Aphid war

[Peppers]

Thanks for the input. I have a small garden of about 15 plants total (tomato, bell pepper, various chili) have already tried "safe soap" from the local home center with failed results (killed more green leaves than aphids). Have already had to pull a couple plants due to aphid infestation shrivel / deformation. I am currently preparing a garlic/mineral oil/soap mixture for spray. Is anybody familiar with this old english brew? Will it hurt the plants? Will it make everything taste like garlic? lol. I don't want to go the pesticide isle to resolve this, it is only the second year that we (my two sons 10/12) have grown the garden. Any and all help for the "newbie" is greatly appreciated,
Paul

[Grey]

Your concoction should be fine
if that doesn't work, try Neem oil. It is organic and sold at most garden centers.

[opabinia51]

I am in concurment with Grey's assesment.

[boomer]

I hate posting a reply being new to the site, but ladybugs work very well if you have that bad of a problem and they are very inexpensive.

[opabinia51]

Yes! Thank you very much boomer. Ladybugs and their larvae are voracious eaters of aphids. I forget the actual numbers as far as how many aphids ladybugs and their larvae will eat but, it is very high.

You can buy ladybugs and you can also plant flowers that will attract them.

[AngryItalian]

you could also try praying mantises
I'm trying it out this year for the first time to see how they work out since I have plenty of aphids and caterpillars to go around.
and yea, definitely try the neem oil: so far it has worked fine with my plants ( except when I forget to spray it for a while )

[acjlmom]

Where does one buy ladybugs and praying mantis??

This is the first year I've had an issue with Aphids, but they are taking over my tomato plants. I got some safe soap (couln't find neem where I was) and was going to spray today. But I'd love to get some ladybugs.

[johnboy]

I'm fairly lucky in not having many aphids in my garden but managed to introduce a couple of plants stuffed with them recently.

I basically cleaned the leaves by hand but then noticed ants swarming over the plant (hey have now stopped) and a few days later the plants were totally clean - do ants eat/remove aphids?

I'm interested in the ladybird option - the garden at the moment seems to support only ants, slugs, grasshoppers and woodlice. What are the best ways of encouraging them to colonise?

[webmaster]

Found this website in the States:
This one sells ladybugs and Praying Mantis

Finally, at SuburbanHabitat.com, we see stewardship of our greater habitat as a responsibility that we take on ourselves and on behalf of our customers. SuburbanHabitat.com donates a portion of its annual profits to organizations that benefit habitat locally, nationally, and around the world.

https://www.suburbanhabitat.com/beneficial_insects.php

This one sells ladybugs
https://www.planetnatural.com/site/ladybugs.html

This one in Ontario, Canada
https://www.naturalinsectcontrol.com/catalogue/getprod.cgi?1011A

And this site in the UK sells native ladybirds and other aphid hunters:
https://www.greengardener.co.uk/aphidout.htm

I've never ordered from these sites, but they look like good retailers.

[boomer]

Johnboy,

ants actually support aphid colonies, they feed them until they are large and then bring the big ones home for dinner, get rid of the ants!