ants AND blackfly on my broad beans

[lulu25]

will the ants eat the blackfly or do i kill them both? and if so how? and what do the blackfly do anyway? (flowers have already set, pretty much - do they bother the beans?)

tia

Blackflies tend to keep to the top of broadbean plants and if you are bothered by them then you can just pinch out the top of the plants - this should not affect the development of the beans.

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that blackflies 'farm' ants i.e. encourage the ants so if you get rid of the blackflies, it should deal with the ants too.

Hope that helps.

the ants now appear to have been rained off

i'm worrying about slugs now...

it's the ants that farm the blackfly - they guard them then milk them for the sweet sticky goo they -er - extrude.

serious blackfly will suck some life out of your plants but like sis says won't do any serious damage. you can blast them off with a hosepipe, or squish them.

getting rid of ants is just about impossible unless you can find their nest and dig it up so the birds eat all the eggs. you can use poison but do you really want to? and more will come

slugs - yes, well, that's another worry...