I had the same thing happen. I picked up two tabascos (in one pot), a thai dragon, a carribean red, and two jalapenos. A couple days later I noticed a few aphids on the tabascos, and a couple on the thai dragon. I used TKO vegetable spray which is great against the occasional white flies. It killed most of the aphids but I still go through my plants once a day with a skewer scraping off and killing any aphids I find.

It's been days since I've found any but I'm closely watching. I personally have never used seven dust, but just keep an eye on the plants. Inevitably some of the aphids will prolly survive. Decide how you want to deal with them then.

Ladybugs maybe? Cheap, natural, effective.

Cheap dishsoap/ baby/castile/horse shampo at 1 tbsp in a gal of water will kill them.

But you need to start spraying from frost out to freeze up.

They reproduce at a rate of 200 per female per 2 weeks.

If I have to buy plants, I take some soapy water with me and spray the plants before loading them

I'll give the soap water mix a try. This was the first time I had gotten plants from that nursery. I'll never go back there and will tell others about what happened. I hadn't had a single sighting of any pests on my peppers till I bought those plants.... I've got 31 plants besides the ones that the aphids destroyed (the ones from the nursery) I'll be pretty irritated if those things ruin a single one of the plants I grew from seed.

As for Lady bugs where can I get them and are Lady Bugs the same thing as Lady Beatles?

I've definitly learned my lesson to carefully inspect any seedlings I buy.

When I use 7 dust, it works for a while, but after two-three weeks, I will notice another infestation. It's a pain to get the underside of the leaves with the dust.

Peppermike,
Do you grow other veggies? Cause Im starting to think that aphids do have a preference to some veggies like eggplant and squash. I grow a little of everything and for four years have never seen one aphid on my peppers cause they seem to like other plants more. Maybe you could plant something nearby that you don't care about and they will skip over your pepper plants.

I don't have a problem with aphids outside because their natural predators take care of them. I don't use poisons like Seven which also kill the benificial insects and then you have no choice but to keep using the poison. Ideally you create a microenviornment where the good guys keep the bad guys in check.

John

>I'll give the soap water mix a try. This was the first time I had gotten plants from that nursery

Odds are this won't make a difference. Most nursery's or plant resellers from so Conn to mid Maine use the same wholesaler out of Sudbury, Mass.

Anyone know if the castille soap is gentler than Safer's, because I have used Safer's (at the correct dilution) and it always seems to cause a type of leaf burn on most of my pepper varieties.

Otherwise, I spray the plants off with water and then keep checking them regularly. The small babies are always hiding in the buds only to come out later!

Yes that's why I mentioned the other soaps, Safer burns my leaves

Sevin is useless on aphids. It may infact make things worse because it will kill off any predators that were possible keeping some in check. Use Malathion. I too am experiencing this only on plants that are netted entirely (no predators) The soap thing probably works when they are not a major infestation. Some of my plants were nearly completely defoliated and definately set back. They seem to favor chinense for some reason.

The link below provides info on using soap sprays and oils to control aphids:

Here is a link that might be useful: aphid control

I grow lemon basil in my pots along with my peppers because I heard that it increases the humidity around the peppers, which they like and it also is supposed to deter aphids. Last year, I overwintered 6 pepper plants - only 3 of the pots had lemon basil in them. The 3 that didn't have basil had serious aphid infestations but they avoided the ones that did... until most of the leaves dropped (aphids or lack of sunlight?) then it was a free-for-all on the rest of my peppers. Interestingly, though, the aphids never touched the basil plants at all. Needless to say, I'm planting lemon basil in all of my pepper pots this year. Hopefully that will keep the aphids at bay.

I've heard that anything in the mint family of herbs will work in much the same way.

I'm like John, I don't need to use chemicals either. I spotted a few aphids on my eggplants first and then my peppers, but I knew if I waited the ladybugs would come and they did. I've also seen a few paratized ones on other garden plants so I know the parasitic wasps are close at hand too. I grow peppers and other garden crops among my flowers and plants that attract beneficials.
Also you should set a limit (threshold) of how many pests you will put up with per plant before you really decide it's time to bring out the chemicals. Even if you don't have many beneficials in your yard (balcony, etc.) there are other options like a good spray from the hose to the undersides or hand picking. Sometimes I don't pick at all and just squish them where they sit...they'll wash away sometime! I love the sound of 'pop' LOL

Vera

I agree with the post that said malathion is better than Sevin on aphids.

HOWEVER, my wife and I have almost ALWAYS had good (and cheap and good-smelling!) success with aphids with this soap spray recipe:

Mix one cup cooking oil with one cup dishsoap water. This is your concentrate (it separates, so you will have to shake it each time you use it). Take 2 tsp. concentrate into each cup of water. This is your "ready to use" spray. Shake gently as you spray (I prefer a pump sprayer b/c it's easier to get undersides of leaves). The oil helps it last longer and makes the leaves pretty and shiny. The dishsoap smells really good (we use ruby-red grapefruit scented Ajax dishsoap).

I'm not anti-insecticide, but this mix is cheap, easy, and requires no hassle with protective equipment or reentry delay or preharvest interval. And it works great (it has failed only in really hot weather, and that's why we keep the malathion on hand - but all last year, we used the malathion only one time).

as a commercial greenhouse grower I will say this.
LADYBUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
seven will kill the today as will endall and about 30 other pesticides.
I did the soap thing but be carefull it will burn or kill some plants.
ladybugs work well but you need alot of them if your aphid problem is out of control.
if you look at a plant and see a hundred aphids per leave like i did then you have a big problem.
I was able to dunk in soap water then rinse with water spray and dunk again and wash off the buggers and put the plants in another greenhouse then apply the aphids they were nowhere in sight.
next year ladybugs will be there early to eat any aphids that show up .

I think if you are growing these plants outside you don't need to worry about the aphids. Spraying kills the natural predators and sets you up in a cycle of spraying all the time that you can't get out of. How many aphids are we talking about, just a few or are the plants covered? Can you just wipe them off with a finger or a spray of water? Keep an eye out for ladybugs in the wild in your yard and they will do the work for you.
Unless you are actually infested to the point where it is affecting the plants, I would let mother nature take care of it for you.
Plus aphids are just naturally around, at the end of the season if you bring your plants inside, no aphids on the plants is not a guarantee that you don't have aphids. Part of their life cycle is spent in the soil and they can become a problem regardless of how careful you are or the nursery you bought the plants at.

kendra