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Starting a new hobby - Aphid Farming {Warning Aphid Porn Inside}

  • #21
Holy crap, it makes me cringe just looking at this. What plants are these?

They are on my pepper overwinters. I usually cut off all but a fistfull of roots and about an equal part is left on top, but this year the cold came early for us and I still had a lot of peppers that were immature, so I left those branches on hopping to get the fruit - it worked, but also caused me a lot of headache as you can see from the pictures... outside there's plenty of natural predators to keep the aphids at bay, but in my house they had free range to take over unscathed.
 
  • #22
So they're on a lot of plants?
 
  • #23
So they're on a lot of plants?

yep... 30 plants, lol... so in reality, the invasion is far worse than the pictures could do justice for, lol..
 
  • #24
Oh lord, good luck man.
 
  • #25
Prior to using any pesticide, I would read the instructions completely. It's one thing for us to throw these toxic killing brews on our CPs, it is quite another to use it on a crop which to plan to put in our body. :0o:
 
  • #26
Prior to using any pesticide, I would read the instructions completely. It's one thing for us to throw these toxic killing brews on our CPs, it is quite another to use it on a crop which to plan to put in our body. :0o:

Indeed! So far I've only used:

Pyrethrin - an extract from Chrysanthemums, Piperonyl butoxide an extract of sassafras plants (to increase the potency of Pyrethrin) as part of a pre made spray sold specifically as a garden plant insecticide.

Neem oil - a vegetable oil from the fruit and seeds of the neem tree.

Murphy Oil Soap - potassium soap manufactured from vegetable oil, EDTA - a sequestering agent often used in soaps, Propylene glycol - a preservative often found in foods.

dish soap - commonly used in many insect sprays

vegetable oil.

So far everything I've used is typically safe for use on edible produce and the instructions have been followed. Currently there is no fruit forming on any of my plants adding another level of protection from consumption with these products.

Malathon was mentioned in the above thread and while I don't know much about it, it is commonly used in agriculture and iirc is the main ingredient in many head lice shampoos. - I'll certainly follow the directions on this one though, lol..


- Thanks for the heads up!
 
  • #27
UPDATE!

Last weekend I soaked my plants in the tub for 3 hrs each in a weak solution of neem oil and dial dish soap then sprayed off the plants with the shower head. -- this killed 99.9% of them and was fantastic! -- afterwards I couldn't find a single one. Yesterday I found ~10 aphids on my seedlings so I sprayed every plant very thoroughly to include the soil with 1.5 tsp malathon per gallon. I'm guessing they were either stow away eggs or hiding on my walls, lol... hopefully I can keep up with them this time and keep them from getting out of hand.


The plants may be ugly right now, but they've been through a lot.. I trimmed most of them back by 50% or more as well, lol ..
nPLiAh.jpg



I thought these would be goners, but as soon as the aphids were gone, they pushed out new leaves!!

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http://youtu.be/SkWeMvrNiOM?t=22s
 
  • #28
It's like a horror movie...... Utterly skin crawling...
 
  • #29
only thing i can think of is individually quarantine them until all aphids are gone...by limiting their mobility and access to food might give u a chance. aphids are born pregnant so if you do not kill every one of them they come back.
 
  • #30
i had aphids on a d. capensis plant for a long time, only thing that worked for me was picking each aphid off. did this for months. eventually i won.


dont see that being an option for you!!
 
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