31 Days Wild: 4th May 2025

Growing up, our home had a lovely scented honeysuckle that climbed over the front door. Its rampant growth required periodic heavy pruning. I too have planted a honeysuckle near our front door. Its growth is sedate and its scented qualities unproven as every year its blooms attract a mass of aphids.

Aphids are meat and drink to lady birds – or so I am told – so I am loath to use an insecticide. Thinking about the aphid as part of wild nature, I googled aphids and honeysuckle. Apparently aphids on honeysuckle point to poor soil which is preventing the honeysuckle from outgrowing the aphids. 

Wild honeysuckle grows in woodland environments, where the soil is rich in humus, and where the roots are shaded whilst the stems climb up to the light. So I guess I need to replant my honeysuckle in a more homely environment!

Counting on …day 115 

7th March 2022

Another potential garden pest is the aphid. There are about 500 different types of aphid in the UK, most of whom are partial to a particular type of plant: eg the mealy cabbage aphid likes brassicas, the black bean aphid likes broad beans,  and the plum leaf-curling aphid likes plum trees. Whilst they can damage young leaves that one hoped to eat, they do not diminish the  productivity of the plant as much as one would expect. On the other hand aphids do provide food for a large number of other insects – Lady birds, hover flies, lace wings, wasps, earwigs, and beetles. These insects themselves are a source of food for other creatures such as small birds. In other words aphids are an important part of the food chain and an important contributor to biodiversity. 

The RHS recommend various ways of curtailing aphids should that be necessary – eg early in the season when there are fewer predators at hand to keep numbers in check. https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/aphid-predators