Aphids on chili

19 years ago

I have been having a lot of problems with my Pequin Chili. I've grown it from seed and it's 3 years old, so I've gotten attached to it. I originally had 3 of them, but when the aphids became a problem, I was forced to get rid of the two worst and just try to save this one.

I first tried insecticidal soap. On two seperate occasions I took it outside on a sunny day, sparyed it down thoroughly with the insecticidal soap several times over a few hourse, rinsed it with the hose and brought it back in. That didn't do anything. Then I put it out overnight in freezing weather, trimmed off the leaves and soft branches (which were killed), leaving just the trunk and thick branches. After a few weeks it started leafing out again - complete with aphids.

Finally tonight I took it outside and sprayed it down with some chemical insecticides. I left it for 10 minutes (as long as I dared keep the poor thing out in below freezing), then rinsed it and brought it back in. The aphids are still there!

Is there anything more to do for this poor plant?

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Comment (1)

Kimmsr
19 years ago
Controlling aphids on any plant is easy, if you understand the life cycle of aphids. A sharp water spray to knock those you can see off the plant is really all that is necessary. Insecticidal soaps are almost overkill, but they too need to be used properly.
Aphids produce live nymphs almost as soon as they are born themselves so by the time you see any at all you have several generations on your plant. Many people then think that those they knocked off have returned which did not happen, another generation simply moved in, or up. So the spraying needs to be repeated every 5 days or so to knock off the new generation, and repeated until there are no more, and that will happen, eventually.
If a good Insecticidal Soap is used, a non detergent is all that should be mixed, and only the target insect is sprayed the soap does not need to be rinsed off since a real soap will not harm the plant, or at least it has not harmed any of my plants in some 30 years of using it.
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