Blackfly ate my nasturtium

[mousiemousie]

That's it really.

Very sad as I don't have many plants to start with and that one had been flourishing before the blackfly massacre

Poor poor nasturtiums! Occupational hazard for them though. That's why I stopped growing them. That waft of black flies that would come from them every time I passed...

Never got to try eating the flowers in my salad after all that!

You have my sympathies Mousie - the exact same thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago .

I started a thread asking for help saving them, but it was too late and now I've just got a big gap in the border.

Apparently you can squish blackfly with your fingers to kill them - you have to catch them early though.

For you.
I have lots of them.Good job my mum moved away or she would of eaten them all! I haven't tried them yet.

Carolina I would have had to move on it earlier as there were MILLIONS of the little munchers. Sorry to hear of your sad loss though!

Tortoise I thought you meant your mum likes to eat blackfly - but you must mean the nasturtium flowers, right?!

lol mousie yes i mean the flowers!

I spray mine

Try growing poached egg plant with them in the future they attract hoverflies which will kill blackfies. It self seeds and still comes up regulary since I first grew it 7 years ago. I have never had a problem with blackfly on anything in my allotment

that is a cunning plan albatros

if it hadn't been blackfly the cabbage white caterpillar would have got them - they make doilies of them.

poached egg plant? That sounds like a cooked dish! Will have to research it!

And how do I defend against the white caterpillar?

I don't want to spray something I am going to eat!

um - pick them off when they are tiny - before they spread out and munch their way through all the leaves.