[Elaine G]

My waterlily buds are covered in what I assume to be blackfly - its difficult to get hold of one to get close enough to be 100% sure  . This happened last year as well, and quite often means the flowers do not open.
Does anyone have any idea why this is happening and if there is anything I can do about it.
Obviously you cannot spray with anything, and the hose does not seem to make much difference, so any opinions gratefully accepted.

Thanks

Elaine

[Yorkie]

Are they actually harming the plants or unsightly more than anything?

[Elaine G]

It is mostly unsightly - the pond is near to the house, in front of the patio doors.
The plant appears to be healthy, but often the flowers fail to open which defeats the object really.

Elaine

[Yorkie]

Sounds like waterlily aphid.

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=705 suggests there's not much you can do other than jet hose it off, particularly if there are pond organisms or fish at risk.

[sunshineband]

Jet hosing them off every day will make a difference, and if you have fish they will eat any that go into the water so they won't climb back on 

[Elaine G]

Thanks that looks like the problem so will try hosing again. No fish in the pond but there are frogs and newts so hopefully they will eat some of them.

Thanks

Elaine

[sunshineband]

You can scoop out floating ones with a fine net if there is space between your plants