Chinese Gooseberry and Cherries under Siege

These little fellows turned up last year on my Chinese Gooseberries toward the end of the harvest.  This year they are back with a vengeance, with no obvious predators around to eat them.  Normally I like to leave my pests alone and hope they don't do too much damage before their enemies arrive, this technique has worked perfectly for my aphid infested maple which has been cured of its sap sucking varmints by a swarm of ladybird larvae. 

 

Unfortunately these 3 lined Potato Beetles are ravenous beasts that nearly killed my plant last year, and have already destroyed a great deal of developing fruit this year. Little Bowerbird helped me pluck and dispose of all we could see - which was many - in a jar of soapy water, but they are back again in serious numbers the following day. Fortunately little one is a keen pest controller, relishing in the crunch of snail underfoot and the farewell plop of a beetle. Anyone know any other organic control methods?  

    

  My running mutato.

 Why you should not plant carrots as seedlings.

 Hairy carrots, we have had a spate of these masculine fellows.

 Tasty perfect baby carrots, middle one plucked some pretty classy larger ones for dinner tonight when he refused to eat any of the vegetables in our stir fry. I am in awe of those perfect supermarket carrots at $1.50 a bag - how is it so?

 There are lots of cherries on our two year old tree but they are also under serious attack.  They are covered in black aphids.  Isn't it amazing what can happen when you turn your back from the garden for a few days? The odd ladybird was spotted doing their best, but they were losing the battle, and I've sprayed them with soapy water and removed the worst affected seriously distorted leaves.  The aphids have taken a liking to all the new tip growth so the cherry has had an  early prune. Some of the aphids ended up in our praying mantis house and were gobbled up amazingly fast.

 

 

What Spring pests are wreaking havoc in your garden?