can we see the plants from the side ...

how long is the stem on the plant in the second pic?? .. is there drainage in that ceramic pot???

propagate a few leaves.. to insure the continuation of the plants .. in case you lose treasured plants ...

ken

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=propagating+african+violets&t=ffab&ia=videos&iax=videos

It has drainage. They both do. I've had them for years in these pots and they have thrived until I got aphids

Are you sure you have aphids?! I don’t see any in your pics. — assuming that’s potting mix and not aphid skeletons on the leaves in the first pic. Aphids just aren’t that hard to eliminate on plants, and in all my years of growing I’ve never had an aphid on my AVs.

The crown on the 1st plant looks shot. More like death by mites or leaving water in the crown. I’d pinch out the dead crown and bad inner leaves, wash the plant top and bottom, then isolate it. Usually a new good plant grows from the center and I remove/pot that to restart the plant. You can also propagate from leaves as normal.

2nd plant looks like a tight crown — again could be mites or even environmental causes like being too cold. Pic makes it look older and it probably has a long neck, like Ken suggests. I’m also suspicious about those pots…

Have you repotted? You could try that—remove fading leaves, brush the leaves and stem gently with a soft makeup brush. Clean pots, toss out old mix, use fresh. You could propagate new plants from clean leaves as a backup. Keep them away from existing plants.

You can see the dead carcasses of the aphids. They're little dried bits. I have had them isolated  in another room which is a lot colder than the rest of the house but I don't want to risk everything else getting aphids they've definitely started declining since they've been in there so I'll move them back.  There's no need to be suspicious of the pots. This post is about aphids.

There's no need to be suspicious of the pots. This post is about aphids.

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how long is the stem on last pic .. it looks like the crown is elevated quite an number of inches above the lip of the pot ...

if you plant is severely stressed due to poor growing conditions.. then all kinds of things can attack ... and unless you solve the base issue.. creating the stress ... you may have a hard time controlling the result of said stress ...

if all you see is dead aphids.. why do you think you havent already solved your issue or aphids?? .. get a small brush and brush off the dead ones.. and be patient ... but continue to observe ...

ken