By Johnp58
Hertfordshire,
United Kingdom 
GREY FLY ON LUPINS
I was sitting having a cup of coffee in the garden and looking up I thought the lupins looked rather odd. On closer inspection I was horrified to see they were covered from head to root in grey fly. AND I MEAN COVERED. So much so I thought the best action was to dig them up and put them in the bin. Maybe I should have just cut them back to ground level. Check your lupins guys....make sure they are ok and healthy.
6 May, 2014
Answers
I caught the tail end of Gardeners Question Time on radio 4 at the weekend and they were talking about monster greenfly on lupins. They obviously like the taste!
6 May, 2014
If you can catch it early enough spray with soapy water.
6 May, 2014
We have many more greenfly around this year, on various plants. Must have been due to the mild winter which didn't kill the bugs off.
6 May, 2014
Shame you binned 'em, any pesticide spray suitable for aphids would have got rid of them, though its usually best to remove the flower stems, depending how toxic the spray you choose is to bees.
6 May, 2014
They were not just infested they were COVERED.....I have never seen any plant of mine so infested. I panicked a bit, I have to admit, but looking back I feel I did the right thing by binning them.
6 May, 2014
Ha ha, guess you felt you'd had an alien invasion! It's not a pretty sight when they're like that, I'll admit...
6 May, 2014
Hi, a couple of years ago I got a phone call from my granddaughter, to say she had some caterpillars on a tree, she certainly had, Millions of them, about 1" long, they had absolutely stripped the tree, after I sprayed them, I had to use a shovel to get them into a bucket, which I filled twice, that was 1 H... of a lot of caterpillars, Derek.
6 May, 2014
Lupin aphid, yuk!
Thanks for the warning; the first lily beetles of the year were seen in my garden yesterday, the critters must all have enjoyed the mild winter.
6 May, 2014