What's a good mostly natural way to take care of these bugs on my pepper plant leaves?
by Altitude7199
What's a good mostly natural way to take care of these bugs on my pepper plant leaves?
by Altitude7199
5 Comments
I can’t really see very well from this picture but it does very much look like aphid and aphid moults (skin shed) to me. I personally have dealt with them more than once and they are my nemesis. They suck the life out of your plants and it’s so hard to get rid of them. Maybe someone here can give good advice. I lost my plants and my patience to them, best is to prevent them from eben being there and from spreading and picking them off if you ever see them.
Ive had really good success w removing aphids a few times.
1) hose off the plant with heavy volume of water, but not a jet. Basically dont firehose your plants. Rinse under the leaves and everywhere, then again.
2) apply neem oil concencrate (diluted per instructions) and spray 👏 the👏 hell👏outta👏everything👏
3) if you so chose diamatecous earth is a pretty good choice too. Ive blended it with my neem oil spray and added a few tbsp of DE to the water mix. Once it dries, its effective again and essentially death razerblades to all exoskeltons(including pollinators so be mindful if theres that chance)
If its an awful you may want to do it a few weeks in a row, even if you dont see many/any. But grower beware – nature will find its way to your plants one way or another via bugs, bacteria, fungus, etc so just learn to live w the challenges 😁
Fill a deep bucket with soap water. Submerge the whole plant for 10 minutes.
Take thst outside hose it off real good. Get all them off. Check for eggs. Remove and spray the shit out of it with dead bug
Aphids suck suck suck really bad…
Here is my best advice to actually defeat them for good
1) mechanical options first… Take the plants outside and spray as much of the aphids off the plants as possible (as someone mentioned)
Then
2) 1oz Dr Bronners peppermint Castile hemp soap and 1oz of 70% isopropyl alcohol per gallon of water and dunk plants for several minutes (as someone mentioned)
3) get sticky traps (yellow cards) and put them all over, preferably within 10ft of each other or closer (ideally every plant if it’s a small setup)… It will give you an idea of how bad the infestation is, as well as if it’s getting better or worse and which plants have the worst infestation. It’s not going to solve your problem but it will indicate if you’re on the right track and where to aim your focus
Repeat steps 1 through 3 every other day, (make sure you swap the sticky traps)… The idea is to suffocate things before they can reproduce (works better with mites and such, but nonetheless repeat steps please)
But if you really want them gone for good you have to step 4 IMO, especially if you’re growing at scale of any kind
4) Steinernema feltiae is a specific species of nematodes that ruin aphids at the larva stage in your root zone… It takes a few applications to dwindle the aphids flock but I’ve seen infestations on hundred thousand plant scale be corrected…
Follow the link below and find this nematode product from Bio Works and use multiple applications… Follow directions …
The stuff has to be kept refrigerated and has a short shelf life, so order enough to do 2 or three applications and follow directions to a T
Once you mix it up you only need to put a tiny bit at the stalk of each plant (maybe an ounce) there’s millions of microscopic nematodes that do the rest
The nematodes need specific water conditions (pH and temp)… Don’t mess that part up…
Julie Graesch has some really good info on it if you’re bored you can find a ton of good podcasts and such about the subject
https://bioworksinc.com/products/nemashield/
Steinernema feltiae nematodes
Sincerely,
From a guy who used to murder bugs all day long for a living…