black fly

[cindy]

My runner beans are covered in black fly. I have been spraying them with dilute washing up liquid but it doesn't seemed to have worked this year. Any ideas please as they are in a real mess and the leaves are geting sticky and the black fly has spread to he actual beans. Thanks

[eleanor2]

cindy we havnt done runner or broad beans this year and havnt seen any black fly thankfully.sorry to hear your news.there are commercial sprays arnt there.but then you eat all the bean so need something organic.hard one.let me know how you get on will you.

[jazzactivist]

The best thing to do is to blast all the leaves and plants with a hosepipe spray, cindy, to get as much of the current blackfly off the plants. Don't use a pressure washer, though, as the jet will ruin your plants. Then, once they are clean, try spraying them form the top of the plants with a garlic spray made up of a few cloves of mashed up garlic to a watering can of warm water. It isn't guaranteed to work, but at least you will have got rid of the first infestation of blackfly which is usually the worst, and your beans will smell of garlic which is nicer for cooking than w/up liquid! Good luck.

[dragonfly]

I have never grown beans cindy but the garlic spray sound like a good idea.

My dahlias have been covered in blackfly but I noticed that there were a lot of hoverflies buzzing around them so decided to leave them and see if they would eat the blackfly. A couple of weeks later there is still some blackfly but a definate improvement. If I had been growing crops I would have wanted to get rid of them sooner so next time will try a spray. Tesco do an organic bug spray.