Aphid Predators

The good insects:

• Lacewings are delicate insects with translucent pale-green wings; greenfly are their favourite food.
• Hoverflies are like miniature darting wasps, while parasitic wasps are skinny and narrow-waisted members of their family. They lay their eggs in soft-bodied insects, mainly caterpillars, and the grubs feed on their hosts, killing them in the process.
• Ladybirds

Plants they like:

• Nettles
• Early flowering plants such as wallflowers
• Herbs, eg, sage, lavender, mint
• Amaranths, loved by ladybirds
• Parsley and other umbellifers These attract lacewings, so include fennel, dill or angelica in your borders, or plant sweet cicely and cow parsley in shadier areas.

  Encourage birds to the garden.

  Dig a pond, and the toads, frogs and dragonflies that establish themselves will love slugs and parasites.

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  Comments

  by Danny on 06 July 2011 Reply

  I'm compiling a list of techniques for getting rid of aphids on my website (http://gettingridofaphids.com) and would be grateful for any other tips and tricks if anyone has any to share :)
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