Arg! HUGE aphid invasion - seriously it's like nothing I've ever seen before!

[theyoungvisiter]

Really weird - our buddleia, which we've had forever, has suddenly developed a HUGE aphid problem. Every single leaf is literally encrusted with them, and the poor plant is soaked in honeydew and wilting visibly.

Any ideas what I could/should do? I am reluctant to spray with soap and water as the aphids have attracted a big ladybird population and the soap would harm them too.

I also wondered about a hard prune and burning the cuttings, in the hope that the ladybirds would fly off. I know it's the wrong time, but the buddleia is really hardy and I wouldn't be too upset if it died anyway tbh.

We had this last year, followed by swarming ladybirds. millions of them.

what did you do? Just leave it for the ladybirds to tidy up?

Couldn't do anything but sweep them up! They were everywhere

blurgh

Just wait for the ladybirds to tidy it up. It should work out perfectly well for you. Give it another couple of weeks and then see how it's looking. You might want to feed the plant and give it a bit more water if it gets into a dry spell, just to make sure it recovers when the ladybirds have done their work.

I think you'll find it is (baby) ladybirds

Spose to mean we're in for a bumper summer!

I've just had this on my blackcurrants. Not much sign of any ladybirds though so I blasted the worst of them off with the garden hose.

Agree with chix - I started with soap and water on my tomatoes, but soon found that water alone worked just as well to blast them off.. actually found it quite a soothing way to end the summer evening/start the day..

takes me back to '76. (was little) We had gazillions of greenfly then millions of ladybirds. I used to race them with the neighbours boy.
then I discovered provoked ladybirds do bite.
(fond memories)

Unfortunately we have rubbish water pressure in our garden so it would not be a blast - more a trickle!

Legs crossed, I'm pretty sure it's not baby ladybirds. I know what ladybird eggs and larvae look like, and it's definitely not that. Tis aphids for sure!

Although there are also lots of ladybird eggs and larvae on the plant too, which is pleasing

I have decided to take a watching brief and monitor the ladybird's handling of the situation, and only intervene with chemical backup if nec!

PS, thanks for the warning kitten. Eeek! Hopefully mine are too busy munching and shagging.

I met someone who used to work on agricultural pest control, and the way they got a big aphid population to experiment on was to use insecticides in their greenhouses - it killed off all the ladybirds, but a few aphids would survive, and were then free to multiply unchecked.