2005-06-09

Biological Warfare

We have a pair of young apple trees in our garden, planted by way of celebration the day after we received the keys to the house. I've wanted my own orchard for years, so this seemed a perfect time to do something about one of my ambitions.

So a few months later, we have baby apples growing and one of the trees had started to develop a bit of a blackfly problem. For the last week or so I have been doing battle with a spritzer full of washing up water, which is meant to be useful in such cases, though I have a feeling that our dolphin friendly, ozone-hole-repairing washing-up liquid might be a bit too mellow and herbal to do the job.

Anyway, yesterday evening I counted no less than five ladybirds on this tiny tree, happily chowing down on aphids. I think from here on I'll lay off on the detergent and let the predators do their thing. Go team!

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