I have ladybirds and butterflies. Spiders galore. Wasps and bees. It's really quite lovely.

Gardening Australia have a fact sheet about aphids, saying they need controlling because not only do they suck the life out of your plants, but they can spread disease. Rather than spray, they have organic tips for removal - like cutting off the parts that are infested.

I'd like to be that diligent about bugs, but I'm a live and let live person. If the bugs aren't harming me or causing serious problems, I hope that natural control will work. Something like ladybird numbers increasing so they'll eat the aphids. Maybe birds picking them off and eating well.

Maybe I'm a bit too one way, but I think I balance out Mr E's insecticide use :) Sometimes I think my Environmental Biology training sneaks so far through the Agriculture, that I may have needed that balancing up!!

How do you go with bugs?

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