[Mammyshaz]

Help, it's my 2nd year in a polytunnel and I have  pests of greenfly already, on my sage.
I have lots of seeds in trays and seedlings growing but also some tubs of herbs that I have overwintered. The last few days my mixed herb pot showed a shrivelled lot of leaves on the young sage.on close examination there were lots of what looked like young greenfly 
We do light a heater at night to keep the temperature above 10 degrees and it is heavy frost this week outside.

 I hand squashed what I found and sprayed with dilute washing up liquid but in a poly there are so little enemies flying at this time of year to help.
In warmer weather the companion flowers and 'good' insects are usually in force to help.

Is there any other organic method of keeping these at bay in the poly?

[Lesley Silvester]

I don't know of any but you could look on Garden Organic's website for one of their fact sheets. www.gardenorganic.org.uk


My chives which are growing in a window box are covered in aphids. It's never happened before but that is probably because there were enough 'goodies' to kill them. I think it's going to have to be the washing up liquid for them as well.

[Bert]

I have found some of those little green sods already as well. Found them on my mint plants in the little greenhouse/ cold frame thing ( it came with the house, it terrifies me, I don't like using it but I've run out of space in my tunnel ). I'm afraid I go straight for the kill, I don't bother to ask nicely first  . Every mm of the plant gets bug sprayed and the compost ( can't remember the name of it now, I will have a look when I go to the garden later).  If I find them in my tunnel I evict the the whole plant ( if it's in a pot ) then spray and it stays evicted until I know all the bugs have gone. Then I spend the next hour checking every leaf of all neighbouring plants.

[hafod]

We've got them too!
Has anyone tried ladybirds in the tunnel to control aphids? - you can purchase them mail order or buy a kit to breed your own.
I'd like to try it......

[Somewhere_by_the_river]

What about these, they are suitable for organic (there's a 'recipe' somewhere for making your own, but I'm afraid I can't put my hands on it, like everything else after the move! Might be worth Googling if you have time, American sites are often good at passing on such things.)
http://www.greenhousesensation.co.uk/times-up-greenhouse-insect-catcher.html

Lacewings are another natural predator you can buy in these days. I've never tried either them nor ladybirds to report on, I'm afraid, but I've heard good reports and will be trying them myself once the polytunnel makes it onto our patch...

[Lesley Silvester]

The trouble with this sort of insect killer is it gets all the good insects as well as the bad. It's like the old-fashioned fly papers.

[Mammyshaz]

Thanks guys.
mGM looks like I'll be joining yet another group to gain access to the organic fact sheets    Is there plenty  on the site if I join?

I've evicted the pot to outside and squashed as many as I can. It may have to go.  My outdoor grown sage was never affected so that may be one answer instead of the pot.

Hmmm... I like the idea of ladybirds in the poly. Older son has an ant house also suitable for ladybirds and wanted to collect local ladybirds. I tried to put him off but IF he did it and kept the housing in the poly I could get a good aphid controller AND be in his good books  Then it wouldn't matter if the poly was a bit small and some move out ( my biggest concern about buying  biological control )