• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

pests How to make male Aphids...

Last fall to combat my Aphid problem I found and used the product Essentria IC3 with great results.  One application and all Aphids turned black and died.  The past few weeks I've tried it again for another minor infestation on my 8' tall peppers and found these little white hard things where the Aphids once were.  After some experimenting I've learned they are the Aphids that got sprayed turning into winged males.  In this pic you can see one near the middle starting to turn into its shell(?) and one near the bottom all done.  I scraped several off the leaves into a petri dish and overnight they hatched into males. (next pic).
 
3OSKVIu.jpg

 
W5YjloN.jpg

 
I've tried second dosing them as well as Neem and several other organics on the cocoons without success.  Any thoughts on really killing them once in the shells?
 
This is a big problem since its a huge plant.
 
Dj32ETj.jpg

 
With this many peppers in just a few inches.
 
Yw7mE1J.jpg

 
What appears to be only a few Aphids turning into males is really many hundreds.
 
Love the plant!
 
 
Hate the aphids
 
 
 
Sorry for the lack of advice. Neem works very well for me with aphids, but a plant that size would be a disaster to spray. Though, a good 2 gallon pump/pressure sprayer would be the first thing I would try (if you haven't already). And you should apply the neem at least once every three days, for three applications.
 
 
Best of luck!!
 
aphids don't need male for reproduction. they will in fall for eggs.
Aphids will develop wings to colonize other plants farther. when the host plant no longer meets their needs.
spray with water under leafs to remove the maximum of them.
 
the young aphid is identical to the adult. This involves four molts before growing.
 
usually just with insecticidal soap it comes to end
 
To me it doesn't look like the aphids are hurting it very much. That plant looks very healthy. I say just spray it with a hose to knock the majority of them off and then let nature handle the rest. If there are that many aphids then there should be something that will come and eat them soon. 

I am also jealous as fuck over that plant.
 
I guess by making them molt and fly away I've made some headway.  I'll keep spraying weekly I guess to keep them away.  The plant is a 5th generation cross of mine.  Very prolific in protected areas with 50% or less direct sun.
 
Back
Top