aphids on indoor plants

[bower]

There shouldn't be any aphids on my veggies! I haven't seen an ant since spring. They got into the kitchen for awhile, where I fed them a homemade borax and sugar treat until they stopped coming. They didn't like what I had in the greenhouse. And they never did find my plant starting shelf where three pepper plants were kept overwinter from the previous year, which afterwards went outdoors.
Now I'm finding aphids on dill and cilantro in november in the same planting space where afaik no more ants or aphids could get in.
Has anybody got a solution for aphids in the house, that doesn't involve soap spray or neem, because I've been down that road and it never ends! Soap mess ends up everywhere, it is a full time job just to try to keep them down a bit (thinking on peppers) and for sure I'm not spraying soap or neem on leaves I intended to eat. I've reached the point that I will not engage a soap battle with aphids because it doesn't get rid of them.



There's got to be a way to get rid of indoor aphids, and whoever comes up with an effective answer to this problem is going to make a LOT of money or earn the Undying Love of millions.
I wonder if it's possible there are some furtive ants involved in this. I think I'll start by putting out the borax honeydew, just in case...

[Salsacharley]

I know you probably don't want to hear this because it does involve some soap, but I just got a recipe: 1 liter water, 2-3 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp neem, 1 tsp dish soap. I have only used it a few days but it looks to be working. It hasn't been messy for me. I think the baking soda amplifies the effect.

[bower]

Hey, thanks SalsaCharley!


I probably won't mix up with soap and neem, but you've reminded me about my success with baking soda last year in the greenhouse. Just a direct application of baking soda is really effective to kill them.
I was trying to think of something that I wouldn't mind applying to a leafy food, too. Definitely no worries about the soda!


I thought about using DE to dust the outside of pots so they can't get in, but I don't really want to have that dust around the house either. I can put soda on the soil around the inside of the pot, that might really mess them up as badly or worse.

[oakley]

I've got them as well. Working out of town all week...home late last night and
checked on my plants expecting to deal with thirsts. I was so careful this year. Bummer.

I have a plan. We shall see...

[bower]

Let me know how it works out, Oakley.


So far I've put out my borax bait - okay I dropped a few big nasty blobs into the cracks/ areas I thought ants would have to get in through, if anywhere.
And I gave the cilantro pot where I found them today a heavy dusting of baking soda on the inside soil surface around the sides. And the poor dill I stuck in the greenhouse yesterday got totally doused in soda as well. The cold out there can only slow the aphids down, it won't stop em although it may kill the dill. We'll see...


The ant bait recipe which worked for me, and which is still usable and liquid in the sealed dispenser:


1/3 cup borax
1 cup sugar
enough water to bring level to two cups
1 box expired pectin


I improvised with the expired pectin powder because I had some and because it was not the consistency I wanted for drops, so without that you'd want less water I reckon. It worked really well though, they went for it.

Commercial ant bait drops are expensive! And worst of it, the bottle always gets gummed up and won't give a drop before they're used up. My drops with the pectin are in a dish soap type of dispenser which you push the tip down to close. Otherwise, the drops themselves do dry out in a few days and need to be renewed.

[Banadoura]

Bower, I brought in my Jalapeno pepper plant this year and aphids appeared soon after.

I am doing 2 things, the first is giving the plant a shower every weekend to remove the aphids. The second thing is spraying it with a solution made of 1 tablespoon of dish soap and 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper in 1 quart of water.

It is slowing them down significantly, there's a good chance I will be winning this battle!

[GrowingCoastal]

When I overwintered one pepper plant I stripped off all its leaves and cut stems down to the main one. I washed the roots and potted the pepper up in new mix. STiLL got aphids though I saw nary a one on the plant before.
I ended up putting it into isolation after spraying it down with diatomaceous earth in the shower. There were lots of dried up aphid bodies on the plant tray afterward but I had to keep repeating. That pepper did ok the following summer but not worth keeping over.

I used DE on an orchid that had something but I mixed up a paste and applied it to the cracks of the plant a few times. That worked.

[oakley]

No way to predict troubles. Convinced of that. My meyer lemon tree is blooming...
At its base is Ahi Amarillo baby still producing now. mid December? WTF
This time last year my peppers brought indoors lost all leaves and went into some expected hibernation. Died. expected. no biggie.

Plants surviving is a win-win. So sad the death.

[bower]

I don't have any peppers in this time, so no big aphid bait! (yes they went for the dill first!).


There are only two possibilities as to how they got here:
(1) It's been mild enough for ant or aphid to be seeking a way in from outdoors
(2) Maybe some unwashed pots. Do aphid eggs be layed on pots?
I thought I had cleaned up pretty well, and all of the pots got a soapy rinse at least. No bleach this year, I'm trying to cut back on that. Hot water should be enough to kill eggs?

[Nan_PA_6b]

Bower, did you stop using bleach and then the aphids arrived? If so, maybe more bleach is the answer.

[bower]

Nan, it's not that simple. The aphids have been an ongoing problem for years, ants too. I just thought their season was over, so it was safe to make a fresh start, but I'm not sure if the mild weather allowed them to be awake and find a way in.
Bleach would kill eggs on a pot, but if the pot is clean and has been scrubbed, how small and tough would it have to be? I can't think that washing in hot soapy water wouldn't be enough.

[Nan_PA_6b]

True.

[SueCT]

My bet is mild weather woke them or allowed new eggs to hatch and sent them looking for warmer pastures. In the past my success with not having aphid problems all winter meant making sure we were into full winter weather for several weeks before planting, and starting with healthy grocery store herb plants. Those critters can't live in a deep freeze but the eggs winter over in soil or plant material and they can show up again in spring. Once they start reproducing again they look for a warmer spot when it starts to turn cooler again. So if they can survive in the soil or plants, they only need enough mild weather to bring them out, and that can be just a week from what I have read. They thrive at 65-80 degrees and overwinter as eggs, then give birth to live nymphs as long as the weather is appropriate. Your house is like a perennial spring for them. I personally have never been successful in permanently getting rid of them once they have infested plants inside, so I just throw them out and start again. Or wait until I can plant outside again. If I was pretty sure there would be no more mild weather for several months (not hard around here) I would scrub everything down including shelves, floor, etc., to make sure there were no more eggs or nyphs that might have attached to some dirt or a stray leaf, wait a week or more of cold weather incompatible with their life cycle, and then try again.

[MissS]

I just use a spray of dish soap. 1 teaspoon Dawn to 2 cups of water. Then spray the plants thoroughly on both sides of the leaves. Wait 10 minutes and then rinse off. Repeat every other day for 3 treatments. You could also just dunk the plants in a sink of soapy water. Let sit. Rinse. The idea here is to drown/suffocate these insects.

[SueCT]

I wish that worked for me, MissS. I had plants purchased through the mail once that arrived with aphids. I sprayed them with water to knock them off, then soapy water, and they came back, so I mixed up a bucket of soapy water, put my fingers on both sides of the stem over the soil to keep it in the pot and dunked it in the bucket of soapy water and swished it around. They still came back. I can't be bothered spending days into weeks fighting the things, so now i just toss them. I am glad others seem to be able to get rid of them so easily, it just never worked for me. I don't know what I did wrong, but I give up.