Kitchen Garden Forum

Just asking because my leeks have been infested with a plague of tiny black flies (not the kind of blackflies that zoom onto nastursiums) and I've been spraying with soapy water in an attemot to kill them off. They have now also totally wrecked all my bunching onions as well

I was hoping that colder nights would finish them off but to date they're still hanging on. I hope they're not as resilient as whitefly which seem to continue hovering round my greens nd especially my curly kale at low temperatures which would have me running for a fleece and a hot water bottle !

Pretty sure at -273 but not confident above that.

Hi primrose,

I have the same problem on chives and leeks. I posted a picture a while back - copied below. (Sorry about the quality but gives an idea) Does anyone know when they are? I've cut them back and sprayed, but they have returned - I have the same concerns about not getting rid of them!

Pawty

Could be pollen beetles.

Doubt it's cold enough consistently to kill anything off at the moment! Chilly mornings then nice sunny evenings down here - if the bugs tucker down they will survive!

A bit early still to expect the end of these tiresome pests, but expect these black guys will go at some point but someone has to have a solution to the whitefly which could probably be nuked & still come back!

Westi

Yes Pawty. Exactly the same creatures as on my leeks and bunching onions. It seems incredible to believe but I've never noticed them before all the years I've been growing them and am worried that now they've arrived I'm going to plagued with them in future years. I'm not aware of any insect that specifically breeds on the allium family . It must be something to do with the allium smell though that perhaps attracts them as they don't seem to be on any of my other vegs.

I wonder if this Is this a question for team KG now I.e bug identification ? I'll try and get some time is evening to look back though my magazines.

Pawty

Its all happening when we are not looking

Some of the bugs in the picture look like aphids Pawty, but if you could send me the original image I might be able to have a better stab at identifying them - sott@mortons.co.uk

I'd be really grateful for an identification too. Two rows of my bunching onions (which I've had for over 20 years) have been pretty much destroyed by them, and my leeks are very sickly this year.

Pa, I loved the black furry caterpillar in the video clip. Reminded me of when I was a child and used to see lots of them and adopted a few as pets in jam jars ! . Strangely I haven't seen one of them for years now and wonder what butterfly they were associated with. The main ones I see are the common yobs - the cabbage whites which despite our apparently diminishing butterfly numbers seem to still thrive in my garden.

was only remarking on the plot a few months back how few cabbage whites there were around this year

hardly seen any other butterflies either

You sent them all over here, that's why!

No shortage of cabbage whites on our allotment they come over in droves over thirty at a time, we blame the surrounding wild fields we also blame them for the rats which we have in abundance and lately hitting bugs that get in every nook and cranny of the human body or in my case nearly human body