pests Aphids & Soapy Water Success so Far

[SanSoo]

I have dozens of sproutlings & seedlings growing indoors that have been struggling, I assume do to aphids since I am not over-watering and they are aloud to dry and breath. I would brush them off or spray them off with water but the bugs kept returning in greater numbers, and the plants were getting more distressed.

I finally decided they were doing so poorly I had nothing to loose by spraying with soapy water. I had not yet tried that as I didn't want to put anything on them while they were still so tiny. But since many of them were getting worse, not better, I figured I had nothing to lose.

Several hours after spraying, the bugs all seemed to be dead. Some had crawled to the top of the leaves to escape but they were dead as well.

The bonus is that all the plants seem to have perked up significantly, presumably because those little vampires were no longer sucking their precious bodily fluids.

Providing the soap doesn't kill them I plan to make this a recurring ritual until I can keep them outside.

 

[Cube]

Try veg oil and soapy water. The soapy water makes the veg oil stick. Google 'white oil' which is veg oil, soap suds and water. Great stuff.

 

[Blister]

I've been using safer's soap blasts of water with the kitchen sink sprayer ever since I brought my plants in for the winter (sometime back in late september). I still have aphids regardless of spraying the plants as many times as 3 times a week. My plants are suffering because of it. Now that we have a few days where it's actually above 0c, I'm going to give each plant a shot of insecticide. Since I don't want to spray that stuff in the house, I'll have to bring each one out side and douse it then bring it back in. It's not going to be fun, but I'm sick and tired of aphids and methods that simply haven't worked for me.

 

[SanSoo]

I used Trader Joe's environmentally safe dish soap, containing, 'coconut derived/based surfactants, earth salt, & mandarin oil.'

It appears to have killed all bugs on contact, and left the plants in great condition. They are outside in the sun right now, so it will be interesting to see how soon the bugs come back.

I bring them in each night.