Last I wrote I was talking about the aphids in my tomato plants. I visited several nurseries with no luck in finding ladybugs. One person helpfully said a person could order them online (which is only helpful if you are willing to wait however long it takes to ship the critters). So I bought neem and a spray bottle and a few pots of small flowers because they were lovely as well as being at a discount since it was getting near the end of the 'bedding plants' season.
Once home I read the instructions on the neem and it was full of dire caution about not spraying when the honeybees were out because it would kill them off. Yikes! I decided I would have to go out after sundown and then just never got around to it.
This weekend was "rearrange pots in greenhouse" and as I was tying up the tomato plants with twine (simpler than cages in a greenhouse especially when you put off doing it so long that the plants are huge) I noticed that there were hardly any aphids. Curious indeed. I had put some diatomaceous earth out to combat the severity of the ant situation which did not eliminate the ants but seems to have decreased their numbers. I'm not sure if it was the lack of enough ants to farm them or if it was predatory insects, but yay!
I have seen hornets, wasps, hover flies, lacewings and ladybugs in there.
Lesson learned- have patience. Not everything requires an Immediate Fix.
