WHO'S BEEN EATING MY APPLES AND BEANS ?

I've been noticing a lot of shrivelling on one of my apple trees

Looking closely I saw a number of ants on the leaves, and a lot of old, dead skins.  Could the ants be causing it?

Well indirectly yes.  They place sap-sucking aphids on the leaves so that they can milk them for the sweet-tasting honeydew that the aphids exude.  Here's a flock of pink and purple aphids sucking away and a couple of ant 'shepherds' in attendance.

But as well as these villains there are also heroes.  That knobbly black character in the photo below is a young ladybird larva.  Ladybird larvae just lurve munching aphids.  Keep it up, guys.  

BTW the ladybird larvae would not be there if the apple trees were sprayed with insecticide to kill the aphids.

Further down the garden my broad beans have been covered in blackfly, another species of aphid.  And here there are more ladybird larvae at work.  These are grey with yellow spots.  Can you see two in this photo?

One up high

and one a bit lower.