This post made me smile wide. Thank you for sharing. I found your post through the curation of Lotus.
Your chickens have definitely put on some nice weight and are looking super healthy. So glad your rooster is growing in confidence too.
With regards to aphids, gee they can seriously damage your plants. Ants also carry them around to different plants as they suck off the sugary nectar they produce, it's a weird symbiosis, but can get out of hand very fast (especially with seedlings coming up you want to tackle them as quickly as possible), neem oil definitely does help, I use it on aphids, white fly and even Australian bug. If they get worse, then there is another organic insecticide you can use called Pyrol. Lady bugs will definitely help, but they won't kill off the population of aphids, just keep it down to a manageable level.
Your kiddos look super happy and they are learning so much from you! Real skills that last a lifetime.
I'm looking forward to your next update and well done for being curated too. Have a great day 🌸
That's the type of comment that are so valuable.
Yeah, aphids are always be fascinating to me, ants also cultivate mushrooms, did you know that?
I will have a look into pyrol, if it's available in the area. Well, after your comment, I will work extra hard on these aphids.
As I was saying in the post, I think I found the reason why I got so many aphids in such a short amount of time. Long story short, I was a bit jealous seeing all the neighbours beans growing so fast (knowing they are using a local variety whereas I chose a Dutch strain), so I boosted the plants with a Nitrogen mix (organic).
Nitrogen tends to attract more aphids as the sap is extra sweet now, so I am not surprised the ants got a feast out of it.
That was such a great convo, I will check out your blog and thanks to Lotus of course!
Hi Edprivat
You are most welcome. I do remember learning about the underground fungus chambers that some ants cultivate, I find it fascinating. To be honest I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with ants. I know they are extremely valuable in the ecosystem for a variety of ecological services but sometimes they behave like such little sh*ts. We have some interesting ones here in the little Karoo, this one is rather large (about 2cm) and they are called Karoo Balbyters - the English translation Karoo Ball Biters, so yeah, they have a reputation hahaha.
Have a great weekend :)
OOOh fascinating, are they the army ants? A bit larger than the average and moving in group of 5 or 6? I imagine why they called ball biters hahaha