Summer tips

Hi again.
A friend of mine made a "little" gardening mistake that inspired me to post again.

He had a problem with aphids on his roses and just about everywhere else. So I told him to order in some ladybirds (or ladybugs depending on where you live) to gobble them up. But Tom is a "belt and braces" kind of guy so I should have known there was going to be more to this story. But, without telling any more contact with me he went ahead and ordered them and when they came he released them into the garden to do what comes naturally. A week later there was no sign of them. So he called me over to investigate.
Blaming me for suggesting a plan of action that did not work.

When I went around the garden I saw that there were still some aphids on the flowers but not nearly as many as there were the last time I looked. I commented on this to Tom. His reply was, "Yeah well it was no thanks to your ladybirds."
"How do you figure that" I asked him.
"Well I sprayed the flowers with that new insecticide I heard som much about. After a couple of days the ladybirds were gone and so were the aphids. So it must have been the spray."

He said this with total conviction and total innocence.

I am sure that I don't have to tell you what happened. But just in case you don't get it...

Tom killed the aphids with the spray but he also killed the ladybugs. After all they are both insects and therefore susceptible to insecticide. He was thinking of the ladybugs as another form of insecticide and it never crossed his mind that he might kill them this way.

Until the next time. So Long