After the success of my chilli growing exploits last year (which are still going strong both at home and in the studio) I've gone one better now that I've moved to a house with a useful garden. This year, I have tomatoes, strawberries, mint and more chillies on the go (on the grow?) and I'm learning a lot about pest control as a result.
You may have noticed that there are more greenfly than usual this year. Possibly something to do with a milder winter, but a pain whatever the reason. I followed the general hints and tips for controlling them - spraying the plants with a washing up liquid solution had a bit of an effect but the marigolds seem to be infested themselves rather than repelling the little blighters.
In light of all this, I've gone all out and enlisted some help. Say hello to my little friend!...
Nothing Scarface sinister about it, but there's definitely something cool about bringing in animals purely to eat other animals. Like playing God and setting up your own little food chain! Despite looking nothing much like their elders, these are ladybird larvae - something I didn't realise until this killing campaign began. They don't do anything to harm the precious fruit, but they're voracious predators of greenfly aphids and their ilk.
I bought a batch online at Gardening Naturally, not really knowing what to expect and they arrived at the start of the month, about 30 tiny bugs a couple of mm long in a plastic box. As directed, I transferred them to the plants in the garden, both tomatoes and whatever else was infested - roses and sweet peas mainly, and watched them immediately set about devouring the aphids, even ones much bigger than themselves!
They all seemed to vanish after that and I feared for their well-being, but I found one again yesterday and it was much bigger - looking more like the one in the pic, closer to 1cm long. They're obviously eating very well!
Hopefully they'll do their thing, clear all the greenfly and turn into adult ladybirds which seem to be pitifully absent from the garden so far this year (though I have just transferred some in that I pinched from the fields by the house!) Then my tomatoes and strawberries will be safe for the summer - we'll be needing those strawberries for the Pimms!
