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Blackfly


Benjamin

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It's a 'puceron noir'.  Greenfly are just pucerons.  Why do you need to know?  Are you going to put up a notice warning them off?

PS Your nasturtiums are Capucines.  You could put 'Pucerons interdits sur les capucines' on your notice.

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Thanks for that Cassis. I had actually got there by going to Wikipedia and typing in Blackfly and it gave me aphid. I then went to Babel Fish and got aphis which helped a bit and then I tried Reverso which gave me puceron!!!!

Thanks also for Capucine; our neighbour Beatrice keeps saying she likes our cappuccino but as we've only ever given her the normal ground stuff from Unico we've always wondered what she's  on about!!

Benjamin

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Was about to post a thread about this for my spinach plants but then found this thread.

Have 6 really lovely spinach plants of which we have been picking leaves from and eating.  Over the past week or so have noticed on the underside of the leaves small black dots, perhaps eggs.  Slowly but surely each plant is starting to whither and die off.  Would this be black fly and what can I do to prevent them bearing in mind I want to eat this plant?

Many thanks

Dotty

 

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Hi Dotty

If they look like eggs they are probably not blackfly, which look like this:

[img]http://ccvipmp.ucdavis.edu/insects/images/blackbean/Blackbeanapt.jpg[/img]

There are lots of different aphids specific to particular plants - black bean aphid, black citrus aphid - but most look quite similar.

Eggs are more likely to be of a butterfly or moth, although I don't know any that are particularly partial to spinach.  There again, aphids are not usually a spinach problem, either!  Birds are the main bugbear.  And downy  mildew.

Phil

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I squish them if there aren't too many.  You may want to wear Marigolds!  Or you can wash them off with mild soapy water.  You can also get bio friendly insecticides based on fatty suspensions which block their pores and suffocate them.  Hahahahahahahaha! Take that, blackfly!  Let us know if it's not blackfly after all.  Off to do some mortaring now.  Ta ta.

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Don't go yet Phil, yes they are black flies and there are loads of them.  Will take forever squishing them and some are in areas I cannot get to. 

Any idea what the bio stuff is called in French, have looked in the supermarket and can't make head nor tail of what to buy.

Ta

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You can definitely get 'green' insect killer in the garden

centres and DIY gardening sections here.  I promise to have a look next time I'm

there. 

Don't worry too much about one dose of dilute washing up liquid.  As long as you don't overdo it you'll not kill anything.  The main danger is if you water pots

regularly using used dishwater - it builds up in the pots and will damage the plants, as Chris says. 

You could just try knocking the bugs off with a jet of water from a spray gun - but adding a squirt of washing up liquid loosens their grip more effectively.

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All of this really depends what you use as a washing up liquid, and in the case of grey water generally, all the other products that you may use, soaps, detergents etc. Although we don't use them, if you look at some of the ingredients on the supermarket shelves it's frightening and include a vast array of chemicals, these will not simply disappear or break down whatever you do and will find their way into any fruit or vegetables you grow if you use them to do the watering, as well as harming the soil structure and good bacteria. Passing water through charcoal is no more than a crude filter and although it may help a little, most micro particulate matter and soluble chemicals will pass straight through. Using a series of mini reed beds would be more effective, natures way.

Chris

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Been to Mr Bricolage today.  Fertiligène (massive national brand, should be commonly available) make a product called "Insecticide pour le jardin biologique".  Clearly a lot of thought and imagination went into that name from the marketing department.  It is 'utilisable en agriculture biologique'.  It is not the fatty emulsion type of insecticide I had in mind.  It is based on a plant extract rotenone so I guess you would classify it with things like pyrethrin.  Apparently you can use it up to the day before picking and it breaks down completely in the soil.  It is also used for flea control on cats and dogs.  The pack was 8 euros and makes 60 to 100 litres of insecticide.  I would prefer to wash the aphids off the spinach and other foodstuffs but if you get a heavy infestation on something and it can't be got rid of any other way, it may be worth a try.

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Thank you Cassis, will take a trip to town tomorrow.

Chrissey P, at the rate the bloomin flies are landing on my spinach there won't be anything left to kill with good old washing up liquid. 

Can anyone tell me, sure its been mentioned on another thread, but what is the conncestion between ants and these aphids? 

And can I put out some of those ant killing devices, the one's that are round and you have to punch holes into.  Wouldn't that kill the blighters off?

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