Black flies on new laurel growth

km79

Pruned laurel few weeks back.
Noticed today that the new growth is infested with small black flies.
If they are not harmful I'll leave them alone if not what do I do ?
Pics attached
Older part if hedge not really affected.
Bought 2 bay trees for front of house at weekend and they have a few of same flies but not as bad. They were also clipped at weekend

km79

km79 wrote: »

Pruned laurel few weeks back.
Noticed today that the new growth is infested with small black flies.
If they are not harmful I'll leave them alone if not what do I do ?
Pics attached
Older part if hedge not really affected.
Bought 2 bay trees for front of house at weekend and they have a few of same flies but not as bad. They were also clipped at weekend

anybody ?

The Diddakoi

Have exactly the same flies on our laurel hedge too. Read somewhere the flies are attracted to the smell of the new leaves.
Same thing happened last year and they didn't seem to do any harm to the hedge, we just left the flies to it.

iainBB

Hose them off with a powerful hose each day. over a drain. you can also spray soapy water over them afterwards.

its that time of the year.

peadar76

I don't know what they are, by I would think they are harmless

iainBB

Its defo blackfly they suck the sap out of the plant and can cause disease to form, also ants can farm them.