Only thing that has worked for me

Alex,

Start by understanding your enemy, Porn prego aphid females produce 200 young ones every 2 weeks.

You don't control, you just reduce the #'s every 2 weeks, To do a major reduction you need to spray everything green in your county and the next county to the west

They can fly 125ft in a single flight, A 5 mph wind can take them several thousand feet. A green peach aphid will suck on anything green

Aphids can carry 5 known diseases
Chemicals can not kill aphids fast enough to prevent the spread of a disease.
There are over 4,000 species of aphids

Now that you have a minor intro, my suggestion get some baby shampoo or horse shampoo.

Mix 1 tbsp of the shampoo in a gal of water.

Every 2 weeks, soak(spray) the plants with the soap and water, wait about 15 min and then rinse the plant off with some clear water

While there is a commercially available chemical treatment that will control aphids with one application. It is quite a drastics measure for small gardens or indoor plants. For the green house the best control is a spray bottle of water. Set the nozzle on a wide stream and squeeze the trigger with just enough force to wash the aphids off. It works but you will have to repeat the process about once a week or so. I just watch for them and wash the plants as needed. Aphids develop wings when the colony gets over crowded and will fly to a close by plant. They do their damage on new growth like new shoots and blossoms.

Here is a link that might be useful: Paul's Pepper Place

Thanks everyone for your helpful advice. It looks like the only practical solution for me is a regular regime of spraying with soap and water. I would love to use ladybugs but it would create some difficulties in the household.
If there are more ideas please keep them coming.

Thanks,

Alex

I've read that chives work to ward of aphids, so I set a few seeds in each pot. It will be interesting to see if this works, because if it does it will save a lot of extra effort.