pests APHIDS!

Geonerd said:
 
 
You could set up an Aphid Room, just crawling with the buggers.  Rotate a healthy container plant in, let the buggers chow down for a while, then return the plant to your grow area, chumming the sharks wasps with the fresh meat. 
Click to expand...
 

I have been attempting to do almost just that. However, I cant get aphids to prosper if my life depended on it right now.
I have moved on several occasions, a dozen or so aphid specimens to a remote plant to no avail. The wasp either find them or they have already been impregnated. If anyone local has aphids, bring them by and I will trade you for some wasp mummies.
 
This is wrong on so many levels...would anyone think of the aphids cruelty?!?!
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Sorry to bring up an older thread, but it's become suddenly relevant to my situation and I was hoping for some specific insights.
 
I know I have (at least one, haha) parasitoid wasps in my room. I have only been able to find 2 "hatched mummies", but up until recently I was very systematic with my physical aphid removal. Upon discovery (about 2 weeks ago) I significantly relaxed my aphid control and accordingly the numbers have risen - a lot. It had gotten so bad by the weekend that I assumed it was a fluke and there were no living wasps left so I went on a smashing campaign (I actually collected hundreds of aphids in a small container with a couple leaves to inspect later).
 
This morning a wasp landed in my hand. It was tiny, smaller than a winged aphid, but I don't think I misidentified it. This reconfirmed that I do have a population.
 
My questions: How long does it take from egg to adult? I can assume I'm smashing a lot of larval wasps, but I also can't just let plants die while waiting for a critical mass of adult wasps to balance and overcome the aphid population. Since the aphids have become reestablished, I'm manually killing over 200/day. Do I need to put out sugar water or something for the adult wasps? I don't have many flowers if they are feeding on nectar or something. My large plants are also in a fairly cool location which I understand can slow/alter wasp development - should I move them?
 
I have yet to carefully inspect my container from the weekend, but as of right now it looks mostly like there are a handful of winged aphids, a lot of living ones, and a handful of dead ones - no obvious signs of wasps yet.
 
I just don't want to waste this opportunity because it would be nice not to worry about it! Unfortunately there doesn't seem much easy to find information on the internet.
 
Thanks in advance,
Peter
 
 
 
Pictures of hatched mummy
 
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I may have a similar problem. The aphids never get out of control but I never seem to build up any significant population of wasps either and it seems to be a couple of weeks for mummies to hatch more wasps. I am holding out any kind of scortch earth policy til I see evidence of aphid spread to the pepper plants.
 
If you're looking for aphids, an easy source could be a local Walmart or home improvement type store that has seedlings (ex: Bonnie)
Those are usually crawling with the things.
 
Although I think that there was still a (very) small population of wasps, they weren't making any dent in the aphids after a month of trying to let them do their thing.
 
I'm planning on starting my first large batch of seeds this week and I don't have the desire to constantly be worrying my seedlings are joining the "infection". So this morning I went "semi-scorched earth"; cutting some plants back and going with a pyrethrin spray. It's unfortunate and I was really hoping to let my grow area become a self-sustaining ecosystem, but sometimes it just wasn't meant to happen. 
 
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