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pests Aphids On My Sweet Banana Pepper Plant

sadams

sadams

I found tonight that my sweet banana plant has aphids on it. The leaves at the bottom have quite a few on the undersides, while the top leaves have few and they are scattered among underside and topside. The plant looks plent healthy, it dropped a couple of leaves and when I picked them up to discard, I notices the old eggs, or whatever it was and that made me examine the plant further to find the aphids primarily near the bottom...;-/.

Anyway, I am planning to isolate it and put some kind of insecticide spray on the plant, but I am wondering if I need to worry about these aphids spreading to my other plants (habanero, hot cherry, cayenne, bell, jalapeno, cowgorn, red chili)...I checked them all over really good and found NO sign whatsoever of aphids....but I am not sure how long that will last. The plant with the aphids is not touching the other plants at all, it is close to them though!

Thanks

Shane
 
I'd put it a ways away from the others and find some ladybugs or ladybug larvae to put on it. If not just squish them or spray tham off with plain water. Don't use insecticide unless its organic or the last resort.
 
Thanks chillilover, I will move it further away right now, I am a bit limited without getting it in the shade all day, but Ill figure something out....one day in the shade probably wouldnt hurt it anyway....and as for the insecticide, I do plan to try and locate an organic type, my wife will look for that tomorrow..;-). Oh, and just for the record, I did squish some of the little bastards earlier...:lol:
 
sadams said:
Thanks chillilover, I will move it further away right now, I am a bit limited without getting it in the shade all day, but Ill figure something out....one day in the shade probably wouldnt hurt it anyway....and as for the insecticide, I do plan to try and locate an organic type, my wife will look for that tomorrow..;-). Oh, and just for the record, I did squish some of the little bastards earlier...:lol:
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Neem works well or you can try safers soap. You can make you own soap spray also but spray at night out of the sun to prevent burns.
 
Alright, cool. I may give the soap thing a try first, I was just browsing around and read some posts about Neem so that may also be the way to go, or at least a backup if the soap doesnt cut it.

I just moved the plant to an area about 15 feet away from my other plants. hopefully that will keep it at bay. I am surprised that they others didnt have the aphids, I was happy, but surprised.

Thanks!
 
No problem. If you make your own soap spray use a "real" soap and not detergents. I used murphys oil soap. I used 3 tsp per litre of water or 1.5 tsp in a 500 ml spray bottle and went to town. I wait about an hour then rinse off just to be safe. I never had any plants burn that way. Like I said don't do it in direct sun though.:)
 
I had an aphid problem earlier this year and neem and safer work, but only if you spray a few times a week and if you have more than 10 plants it's a pain. I was lucky enough to find a 500 ladybugs for $6 at a local hardware store and within days the problem didn't exist. Not only that I still have quit a few lady bugs still on my plants a couple of months later so it's also a better long term solution.
 
chillilover, thanks for the mix solution.

LGHT will the lady bugs stick around outside? My plants are all out on the deck, seems like they would just fly away.

Thanks!
 
The ladybugs will stick around as long as they find something to eat. The will hit the road permanently when it's migration time though.

Good luck getting rid of the sap suckin' son's of b..... I find it best to hit them three or four times at the every other day rate.
 
Ok, well we checked on lady bugs and no where locally has them...and cant even refer me to anyone that does have them. So, lady bugs are out. I am going to give safers a try first, we did find it at a local feed store for $15 a quart! Seems expensive, but then again I ont know what it should cost.

As for hitting them multiple times, I guess that is necessary because of the eggs hatching out...and makes sense.

Thanks to all, I will let ya know if the safers solves the problem.

Shane
 
Make sure you spray the tops and bottoms of the leaves. You really want to get everywhere the aphids may live and you have to get the safers soap on them.

Also, even though you moved the infected plant away from the others does not mean that you've stopped the spread. I've noticed that a number of winged aphids make their way into my greenhouse and lay eggs. I've gone the chemical route a couple of times and it really did a number on the aphids and the plants. Now that we're almost at the end of my growing season, I'm just squishing them, using safers and using blasts plain water to control them.
 
sadams said:
Ok, well we checked on lady bugs and no where locally has them...and cant even refer me to anyone that does have them. So, lady bugs are out. I am going to give safers a try first, we did find it at a local feed store for $15 a quart! Seems expensive, but then again I ont know what it should cost.

As for hitting them multiple times, I guess that is necessary because of the eggs hatching out...and makes sense.

Thanks to all, I will let ya know if the safers solves the problem.

Shane
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Thats expensive, I'd make it from murphys and distilled or R/O water. $3 can make you gallons. I forgot to mention that minerals from tap water can reduce effectiveness.
 
sadams said:
chillilover, thanks for the mix solution.

LGHT will the lady bugs stick around outside? My plants are all out on the deck, seems like they would just fly away.

Thanks!
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There are several steps you can take to ensure they stick around:

1. Put them in the fridge for a few hours before you release them.
2. Wet your plants before you release them onto the plants.
3. Release them just after sunset so they will make a home on the plant
4. Pick up some "Wheast" Ladybug food for them and spray on stick on the soil so the ladybugs will stay around even after the aphid food source is gone.

Safer soap will help kill them, but spraying every leaf top and bottom on 50+ plants twice a week took me hours and when I left for vacation for 4 days when I came back there was twice as many of them!!

If you can't find any locally order some online. Heck if you want i'll go down to the local shop pick up a batch of 500 and mail them to you. They come in a small plastic container that would easily fit in a $5.00 priority mailer.
 
Ok, the Safers soap has been applied. I guarantee there is no aphid on that plant that didnt get well covered with Safers today! Also, in process of spraying, I found some kind of little (about 1/4" long) work eating away at a leaf...it ate a strip about 2" long, 1/8" wide on a couple of leaves. I sprayed it too, not sure if it will kill it, but Ill take a look in a bit and see.

BTW, we got a 24oz ready to spray Safers at Lowes for 6 bucks. Also, they have Neem Oil as well as a few other organic insecticides and soaps.

LGHT if this dont work, I will probably give the lady bugs a try...thanks!

Thanks to all for the help and information!

Shane
 
I've never tried the soap, but the neem did work for me. It's just having to spray 50+ plants 2-3 times a week made it a horrible inefficient way of treating them even with a fancy pump sprayer in hand.
 
I understand that for sure, very time consuming. I only have about 18 total plants, and luckily so far this is the only infested one. It took me 10 minutes to spray this one small (about 18" to 20" tall and not very bushy) plant. If I were to have to do the Habanero, it would take me 45 minutes or more to do it..lol.
 
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