mix a solution of warm water a little vinegar and a squirt of dish washing detergent. Spray it directly on them works every time for me. I think the wax coating on them gets cut and the detergent suffocates them. Your might have to experiment with propotions but don't be to heavy handed with them else you'll damage your plants. I'm sorry I can't give you exact recipe it went west long ago. I have found after using this recipe that I only need repeat it every three years or so. This year they have bred up on my mallows so I must get out there soon.
cheers Mrs B

I can tell you all about these pest having battled thousand for years - I do not grow tomatoes or corn anymore as they beat me to them everytime. I do the rounds of the garden each morning with a bucket of hot soapy water and drop the bugs in but the numbers still stay the same. The love marshmallow weed and hollyhocks and hide in dark warm places over winter. I have been told that guinea fowl will eat them but I have not tried them yet as I have a young kelpie that is not quite trained yet. I have been told that the guinea fowl will skreech like a dying women at ungodly hours of the morning but if they get rid of the bugs I think I would put up with them.
Good luck!!!!!!
Leyla

Thanks for your help, will try the recipes offered.

Leyla: I don't want to disillusion you but the guinea fowl will screech like a dying woman at any hour of the day. They are particularly noisy at roosting time. If you have more than one, each will insist on trying to roost higher than the other/s, and this squabbling, at high decibels, will go on for ages.

They lay their eggs in an extremely well-hidden communal nest and, prompted by some whim or other, will decide that another nest location is preferable. So off they go again. But no-one seems prompted to actually sit on the eggs. I have no idea how they manage to breed in the wild.

For all their faults, they are fascinating birds - very inquisitive, very vocal and always in a flurry.

Thanks Wombat, people up the road have two which roam along the road way with their hens and peacocks - they seem inoffensive creatures and they do not seem to be nervy - but I have heard from lots of people that they are a nightmare to own - these ones must be strange!!!
As I have said before I think anything that can get ride of my bugs are worth putting up with - I have literaly thousands of these things in summer large areas of ground are covered in red from the newly hatched creatures - they seem to be everywhere and we only have farmland which is kept reasonabily tidy and the house garden is pretty weed free.
Leyla

thanks so much for the help, great site