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pests APHIDS!?

I had the same problem. here is how I cured it:

1. cut off all the leaf
2. wash away all the soil
3. soak in soap water
4. add new soil

better be safe than sorry
 
Gave my plants a good soak in a bath of water, garlic, dish soap and ghost powder. After they dried off, they got a good dusting of DE. will repeat at least twice over the week. Results to follow.
 
I'm not rich enough to buy organic food (and it's the biggest con ever, but I'm not getting into that) So I ingest plenty of pesticides. Living in Tokyo, there's plenty of stuff in the air that's bad for you.

Secondly, neem oil, soap and DE doesn't sound too appetising either ;)

If I get aphids next year, I'm going chemical warfare on them.
 
georgej said:
Everyone's solution seems kinda organic, isn't there some brutal poison for aphids that will kill them for sure
Click to expand...

there are a number of them. and all are entirely safe and effective if used as directed.
here are the ones im familiar with and have used

1. systemic-imidicloprid. super effective all aphids dead in 48 hours.
2. local systemic- abamectin- pretty damn effective, hard to spray properly, need a surfactant aphids will die in a week or so.
3. contact insecticide- permethrin not that effective on aphids. i use it to genocide caterpillars of all varieties.
 
Would it be at all feasible to smoke out / suffocate bugs? Put a garbage bag over the plant, and a small controlled flame (DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER, do not attempt unless you're familiar with what fire does to things when it goes wrong) like a candle in the dirt?

Suck all the oxygen out, fill it up with smoke-type gases, bugs become dead. Plants don't exactly have a hyperactive metabolism, so I assume they'd survive longer than the bugs without oxygen (No light = no replacing oxygen themselves, right?)

Any thoughts?
 
you would be better off just pumping an inert gas into said bag. nitrogen is super cheap. argon not super cheap, but pretty cheap.

that being said, its probably a terrible way to kill insects, and entirely cost prohibitive.
 
yea forgot about co2. co2 is cheap too. best of all it will liquify under pressure so you can get lots of it in a relatively small container.
i highly doubt it would benefit the plant in any meaningful or observable way tho.

but who is to say aphids can even be suffocated in this manor. they may be able to live for hours without oxygen. their eggs may be able to live indefinitely without oxygen as well.
i wonder if bugs have hemoglobin? if so carbon monoxide will be deadly to them much as it is to us... and even at relatively low concentrations.

that being said, messing around with carbon monoxide is stupid will likely kill you as well.
 
Nitrogen is so dangerous. I hate using it.

There's no warning shot with it, you are either conscious or not.

CO2 you feel it and can get out before you suffocate. Anoxia is no fun, you feel terrible once you start breathing again
 
Gave my plants a second bath today, lot less aphids, and plenty of dead ones all around. Will hit with a second blast of DE in the morning. More updates to come.
 
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