South East/London Gardeners - are you afflicted this year?

[LittleWingSoul]

Seem to have the worse infestation of black and green fly I've ever experienced!I have an elder tree at the back of the garden and if you stand underneath it you get "rained" on with the detritis from the black fly! Can't treat an area the size of the entire garden with a a squirty bottle of water and washing up liquid... Do I just live and let live? What's different this year?

*the worst

I have terrible terrible black fly infestation on my Philadelphus. Half the plant is just thick with it to the point of being unable to see the plant at all. I could barely be classed as a gardener really, but I just keep hosing them off. I'm sure there should be a better solution and I'm keen to hear what anyone else is doing. I'm in the East of England.

I agree, about a week ago mine was the worst I have ever seen, blackfly not green, the birds seems to deal with the green, it has calmed down a bit now, I hope natural predators are getting on top of it, though I have not seen a single ladybird this year. My worst affected plant was my guelder rose, plus whatever was underneath plant zero.

I’m in the south east and I have to be honest, it’s really not that bad here!
There are clusters on my roses but that is the same every year.

My roses have a vast amount of greenfly this year. I'm hoping the ladybirds or the blue tits will come to the rescue.

I'm probably tempting fate here, but no sign of aphids and I'm in the SE.

I see a lot of ladybirds every time I go in the garden though, so hopefully they're eating any that venture this way. However, my garden is near the top of a hill, and very breezy, which tends to make things happen a little later than down in the valley, so the arrival of aphids may be about to happen.

Yes but am also only just seeing the ladybirds arriving! Think the late cold snap delayed everything!

So many aphids! And the ants! The only place I have seen ladybirds is on my apple tree, procreating! They need to stop having it off and eat the aphids instead.

Yes, many black fly and green fly. On more plants than ever before. I've dug used tea leaves into the ground around my roses and ordered some ladybird larvae for the rest. Worked well last year. Funnily enough the two rose bushes that are next to a birds nest and bird bath are completely clear - I often see tiny birds fly in and out.

I'm in the north west and have lots of green flies and some of the reddish ones, no black that I've seen. And barely any ladybirds yet.

@MrsJamin

So many aphids! And the ants! The only place I have seen ladybirds is on my apple tree, procreating! They need to stop having it off and eat the aphids instead.

Their larvae (weird looking little beasties) eat aphids too I believe, so hopefully they're providing more troops for you.

I'm in the Se and my garden is overrun with black aphids. They are on everything! I have just ordered ladybird larvae to try and get it under control.

I'm in SE, and have seen ladybirds this morning, so I'm hopeful.

SE London here, with tonnes of the things, but they are handily only going for the patch of alkanet I leave for the bees so far.

I’ve only seen two ladybirds so far this year.

Knew this was going to be about black fly - yes, absolutely dreadful this year (London). And ants coming into the house for the first time ever. I assume something to do with the late cold spring.

I noticed several empty bottles of Rose Clear in my neighbour's recycling bin yesterday, which made me sad for all the bees etc it must have killed. My garden's still buzzing, thankfully.

Haven't spotted the flies yet..... but am pulling out hundreds of acorn seedlings. Apparently it's a mast year for them?!

Not so bad here, but two broods of bluetits tend to scour the plants fairly effectively.

Their larvae (weird looking little beasties) eat aphids too I believe, so hopefully they're providing more troops for you.
Yes - it's the larvae that eat the aphids so the al fresco action is just what you want!

There are always huge revolting infestations on the elders round here, dropping sticky crap everywhere. 🤮 I'm SE and is the same badness (ie pretty gross and bad) as every year, but every year I am struck anew by the unpleasantness of it and comment thinking it's worse than ever. Then I think back and realise its not 😂

I also have tons of those things @BSJohnson - what are they?

The plant or the black bits on it, @1jan2021 ?

The plant (weed) is blue alkanet, and the black things are blackfly/aphids.

Thanks @BSJohnson - I meant the plant. It is everywhere in my garden this year!

Totally, green is now giving way to black in my garden. I didnt notice them last year at all. I go out twice a day and rub the little sods off the buds on my roses. So squishy, it's vile I'm trialling a home made garlic spray but not sure if it's working yet.

Northern home counties here, and it's a bit of a mixture. We have quite a lot of aphids and their ant companions, but the worst infestation seems to be woolly aphids on my conifers. And cuckoo spit on my rosemary.

There were a lot of ladybirds about earlier in the season, but they seem to have all disappeared just now. Hoping they've bred and we'll get some more soon.

I was lifting beetles from the apple tree and putting them on my roses earlier, I was getting desperate!