Natural born killers

Our elderberry tree has got blackfly (and yes I do know how middle aged and middle class that sounds). The garden is FULL of the little buggers. Spending time in our garden is like being on "I'm a Celebrity". I was out there for a minute just now, and came back with more parasites on me than a victorian orphan.

The solution? Ladybird larvae. By mail order. A discreet jiffy bag plops onto your doormat, containing two small plastic boxes full of sawdusty type stuff and baby ladybirds (who basically look like little black weevils). You empty the boxes into a small hessian bag (included), tie it to the tree, and let the larvae transmogrify into adults, who then emerge from the bag to wage war on the blackfly.

I shook the cooperative ones into the little bag, and went back for the uncooperative ones, only to find that one of them was already biting the head off something the same size as itself (possibly one of its siblings). I watched the victim writhe in insect agony for a bit as its head was slowly devoured... then I went in to put the washing on.

Bon appetit my little red friends. Feast and be merry!