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I have lots of orange and black flying beasts with orange legs about 6-8 mm in length (a Syrphid fly) that appear to be eating my potatoe plants. Any ideas how to get rid of them




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The hoverflies are not eating your potato plants the adults feed on nectar and pollen just as bees and wasps do and help to pollenate plants. The larvae either eat decaying vegetation and animal matter or, depending on species, aphids, thrips and the like as such they are a very useful tool in the gardeners arsenal and are being looked at as a biological control.

28 Jul, 2010

 

Many thanks for that, I just need to find out what is eating my plants now!!

29 Jul, 2010

 

Whilst whatever it is is eating your potato leaves it isn't eating anything else... as you can't eat the leaves I'd let them be. We've got aphids on a teasel which we are ignoring, better on that than the broad beans!

29 Jul, 2010

How do I say thanks?

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