Hello,

I am growing some beans and they have patches of black flies on. The
beans seem to be growing regardless. Should I be worried or is it just
a cosmetic problem? I would think that if the flies are drinking sap
or something, they are using energy that the plant would otherwise use
to grow, so perhaps I would be best rid of them?

I have tried washing up liquid but it doesn't seem to have done
anything. I looked on a couple of bottles of insecticides but they all
say not to use when in flower because they will poison the bees. Of
course, the beans are in flower so does that mean I cannot use
anything stronger now? Was I supposed to spray them earlier in the
season?

Thanks,
Stephen

PS please see my other bean question.

'Stephen[_5_ Wrote:
> ;808128']Hello,
>
> I am growing some beans and they have patches of black flies on. The
> beans seem to be growing regardless. Should I be worried or is it just
> a cosmetic problem? I would think that if the flies are drinking sap
> or something, they are using energy that the plant would otherwise use
> to grow, so perhaps I would be best rid of them?
>
> I have tried washing up liquid but it doesn't seem to have done
> anything. I looked on a couple of bottles of insecticides but they all
> say not to use when in flower because they will poison the bees. Of
> course, the beans are in flower so does that mean I cannot use
> anything stronger now? Was I supposed to spray them earlier in the
> season?
>
> Thanks,
> Stephen
>
> PS please see my other bean question.

Cut off the tops with the blackfly on and dispose of them.

If you don't want to do that, then take a stiffish small paintbrush an
brush them off into a container, then get rid of that

"beccabunga" <beccabunga.30c1367> wrote in message
news:1367
>
> 'Stephen[_5_ Wrote:
>
> Cut off the tops with the blackfly on and dispose of them.
>
> If you don't want to do that, then take a stiffish small paintbrush and
> brush them off into a container, then get rid of that.

The washing up liquid was very successful on mine, the beans are now growing
well.

Did you spray it on?
[..]

On Sun, 03 Aug 2008 14:35:25 GMT, Stephen wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I am growing some beans and they have patches of black flies on. The
> beans seem to be growing regardless. Should I be worried or is it just
> a cosmetic problem? I would think that if the flies are drinking sap
> or something, they are using energy that the plant would otherwise use
> to grow, so perhaps I would be best rid of them?
>
> I have tried washing up liquid but it doesn't seem to have done
> anything. I looked on a couple of bottles of insecticides but they all
> say not to use when in flower because they will poison the bees. Of
> course, the beans are in flower so does that mean I cannot use
> anything stronger now? Was I supposed to spray them earlier in the
> season?
>
> Thanks,
> Stephen
>
> PS please see my other bean question.

I'm wondering if you have ants in the soil around your beans Stephen? I've
noticed in the past that ants seem to 'farm' blackfly. To discourage ants
in the past I've used a mixture of baking powder and sugar.
http://www.howdididoit.com/home-gard...-control-ants/

In article <9w53dk2lv2d8.1q2bu8uc4wslq.dlg>,
AriesVal <valerie.copeland> writes:
|>
|> I'm wondering if you have ants in the soil around your beans Stephen? I've
|> noticed in the past that ants seem to 'farm' blackfly. To discourage ants
|> in the past I've used a mixture of baking powder and sugar.
|> http://www.howdididoit.com/home-gard...-control-ants/

If he doesn't have, his garden is so toxic I wonder how anything lives.

While there is a LITTLE evidence that ants are associated with worse
aphid infestations, the explanation is elmost entirely that the ants
are following the aphids. Nobody, despite numerous requests, has
ever produce a scrap of evidence that targetting the ants reduces
aphid infestations.

I have done some fairly careful though unsystematic (for a statistician)
observations, and in all the cases I have seen it was clear that ants
were NOT making the black bean aphid infestations worse and were NOT
spreading the infestations.

The recent wet weather has confirmed that. The number of ant nests
in my garden has dropped by a factor of well over 10 - perhaps 20-30.
The aphid infestations have not changed in the slightest, not in
number, severity or properties. But, NOW, a lot of them don't have
ants on because there just aren't the ants ....


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 5 Aug 2008 08:37:33 GMT, Nick Maclaren wrote:

> In article <9w53dk2lv2d8.1q2bu8uc4wslq.dlg>,
> AriesVal <valerie.copeland> writes:
>> [5 quoted lines suppressed]
>
> If he doesn't have, his garden is so toxic I wonder how anything lives.

Oh why is that?
>
> While there is a LITTLE evidence that ants are associated with worse
> aphid infestations, the explanation is elmost entirely that the ants
> are following the aphids. Nobody, despite numerous requests, has
> ever produce a scrap of evidence that targetting the ants reduces
> aphid infestations.
>
> I have done some fairly careful though unsystematic (for a statistician)
> observations, and in all the cases I have seen it was clear that ants
> were NOT making the black bean aphid infestations worse and were NOT
> spreading the infestations.

I can only speak from years of experience Whenever I've had blackfly on my
beans I've also had lots of ants crawling all over them for some reason? I
have no blackfly on this year's beans to date and no ants either. I don't
know what to think now ? But still not sure you're right?

In article <nzfvjjyzecxl.1qdoptpa4sfqv.dlg>,
AriesVal <valerie.copeland> writes:
|>
|> > If he doesn't have, his garden is so toxic I wonder how anything lives.
|>
|> Oh why is that?

Ants are ubiquitous, touch and an essential part of the ecology.

||> I can only speak from years of experience Whenever I've had blackfly on my
|> beans I've also had lots of ants crawling all over them for some reason? I
|> have no blackfly on this year's beans to date and no ants either. I don't
|> know what to think now ? But still not sure you're right?

We KNOW that blackfly infestations attract ants. Why would ants crawl
over beans if there are no ants on them? That explains what you have
seen.

Whether the converse happens to a negligible extent or a small extent
is so far unknown.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 5 Aug 2008 13:14:30 GMT, Nick Maclaren wrote:

> In article <nzfvjjyzecxl.1qdoptpa4sfqv.dlg>,
> AriesVal <valerie.copeland> writes:
>
> Ants are ubiquitous, touch and an essential part of the ecology.
>> We KNOW that blackfly infestations attract ants. Why would ants crawl
> over beans if there are no ants on them? That explains what you have
> seen.
>
> Whether the converse happens to a negligible extent or a small extent
> is so far unknown.
>> Regards,
> Nick Maclaren.

thanks for your comments Nick :)