Green Beans and Black Fy

Crag30

I seem to be having a nightmare this year. With the temperatures so up and down in the spring affecting my tomatoes which I couldn't do much about, but now the dreaded Black Fly is having a go at my beans with a .vengeance
Last time this happened I used Bub Clear, as from reading the bottle it seemed to be the right stuff, but the beans didn't think so, and I lost the lot.

I have been reading about Soft Soap and have some on order.  Has anybody else a solution to ridding thr things?

RAS

squish them gently with your thumb and forefinger. Messy but effective.

Soft soap is just a bit of soap in water, maybe with a few additives. Make sure you dilute to instructions and test on a few plants before committing.

Crag30

Thank You . I've been squishing them but can't keep up. 

RAS

In that case, get a litre of water and a bar of basic soap and make some slightly soapy water.., add a couple of spoons of vinegar and spray.  All you are trying to do is damage the insects breathing tubes, it may also damage any protective coating they have.

twopenny

I've cannon sprayed them with the hosepipe. Does two jobs in one. Knocks off the blackfly and irrigates. Now I have lower pressure it's not that effictive.
I've also used washing up liquid strong in water and sprayed them. Some results but it needs doing more often.
This year my chives, garlic chives have been plastered in blackfly. I've given up.
Most fruit seems to have been poor to awful this year.

Sapindus

In future, plant more pollen and nectar sources that will attract predatory insects such as hoverfly, and provide hibernating sites as well.  

Apodemus

I've got lots of blackfly on the brassicas, but nothing on the green beans - probably because there are no leaves left after the ravages of the snails!

Chloe_G

I had blackfly of epic proportion on my runner beans - I have never seen anything like it, the plants were collapsing under the attack. Loads of ants farming them....  I tried all the remedies, nothing really worked.  Eventually counted 6 ladybirds on one of the wigwams - they just sat around, full up I guess!  The blackfly seem to have practically gone now, but this is the worst year for my runners - out of 27 plants, I've only harvested around 30 beans and they are stringy already!

Farway

Chloe_G said:

I had blackfly of epic proportion on my runner beans - I have never seen anything like it, the plants were collapsing under the attack. Loads of ants farming them....  I tried all the remedies, nothing really worked.  Eventually counted 6 ladybirds on one of the wigwams - they just sat around, full up I guess!  The blackfly seem to have practically gone now, but this is the worst year for my runners - out of 27 plants, I've only harvested around 30 beans and they are stringy already!

I had similar blackfly last year, but no beans at all once snails had finished, however there is hope because this year no blackfly and very few snails but nothing I've done differently to account for it

Chloe_G

I was putting it down to the weather and maybe lack of blackfly predators last year... the only other thing I can think of is that I had a large area of nettles in one corner of my veg plot which was getting bigger year on year and is a massive source of irritation to the neighbour who backs onto that corner (used to see him hanging over and trying to cut them down and think he once removed his fence panel and dug a lot out!!) I read that I could suppress them by putting damp newspaper down and covering with grass cutting mulch - thought this would never work but it has - neighbour is happier but maybe the blackfly would have been happier on the nettles!

Crag30

RAS said:

squish them gently with your thumb and forefinger. Messy but effective.

Soft soap is just a bit of soap in water, maybe with a few additives. Make sure you dilute to instructions and test on a few plants before committing.

I had no instructions on the bottle for the Soft Soap but added 2 teaspoons per litre, and tried on a few of my plants but it seems like the earths poulation of black fly is coming to my beans for a wash now, so I think i need to up the doseage