Aphid damage on Buddleja

I noticed my dwarf Buddleja planted last year has blackfly on the new buds...I've sprayed with a repellent.

Thanks for the posting, mine are affected, and I'll report to RHS

Julia, if only there were some Ladybirds around, they would soon clear the aphids.

Grandad, it says the insect responsible has been tentatively identified as the melon cotton aphid, a bug usually associated with glasshouse plants.

I hope this doesn't spread quickly.

Oh the joys of Global warming & climate change!

Quite!..I'll have a closer look at that aphid.

I think mine have been too busy munching on my roses. My Buddleias look fine. Time yet though. The Aphids are so prolific this year!

My Buddleia is devastated by aphids this year, has never happened before. I will tell the RHS. However a family of blue tits have been making use of them which is something. I didn’t check to see if the aphids were different. Will go & see now.

Had another look, and yes! There IS aphid damage on my buddleias. Almost all of them! Darn.

One ladybird this morning!

Josie, we have Sparrows enjoying the green aphids, shame they don't like the Blackfly I have just spotted on a newish Echinops!

Oh Karen, I know we are supposed to love all critters, but there's a limit to my patience with them now.

Julia, one is better than none, which is exactly what I have seen here. I know they can be bought on-line, but who's to say they would stay in your garden?!

I don't have any buddleias on the balcony but I did have a terrible infestation of aphids a month ago which killed 4 of the 12 Pansy plants I had growing on the balcony railings in pots. Also another 2 pots with 3 Pansies in each were killed. I also lost the dozen plants of Violas to the infestation! :( I only got it under control after spraying with a solution of Neem oil on 2 occasions a couple of weeks apart. The top of the balcony railings was like a motorway for ants & it was their extreme activity that tipped me off to the infestation.

Though I've known for many years that ants farm aphids, like we farm cows, I didn't connect the 2 till I saw one pot so full of ants that I thought they might have made a nest inside the pot! Then the "penny dropped"! :D

The first solution was probably too weak to eradicate them. I had to send away for more Neem oil but by the time it arrived & I made up the solution, (a little stronger!), it was almost too late. I managed to save the remaining 8 pots, although one later also died, but not the Violas. :(

I now watch much more closely my plants & at the first sign of aphids I squish them on the plants before they can get to infestation levels! The rose 'Masquerade' is the plant that most attracts aphids now so I watch it much closer than before & have already "nipped' a couple in the bud so to say!

Oh David, it's hard work being a gardener!

"The rose 'Masquerade' is the plant that most attracts aphids now so I watch it much closer than before & have already "nipped' a couple in the bud so to say! "

I was watering on the balcony this afternoon & looked at the buds on this rose - they were thick with aphids - again!!! This must be at least the third time I've had to clean off aphids from this rose!!! The other rose hasn't had more than a few aphids that were cleaned off in a moment. I haven't seen any ant activity around this rose like I saw on the Pansies on top of the balcony railings.

The RHS are saying it is a real problem already this year.

Where are the Ladybirds & Lacewings this year? We could use their help! :D

I have seen a really good number of ladybirds and larva today. All good.

The only Ladybird I have seen this year was climbing up the rotary line pole! I did manage to move the bug to a nearby plant but it flew off ... :o((

A day after I wrote the comment above my son sent me a photo of a larvae but he didn't know what it was. I told him it's the larvae of the Ladybird! He had never seen one before but he said he had hundreds in his garden!!! So now I know where they have all gone!!! :D :D :D

Hundreds? Well, that's just greedy as I would like a few here please!

I have told the RHS re the Buddleia aphids. They are on my Candytuft also, ☹️

Not good ... :o(