Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

No, Robotics, Mechatronics, Computer Science and Software...

But engineer I am guilty of. It's a free license to issue dad jokes prior to becoming a dad.

Just as well Kuda....

All the best for the young one to come....

If you dont wash it off, the plant gets burned by the seasol. More so in summer, but still not good for their health in winter.

ok cool ... thanks 4 the tip

Well, besides squashing them or relying on lady birds, thanks C1, stickin' em up with seasol looks to be the best bet, thanks OBO, at least until the lady birds get their act together.Enjoy the piece and quiet as well as the ability too sleep all night through, 'cause let me tell you, they take that all away. You do get the piece and quiet back after a few years, depends on when they leave home, so don't budget on anything less than 18 years. As far as being able to sleep right through the night without waking up, that never comes back, they pinch that for good.

Don't scare the boy!

hehe I have seen plenty of horror movies and heard plenty of stories...
But every1 always tells the worst. Like "Sex stops once you get married"
Not saying it'll be easy, but stop whinging and trying to fool ppl
It's getting old...

ps: is in direct reference to having kids?

Yeh but do you feel like Father Christmas

hehehe Christmas would be so much fun with your own kids... It's fun enough already with my nephews...

I don't know if that big black bug is an aphid or perhaps a nymph of some other type of bug. The black ones doesn't really look like an aphid to me.

The little soft bodied ones being farmed by ants are aphids.

There are lots and lots of different types of aphids. I've heard of little white ones, little green ones, yellow ones, black ones, red ones brown ones and I've seen many.

Some one mentioned leaf footed bugs sucking on plants. Leaf footed bugs and many of their relatives (stink bugs, squash bugs, etc) pierce plants and fruit and suck the juices causing damage to the plants and fruits. Adult leaf footed bugs (and the relatives) are hard to kill with chemical sprays (which I would not use near an AP system anyway.) I have (away from the AP system) used neem oil to stunt the juvinile leaf footed bugs (the red and black nymphs) the neem seems to keep them from become adults and breeding but doesn't seem to kill them.

The only AP safe way I've found to deal with leaf footed/stink/squash bugs was to use a hand vac and suck them up, then go dump them in a bucket of soapy water away from the AP system. This is still tricky since the adult leaf footed bugs fly very well and are good at escaping.

interesting, so what's a nymph if indeed that is what I have, and what damage does he do?

I dont know what a nymph is, but have heard of a Nympho - when we were single they were quite sought after...

/ducks

These critters are leaf footed bugs. a nymph is an imature adult.
http://bugguide.net/node/view/93/bgpage?from=10
I have the ugly orange ones.

http://www.agroatlas.ru/en/content/pests/Aphis_fabae/
95% sure it's an aphid KP

usually best to wait, take out affected plants if you can do without them...

...ouch!