aphid

The warmth and sunshine led to a huge increase in the insect population across the UK and aphids, the scourge of gardeners, boomed according to the Royal Horticultural Society, external.

Earlier in the year the Royal Horticultural Society correctly predicted that we were in for an abundant year for aphids.

His approach to removing aphids, for instance, is to bring out a small paint brush as soon as they’re spotted, to literally sweep them off the plants.

Some insects, including aphids and cicadas, feed on phloem – the living tissue inside plants that carries food made in the leaves to other parts of the plant – and may also benefit from carbon-rich plants.

Neonicotinoids were banned in 2018 but sugar beet farmers have been given special permission to use them every year for the past four years to fight virus yellows, a disease spread by aphids.