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lynn_nevins

Any idea what this pest is, and best way to get rid of?

last year
last modified: last year

Hi everyone. I'm in NYC (Zone 6b).


I have a raised planter that I'd newly set-up with a bunch of plants (tomato, chive, parsley, basil and marigold, about 2 months ago. I used Fox Farm Happy Frog potting soil along with a good amount of perlite and coco coir, for the potting medium.


About 3 weeks in, I decided to move the tomato plants into their own separate pots, and in their place, I put some scallions. At some point after that, I decided to spray all the plants with a neem oil/water/soap spray, as a precaution (and because I had seen some bugs in the vicinity, though not in the planter itself). And a week after that, I began seeing all these little black bugs (see image, below), but only on the scallion; all the other plants in the planter seem fine.


Even though I've continued spraying the scallion, and even tried wiping the bugs off manually with a paper towel, the black bugs seem to be thriving. This is my first time having this issue (I rarely have a pest issue with any of my potted plants) so I'm at a loss. I think these may be aphids? I'd read somewhere that another option is to give the plants a strong spray of water, but unfortunately I don't have access to a spray hose. (I must do all my watering with a water pitcher.)


Any ideas? Should I just totally remove these scallion plants and start with totally new ones? Or is there something particular to scallions, that attracts this type of bug?


Thank you!

Hi

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