Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

Controlling aphids It’s the time for aphids to explode in your garden. Whether you are growing roses, peaches, or at least another 400 different plant hosts, aphids will turn up at some stage in your life. Aphids are known as sap-sucking insects. But most importantly, aphids are great at transmitting virus diseases, from which a host plant rarely recovers. Aphids will continue to be a pain right through the summer and well into autumn, so get ready! Parthenogenesis is their game: females produce live young daughters who – in turn – will be able to produce their own off-spring within 10 days or so. This can explode quite quickly! Control has to be swift, to reduce female populations quickly. “Digital control” is the art of squashing the blighters between thumb and forefingers. It’s easy and organic – no pesticides! Biological control has many different versions: Buy yourself some parasitic wasps (Aphidius is the parasite to look for) and you can get them on-line. Alternatively, get some ladybird beetles that d