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pests The aphid battle rages on

I finally may have avoided the aphidpocalypse this winter, and may have done so by stripping the leaves naked and changing the dirt before bringing them inside.  All my ladies must be naked before coming inside from now on ;)
 
UPDATE
 
I have been conducting a little research into parasitic wasps for the use of aphid control. I have decided to set up a banker plant system to propagate continuing generations of parasitic wasps. I am also going to provide a suitable environment in my outdoor grow area to hold the wasps throughout the summer months. The parasitic wasps will be introduced to the indoor grow area 2 weeks prior to the years holdovers being brought in.
 
I use a catch crop to hold some aphids so that my parasitic wasps can continue to feed and reproduce when there are not aphids on my peppers or other plants. As I've mentioned before, I ordinarily only have one serious bloom of aphids a year in the greenhouse, sometime in early spring. The roses are worst hit, but there are aphids elsewhere as well. In 2003 I made one introduction of aphid predators and parasitic wasps, and they continue to thrive. I provide suitable pollen plants for them, and a suitable catch crop for aphids. For me, the most successful catch crop for aphids is eggplant. For every 40 or so peppers I have one eggplant which I allow to be covered with aphids (pretty easy to do: overfertilize and overwater it). If I examine the aphid colonies on these eggplants, I will see parasites feeding, laying eggs and eating aphids. It is a pretty amazing sight. I still get some eggplants off these plants, but I do try to make sure they get extra nitrogen so the growth is succulent and very attractive to aphids. If you have room in your grow, even a small eggplant seedling might server as a good catch plant.
Renais
 
I will be using barley and bird cherry oat aphid as the banker crop and pest. Still compiling the pollen crop to feed the wasps.
 
I have 14 over winters and have been fighting aphids for about 2 months now. Stripping leaves and picking them off with tweezers and a magnifying glass has only given minimal success. 2 days ago I made a solution of dawn dish soap and water (2 tbs soap to 1 gal water), and liberally sprayed on the plants. Yesterday I found many dead aphids on the plants and no signs of any living aphids. I will continue to monitor but this appears to have done the trick, at least for now.
 
cloudhand said:
I have 14 over winters and have been fighting aphids for about 2 months now. Stripping leaves and picking them off with tweezers and a magnifying glass has only given minimal success. 2 days ago I made a solution of dawn dish soap and water (2 tbs soap to 1 gal water), and liberally sprayed on the plants. Yesterday I found many dead aphids on the plants and no signs of any living aphids. I will continue to monitor but this appears to have done the trick, at least for now.
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It's my understanding in 3 days babies will hatch out.  I hope you give us a report back then. 
 
Sprays, and I have tried many, dont work the way you want them to. Anything lethal enough for the aphids wreaks havoc on the pepper plants as well. and it is very difficult to get everyone of them. And all you need is one survivor to be right back in it in a week.
 
Yesterday I found several more dead aphids on the plants, but also found a few live ones on 3 of the plants. Don't know if they came back or were just missed with the first spraying. I soaked all of the plants again with the dish soap solution. I may need to apply multiple treatments, but this seems to be working as there are not nearly as many of these pests as before. Before the first spraying I could find several of these bugs on every plant almost daily, now they are few and far between and some plants do not have any (that I can detect). I also do not see any ill effects to the plants from the dish soap solution, but it may still be early for that. If anything the leaves are clean and shiny looking.
 
cloudhand said:
Yesterday I found several more dead aphids on the plants, but also found a few live ones on 3 of the plants. Don't know if they came back or were just missed with the first spraying. I soaked all of the plants again with the dish soap solution. I may need to apply multiple treatments, but this seems to be working as there are not nearly as many of these pests as before. Before the first spraying I could find several of these bugs on every plant almost daily, now they are few and far between and some plants do not have any (that I can detect). I also do not see any ill effects to the plants from the dish soap solution, but it may still be early for that. If anything the leaves are clean and shiny looking.
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It's more what Roguejim was getting at, new eggs are hatching. Contact sprays require you to know the lifecycle of the pest, and plan treatment accordingly. Few of these products effect eggs directly.
 
miguelovic said:
 
It's more what Roguejim was getting at, new eggs are hatching. Contact sprays require you to know the lifecycle of the pest, and plan treatment accordingly. Few of these products effect eggs directly.
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Yes, that is what I was thinking with doing more frequent spraying. It may not kill the eggs, but if frequent enough it may kill the hatchlings before they have time to lay additional eggs.
 
:rofl: facepalm. Right, aphids. They can lay eggs, but I think only in response to winter.
 
You may have just missed a few young nestled in crannies. I haven't used Dawn, but with insecticidal soap at the same concentration, I found it rarely killed more than 90 percent and I'm pretty anal about a thorough spray.
 
What happens when your plants are flowering, and you spray for aphids?  How does soap spray, pyrethrins, or any spray affect the pollination?  That is my concern.
 
Many times with unwanted consequences. Sprays that work at the highest percentage of kill rate also have devastating effects on the plants flowers, new growth and sometimes even the older leaves.
 
CAPCOM said:
Many times with unwanted consequences. Sprays that work at the highest percentage of kill rate also have devastating effects on the plants flowers, new growth and sometimes even the older leaves.
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My findings, exactly.  I think I'll be growing some plants native to my area that attract beneficial insects.  If I still get an aphid outbreak, then...I don't know. 
 
Roguejim said:
What happens when your plants are flowering, and you spray for aphids?  How does soap spray, pyrethrins, or any spray affect the pollination?  That is my concern.
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I think you have to weigh consequences vs. benefits.
 
I am unsure with peppers, but I know with some other pollen producing plants, even a spray of clean water is enough to render the pollen inert. I'll take a temporary reduction in pollen over an active aphid infestation anyday. Depending on the product used, you may want to remove flowers to prevent contamination of pollinators.
 
FWIW, if you're damaging the plant everytime you spray, a variable is off somewhere. Whether it be concentration, time of spray, or simply mixing insecticidal soap with hard water. Any time I've damaged a plant, it was through user error, not the actual product. Pesticides, used properly, should not be phytotoxic. That would be contrary to the objective of removing the pest.
 
miguelovic said:
 
I think you have to weigh consequences vs. benefits.
 
I am unsure with peppers, but I know with some other pollen producing plants, even a spray of clean water is enough to render the pollen inert. I'll take a temporary reduction in pollen over an active aphid infestation anyday. Depending on the product used, you may want to remove flowers to prevent contamination of pollinators.
 
FWIW, if you're damaging the plant everytime you spray, a variable is off somewhere. Whether it be concentration, time of spray, or simply mixing insecticidal soap with hard water. Any time I've damaged a plant, it was through user error, not the actual product. Pesticides, used properly, should not be phytotoxic. That would be contrary to the objective of removing the pest.
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I equate it to chemotherapy.
Even the lowly antibiotics do damage to the good stuff.
 
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