So I sprayed the neem. I made sure to avoid where I had seen the parasitic fly. Because it is an oil compound I made sure to spray at night. I want to avoid all the leaf burn that occured with the soap sprays. This morning however I went out and lo and behold
See that little wormy guy up at the top? I think that's a nymph of some sort of lace wing bug guy. I immediately felt terrible that I might have killed these good guys. I went through the garden picking up leaves that were heavily infested. I found several more mummified aphids (at least three), a few more parasitic wasps, and some of these wormy/guys. I picked up a whole gallon baggie of gross aphid plants. I then inspected EACH ONE for the beneficials. I pulled each one off with my scissors and deposited them back to the plant to keep their munching.
I have mixed feelings about my neem purchase. I don't want to kill these delicate beneficials but until today I have barely had any beneficials and mostly lost aphids. I did spray a second round on the lentils because they are baby plants, read delicious to bugs, and I did not find a single aphid eater in here. Perhaps with the neem oil knocking down a few of the aphids it lets my beneficials catch up and knock down. If the neem oil did not kill the beneficials but kept a few of the aphids under control I might come out ahead and even get one or two cucke's before this year is out.
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