Cherry Blackfly - assistance ?

[sewer rat]

Hello fellow grapes
I need some advice. The walled garden I am reclaiming and restoring has two very large cherry trees trained against the south facing wall. Last week I was informed that they suffer from Cherry Blackfly. I have had a look at other sites including the rhs and they only really give advice for small trees - the cost of buying sufficlent over the counter treatment sprays may be prohibitive in this instance - any ideas on what steps I can take - obviously too late for a winter wash.
Thanks in advance

[BFG]

You could try the soapy water trick.

Are they causing a serious problem? I find the best thing to do with most pests, is.... nothing. That's a Ladybird/Lacewing/Hoverfly larvae/Blue Tit feast waiting to happen!

[lainey lou]

The only info I can find is to spray with thiacloprid, pyrethrum, fatty acids or plant oils.

[BFG]

The only info I can find is to spray with thiacloprid, pyrethrum, fatty acids or plant oils.

if I remember right, Pyrethrum is extremely toxic (1 part in millions) to bees.

[lainey lou]

if I remember right, Pyrethrum is extremely toxic (1 part in millions) to bees.

I don't know, but the book I read that in claims it is organic?!

I'm sure the bee keeping folk on here would know.

[Nicos]

Bad news from me I'm afraid!

After 3 years of trying to rid our 15ft high flowering pale pink cherry tree of cherry blackfly , we just gave up.

It was absolutely disgusting- dripping huge fat blackfly onto the path beneath -sticky and yuk.

Best thing we ever did was to chop it down!..and interestingly our neighbours tree was never bothered afterwards!!!!

good luck rat!

[realfood]

It tends to affect the new shoot growth. I cut out the tips of any shoots that were affected and that seemed to do the trick. It only affected my cherries one year.

[sewer rat]

It tends to affect the new shoot growth. I cut out the tips of any shoots that were affected and that seemed to do the trick. It only affected my cherries one year.

Cheers for this realfood. This may be the preferred option this time around and we'll see how we go from there. Thanks to everyone who answered - and Nicos, much as I would love to cut down the scabby flowering cherry, the owners won't let me, and they definitely won't let me touch the two big cherries against the wall.

[Nicos]

Yup- it was our growing tips only which were affected.

[Welsh Wizard]

I had cherry blackfly last year on a dwarf cherry. I did nothing, let nature take its course and before too long syrphidae larvae had munched all the aphids. However the cherry tree survived perfectly fine, overwintered under glass and is set to fruit well this year. I would leaver alone and maybe plant some flowers to encourage hoverfly.

[Two_Sheds]

I don't know, but the book I read that in claims it is organic?!

Organic doesn't mean 'safe'. It means it's not made with synthetic chemicals

[Two_Sheds]

That's a ...Blue Tit feast waiting to happen!

that's what I thought of: is it possible to erect some nesting boxes like this one near the cherry trees?

[lainey lou]

Organic doesn't mean 'safe'. It means it's not made with synthetic chemicals

Good point Two Sheds.

[starloc]

Spray with an oil spray, best way and as long as you dont spray it on bees etc they will be fine

something like 20ml cooking oil , drop of dishwash liquid and a drop of hot water, mix it up and then add to 2L of water and spray it

Neem oil works, but its not suposed to be used as an insecticide, but you can use it to wash your plants and make them shiny, it has mild insecticide properties

Most commercial growers of fruit in the usa use odourless parrafin/kerrosene sold as horticultural oil, a drop of dishwash liquid in the first mix, instead of the cooking oil, it works well as well

[kentvegplot]

The black cherry aphid has an alternate host - cleavers, or goose grass. So if you can control any cleavers around the cherry trees, it might help to control the pest.

I've got the same problem - I've given the tree one more year to get its act together, or it gets chopped down