Damson leaf curl

[Gardenmac]

Ok guys our Damson trees have some serious leaf curl going on. Looks like aphids anyone gotta cure. Mrs Mac won't be best pleased if we dot get any jam or gin:lol:n

[peatff]

I bet there are loads of ants crawling on them as well, our little apple trees got it last year and hardly had any fruit. Put some grease round the trunk this year and there's hardly any on there. What is on there gets sprayed with some diluted Ecover washing up liquid.

[armybloke]

Put a hose across the leaves on 'jet' setting. Works on our fruit trees and they don't seem to come back.

[hedgesparrow]

use your wash bowl used for cleaning dishes in a sprayer and spray it safe and enviromentaly freindly will kill the critters if its ants you can get grease bands which you can attach and it stops them getting up. but normally the ants are after the aphids for there nectar they hold so doing a job getting rid of them.

[peatff]

but normally the ants are after the aphids for there nectar they hold so doing a job getting rid of them.

 

The ants farm the aphids on the tree and actually encourage them, keeping the ants out of the equation helps to let the natural predators get to the aphids which the ants are protecting them from. They stroke the aphids to get them to secrete the honeydew secretion they farm them for, not harming them at all but more like milking a cow.