Thanks John.......I thought about the ladybug option but I don't know of anyplace to acquire them up here during the winter and they are most probably not importable. Also, a friend of mine somehow managed to get a colony of them in his cottage last summer and there ended up being thousands of them in no time. That's not a scenario I'm looking forward to....a few dozen aphids doesn't seem to be worth the risk of an infestation of ladybugs.

Animoosh

Neem oil smothers aphids very quickly and does not burn pepper plants if the instructions are followed. If you cannot find neem oil try Safer Insecticidial Soap.

....or you could just wash them off :D

Vera

Had same problem last week... got them same way. I would use the squish method, unless your dealing with a full blown infestation, on a 100 or so seedlings.

Won't be waiting on mail for ladybug.
Won't be putting chemicals on your seedlings and soil.
Won't be soaking the soil with soap and water.

I have used soap and water for the over winter plants a couple times. But held the plant sideways when spraying it. That way the soil didn't get the run off. Although, a little soap and water is good for the soil, in the summer, on established plants.

Rick

Aphids are the sole reason why I do not overwinter plants anymore. I had an aphid infestation that was so bad last year that I had to destroy my seedlings. My recommendation is to physically wash and wipe the bugs off, and stay on top of it as much as you can, they can stunt your seedlings if you are not on top of them.

We're close enough to spring now that you can count on putting the plants outside once in a while within the coming month or so. Depending on when the other bugs and spiders come out, you'll be getting natural predators that will eliminate or at least control the aphid problem.

One BIG mistake I made last year, and I hope you do not: I had a few long, semi-hairy bugs suddenly appear on my plants. I thought they were thrips or another such parasite. I killed them off and realized later that they were ladybug larvae. Please be aware of what they look like and how beneficial they are.

He, he!

This sounds very familiar. Hmm. Bringing in Habaneros in the fall to overwinter and Aphids taking over everything including other plants that have never been outside.

Ah, that's exactly what I did last year! My wife would not let me get the ladybugs (I was only thinking a hundred or two! What's the big deal (ha, ha!) :). Those critters sure got around everywhere. Man, my wife was not happy!

All the plants had to go. Habaneos first. I though my indoor Thai Peppers would be ok, but no. Aphids can fly and will infest everything. My indoor Thai's had to go as well :(

So, I'm not bringing in plants in the fall for overwintering. I will however try to plant some indoor ones again. Maybe even disinfect the top soil using the oven (or boiling water) to minimize the risk of infestations.

A big thankyou to all who responded to my aphid problem. I am going to do battle with them again this morning by rinsing them off as much as is practical. So far I seem to at least be able to keep them down to a "reasonable" amount. One thing's for sure.....there is no way I will try to overwinter this coming season's plants unless there is some foolproof method to annihilating the critters that are adhering to them first!

Animoosh

The only thing I have found that actually controls aphids inside is ladybugs. Spraying neem or soap only provided temporary relief and had to be repeated ad infinitum They do not multiply and get out of control. In fact the trick is to keep some alive because as the numbers of aphids diminish so do the lady bugs. I make up a food for them when the aphid population gets low.

John,

My continuous spraying with water seems to have them somewhat under control (I hope!) I am going to see if I can get ahold of a few ladybugs from somewhere because the spraying of soaps, etc. is starting to result in foliar damage and burning.
On a related note, I discovered a lot of these really nasty looking black with orange spotted larvae on my peppers last season. Not knowing any better at the time I squished every one of them that I could find figuring anything that ugly can't possibly be good for the plants! After doing some research I now realize that I was killing ladybug larvae. Talk about feeling foolish....I wonder if anyone else out there has made a similar mistake.

Animoosh

Animoosh

Several people have owned up to it. I had damage from sprays too.

"On a related note, I discovered a lot of these really nasty looking black with orange spotted larvae on my peppers last season. Not knowing any better at the time I squished every one of them that I could find figuring anything that ugly can't possibly be good for the plants! After doing some research I now realize that I was killing ladybug larvae. Talk about feeling foolish....I wonder if anyone else out there has made a similar mistake."

Jeez how could you make such a silly mistake?

Groovy,

Squishing them wasn't the silliest part.....once I realized that I needed some ladybugs to control my aphid population I scoured my entire yard as well as the neighbor's collecting the precious few adult beetles I could find! Serves me right for not researching the little ugly critters.

Animoosh

Oh I was just joking. Look a few posts up on this thread and you'll see I did exactly the same thing.

Yeah I know.....I caught the earlier post. Did you have to crawl around looking for more like I did? I sure wish I had a few right now....I swear I can here those little bastar*s sucking away on pepper juices right now!!!

Got my ladybugs yesterday from Natural Insect Control in Stevensville Ontario. The neem and insecticidal soap weren't doing the job so I hope 1000 ladybugs will do.

first off if you buy ladybugs they will die, eventually. i havent heard of anyone who bought ladybugs and have been overrun... yet. they love to eat aphids.... like 500 by the time they are adults.

as for spray, neem is safe to most good insects, and will work IF you are fanatical about it. i had a aphid problem (taken care of knock on wood, for almost a month) and when the infestation was bad i take the plant outside and pray with garden hose(early fall) then bring inside and spray with neem. do this every 2-3 days and for 2-3 weeks AFTER you see your last aphid. with luck you will get them. the problem is if you miss just one or two you will have a nice little collony again in no time.

one thing i have noticed thought with sprays (neem) is that it is a good idea to spray off plants with water (next day) to keep the oil from building up and choking the plant pores or crating a fungus to grow.

and i think you are in Manatoba.... i think you would still have time to completely restart your seeds if it is too bad already. just a thought.

Michael

unlike the asian ladybird beetle (Harmonia axyridis) the native ones (Hippodamia convergens)will not infest your home. The Asian ones are more common now than the natives and can become a nuisance. Last year they fryed my telephone connection when they infested the hook up box at the power line and they love Patio doors.

Thanks for the info on the two types of lady bugs. I am assuming that the masses that invaded my friend's cottage were the Asian variety. I've never seen anything like it....it was like a Steven King segment! There were literally thousands of them on every available surface in the building....not a pleasant sight.
I found a supplier of lady bugs locally though they won't be available until early March. Now if I can just hold on a little longer...........animoosh

"Did you have to crawl around looking for more like I did?"

Oh yeah, I did much searching for more of those buggers.

I hear ya man .
overwintering = aphids.

A question that's been bugging me is that last year was the first time I had stared from seeds and everything was going great till I noticed that none of my Jals were coming up and the ones that did didn't look good. It was getting too late to start new ones so off to a greenhouse I went to pick ups some healthy seedlings. Unfortunatly I got more than I paid for. Not only did I get the plants but within days those seedlings looked like they were bubbling and found that it was a mass of aphids covering the plants from the greenhouse. It wasn't long before the aphids found my other plant. Those little bastards ruined most of my plants. Didn't have much of a crop last year till a friend of mine who I'd given 6 different plants to prior to the infestation presented me with a grocery paper bag full of peppers.

My question is this I have no indoor plants (hey I'm single) so there's no been no vegitation for the aphids since I took those seedlings out early spring last year. If I start new seedlings this year with brand new soil mix and the trays cleaned out good is there a reason to worry that maybe some of these stupid bugs have hibernated and could still be in my house ready to terrorize more innocent little seedlings?

Peppermike,

There shouldn't be any more lying around if they have nothing to sit on or soil to bury into for all that time. But these are resilient little suckers. I would go for it and just pay real close attention once the seedlings are up. With diligence and a lot of rinsing of plants under tap water I seem to have mine under control....at least for now. Good luck!

animoosh

My ladybug order from Planet Natural arrived a couple days ago. Almost every bug was dead. My first order in early December had only a very few dead ones.

My fault to have to reapply I think. Previous years I kept the ladybugs fed and watered and there was always a healthy population of adults and larva until I put the plants outside in the spring. I see some good-sized "alligators" here and there so they might have repopulated to take care of recent aphid outbreak. Just a handful of plants with aphids and one of them is really bad.

jt

jt

I only had that happen once and they promptly replaced them.

johnF