silly question

[growingkasbar]

i am always a bit doubious about ant powder. does it not make your veggies unsafe to eat?

[bramble]

Closing the greenhouse will only make matters worse as they will thrive in the heat.
Mix up some washing up liquid in water and spray the plants with the mixture.
Keep an eye on the plants and do the same thing again in a few days if the greenflies are not gone.
I usually take the plants out one by one and spray them.
Leave them in the shade until they dry out, that way they won't get burnt by the sun.
Good luck, keep up the spraying and you WILL win.

[growingkasbar]

ok. Ill spray them again tomorrow and keep squashing to keep them away.

[zazen999]

growingkasbar

Any greenfly plants I have, I take out of the greenhouse for a few hours, they usually get eaten by passing predatory bugs and if they haven't, then I spray them later on in the day.

The spraying works because the greenfly can basically hold their breath when you pour water on them. Spraying with soft soap stops them being able to hold their breath [that's the nearest metaphor I can think of], but you need to then get water onto them to drown them. Spraying itself won't do anything unless there is enough water to drown them.

So, squash them, bring the plants outside for a few hours a day and spray at the end of the day only if necessary. Or, hold a ladybird hostage and bring it into your greenhouse and shut doors and windows to let it eat everything it can find. I let as many bugs into my greenhouse as possible and only have to sort out the odd one or two plants that seem to attract the greenfly using the above methods and it seems to work.

If you do use the spray method, only use a tiny bit of washing up liquid - it really should be soft soap but alot of people use washing up liquid....it just needs to be able to reduce the surface tension of the water. And shake it up before you use it.

[Tam]

I always make sure the greenhouse has a good population of spiders and I have never had an aphid problem. As the garden is now aphid free, thanks to the birds, ladybugs, lacewings etc. I don't know if many nasties ever get into the greenhouse, but I like having the spiders in there.

[growingkasbar]

I like the sound of the ladybugs. im a bit of a girl around spiders, where can i find ladybugs, or how can i attract them?

[Tam]

Green Gardener - Specialists in Biological control inc Nemaslug Nemasys and ladybirds for controlling slugs, vine weevils, aphids, chafer grubs,leatherjackets plus home composting, wormeries and wildlife products.

You can buy ladybugs here.