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overwintering Little white bugs on my overwintered plants

jetskee

jetskee

My overwintered peppers have these little white bugs on all the leaves.
I'm not sure what they are. They are white and look like ants when I
view them under a magnifying glass.

I have looked at pictures of whiteflies and spider mites both online, and they don't really look
like either. They don't have the pronounced wings like a whitefly, but the spider mite pictures
I've seen are darker in color. These look like a white spider mite, basically.

Any other possible critters these could be? What can I do about them?
 
Maybe....did a google images on thrips, and that's the closest looking bug I've seen to what these look like.
They are not very active at all. I would think they are all dead, as I never see them move, but
they keep growing in numbers.
 
If they are spider mites you will see whispy tiny bits of spiderweb, sooner or later. My spider mites are tannish white when I get them.
 
Pictures. The plant I have at home is not as infested anymore so there aren't many on it anymore.
There are some bugs on here that look like whiteflies, only greenish.
Here is the original picture, to show scale, then an up close of the bugs.
IMG_4815.jpg

IMG_4815_detail.jpg
 
patrick said:
Them is aphids, no doubt about it. The little white fluffy looking things are their sheds as they grow. Kill the bastards, kill them all!
Click to expand...

What do you recommend to kill them? Insecticidal soap? I have one plant in my office at work (a Vietnamese Multi-Color ornamental) and it is infested. I don't think my coworkers would appreciate
me importing even more insects into the office to fight these guys off. :-)

Any effective "home remedies"?

Thanks.
 
If you only hazve one plant in an office should be pretty easy to control soap srpay evryday till they are gone under the leaves every where make sure you check in any flowers and around new little buds forming these buggers sure are good at hiding at least the floridian aphids are! but if you have only one plant should be pretty easy to eradicate.
 
try some dishwashing detergent and water and spray them with that... if you're in an office there should be some dishwashing detergent in the kitchen! cheap way of getting rid of them!
 
More pictures from the plant at work. This one is pretty heavily infested.
I see some of the green aphids mixed in there, so I assume the smaller white bugs are just baby aphids.

IMG_4817.jpg


IMG_4817_detail.jpg
 
Yep them is aphids, or at least the exoskeleton of aphids. They move them to the tops of the leaves so that predators are somewhat thrown off. Well, at least that's the current line of thought. You can give them a good spraying with water. Make sure the water pressure is high enough to knock the aphids off the plant. I use the kitchen sink sprayer. It doesn't get rid of them, but it will help control them. I haven't found any other method that's as effective as pesticide or using natural predators like ladybugs, but since my plants are indoors I don't really want to use pesticides. And because it's winter here, I can't find ladybugs. Summer is near though and the plants willl get a good shot of Sevin when they go out into the green house.
 
Man I would hate to see the underside of those leaves. You see all the little shiny spots on the leaf? That's the excrement from the aphids--it's called honeydew. That's why ants are known to "farm" aphids. They dig the ju uice.

Stuff like Safer Soap will work but you'll need to use it several times over a period of a couple of weeks. Sevin is the stuff to use but you have to be careful with it.

I freaking hate aphids.
 
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