Aphids come in many colors and black aphids are often common on various vegetable crops. The photo is not good enough to confirm definitely that they ARE aphids but that's a very good possibility.

I find the easiest and best control is just to hose down the plants frequently with a strong stream of water. Aphids have soft, squishy bodies and strong water can blast them into nothingness as well as dislodge them from the plants. Water is really all that I ever use if I have an aphid issue but insecticidal soap - NOT dish detergent - or neem oil can also be effective and both are organic controls.

and be careful with the dish soap.... many are detergents.. which might cause more harm to the plant ... than good they will do with the bugs ... i mean really .. whats the use if you control the pest.. by burning the heck out of the plant ...

ken

gardengal, I gave the plant a good spray and it definitely seems to have helped; the aphids haven't returned yet. I will keep trying this method if they do as it seems the most natural and least hard on the plant.

That's a good point Ken!

Actually I was not completely accurate in my first post - although the original recipe I used to make the spray called for dish detergent, I used Dr Bonner's soap because I read it is less harmful to plants. Any truth to that?

I'm also wondering what about other recipes for pest control I've seen around the web, like diatomaceous earth and vinegar/water solution - is putting these on plants also harmful to the plants? Going to try to stick with water spraying for now and hope it does the trick.