Green Bell Pepper help!

[Santorican]

Hello all!

My name is Carlos and this is my sad story. I was growing a beautiful green bell pepper plant indoors and it was finally blooming, and a few days ago I noticed a multitude of aphids on it. I went online and learned that spraying soapy water on the leaves and leaving on there will kill them so I did that and now about 90% of the leaves on my plant have completely wilted off as well as all of the blooms. There are about 5 4 inch leaves that are healthy on the plant left.

Should I prun it back to those leaves and hope that it recovers or what? I've continued to water it and give it plant food every week.

Thank you for your help!

[rainbowgardener]

If I had to guess, I would guess that you used detergent instead of soap. Both are surfactants that lift dirt, but detergent is a synthetic and burns plants, can kill them. Soap is a natural product and is safe for plants as long as not too concentrated. Most dishwashing products are detergents.

If you haven't already, rinse your plant well, cut off the damaged leaves, quit fertilizing it for awhile while it recovers, and take care of it and hope for the best.

[Duh_Vinci]

Guilty as well, done this once before, never knew there is a difference! Now - soapy water, not detergent!

Regards,
D

[gixxerific]

One question is Dawn a detergant or soap?

[rainbowgardener]

I think they make both, one is called dishwashing liquid and one is called dish soap.

[tedln]

Pepper plants have an amazing ability to bounce back. I've had pepper plants lose all their leaves for various reasons and look dead. A week later, after close inspection; they usually were covered with small leaf buds ready to break open.

Ted

[garden5]

Make sure, also, that the plant is not stressed during this period. Since this is a container plant, this should be easy. Just make sure you move it to a shaded area if the sunlight is extremely hot (+90F), but make sure it does not get too cool either.

Good luck with it.

[Santorican]

Thank you all, so soapy water, what type of soap should I use then? I used a dish washing soap that didn't have any additives.

[Dillbert]

>>what type of soap

the safest approach is to use a labeled "insecticidal soap"

pretty much any commercial soap changes formulations as the price/availability of raw materials changes. so what 'worked' (ie didn't damage the plant) last month may not work this month.

insecticidal soaps maintain a consistent formulation which you can rely on to not kill your plant(s)

if it's small scope - just water off the aphids with plain water - will require close attention for new generations.

[rainbowgardener]

The soapy water solution should have been fine, if not super concentrated, but are you sure it was soap? Most dishwashing liquids are detergents, not soap, and can burn plants, even kill them if concentrated enough. Detergent is used as a weed killer.

[tedln]

I've never understood the theory of washing aphids off with water. They are a member of a large family of flies. They usually arrive in gardens supposedly floating or flying on the wind. When you wash them off the plant with water, why don't they just pick themselves up and fly back to the plant?

Ted

[Dillbert]

>> why don't they just pick themselves up and fly back to the plant?

well, if you look into the life cycle of aphids (there's a number of types . . ) you'll find that they don't always have wings.

the water spray physically dislocates them from their food source and before they can locate the same / a new food source, they die.

[garden5]

As someone else said, you should look for "soap" that is being sold with garden-related purposes in mind. That is the best way to ensure that you do not get a "soap" that may kill off your garden.

How's the pepper plant coming along so far? Any new growth showing?

[BrianSkilton]

If the leafs have aphids on them, you can probably just brush them off. Just keep checking the leaves. Last year I had a few on some of my potted pepper plants and the plants did fine.

[jal_ut]

I have used Dawn dishwashing liquid for years to kill bugs. I really think this is a detergent. I use about 2 tablespoons in a kitchen spray bottle. I have used this for aphids on cabbage and it didn't hurt the cabbage. I have used it for earwigs on daiseys and it didn't hurt the daiseys. It does a number on boxelder bugs, and earwigs. I wonder how heavy you mixed your solution that you used on your plant?

One thing that can be done is to spray with the soap and wait two or three minutes then wash it off with fresh watrer. It doesn't take long for the soap/detergent to kill insects. It also takes out daddylong legged spiders. The soap has no residual effect, but will kill many insects quickly if you get it on them.

[TZ -OH6]

I stick a spray head into a bottle of rubbing alcohol and mist the aphids. The plant is rarely damaged and you often don't even have to move the plant to the sink. Works for meally bugs too. Use the 95% if you can but the 70% works. A mist of alcohol will also knock flies out of the air so that you can squash them.

[tedln]

Many insects like "scale" insects are protected from their environment, including many commercial insecticides; by a waxy coating. Mild soap solutions, neem oil, and some other products work by simply dissolving the waxy coating. They then die. Scale insects incidentally are related in the same genus to aphids.

Ted

[Santorican]

As someone else said, you should look for "soap" that is being sold with garden-related purposes in mind. That is the best way to ensure that you do not get a "soap" that may kill off your garden.

How's the pepper plant coming along so far? Any new growth showing?

It has grown back but unfortunately one of the smaller plants died .

I noticed some more aphids on the leaves today so I brushed them off and tomorrow I'm going to go to home depot to see if they have any insecticide soap!

[Santorican]

I stick a spray head into a bottle of rubbing alcohol and mist the aphids. The plant is rarely damaged and you often don't even have to move the plant to the sink. Works for meally bugs too. Use the 95% if you can but the 70% works. A mist of alcohol will also knock flies out of the air so that you can squash them.

I tested that on one of the leaves and it completely nuked the leaf. It turned white lol

[garden5]

I remember hearing somewhere that even spraying your plants with a strong mist with water is enough to knock the aphids off.

Glad to hear that one of your plants came back !

[scot29]

I wish I had read this thread last year. Aphids attacked some of my pansies last year (only the red ones though???). I tried a common insecticide on them & they ate it for lunch.

[Dillbert]

simply washing aphids off with a spray of water is effective.
contact insecticides ala soaps are effective.

but there's a catch.

aphids reproduce by laying eggs and / or by hatching live young - depends on the specific aphids in residence - there's lots different types. one adult female can hatch 80 or more offspring _per day_

eggs are not affected by water / soap.
youngsters can easily be too deep in a crack to be affected by water / soap.

to the catch is, if you've got an infestation you have to address it every day until you've got the population essentially reduced to nothing.

unless you're lucky like my last summer - got an aphid infestation on the peas and two days later had a ladybug BOOM - they ate 'em all!

[applestar]

THAT is the other catch. Don't panic on seeing the aphids and go on a squishing or spraying rampage. Lean in close and inspect. Do you see the adult aphids? Do you see the ants? The baby aphids look exactly like the adults, just much much smaller. Get a magnifying glass or a jeweler's loupe if you can't see them well enough.

Do you see anything else? If you see black and orange aligator like bug, or a similar gray/black bug, they are your relief troops: Ladybug and Green Lacewing larvae.

If you see ladybugs busily patrolling the plant, don't immediately squish or spray a cluster of bright yellow tiny ovoid things, thinking they're aphids. That might be a ladybug egg cluster. If you see a tiny white egg suspended on a filament of nearly invisible thread, that is a green lacewing egg. Look around, you'll probably see more.

Go look for these things on other plants in your garden. Where there is ample supply, you could re-locate them to the affected plants. Take the leaf with the ladybug egg cluster and tape it to the aphid-infested plant, etc.

Oh! One other thing to look for: a shell/mummy of an aphid with a pin hole in it: A sign that there are tiny aphid parasite wasps around. Their larvae eat their way out of aphids after feasting on the insides.

There is another helper: Syrphid Fly maggots -- a.k.a. "Aphid Killer" look like [url=https://waynesword.palomar.edu/redmit6a.htm]this[/url] and eat aphids. This one's a little tricky because, to me, they look a lot like the Rose Slug/Saw Fly larvae.

[Santorican]

Wow there is some great help in this thread, but I have to point out that my plant is an indoor plant as I cannot figure out where to put it around my house. The sun here in FL seems to be too intense in the mornings and afternoons for me to determine where to put the plant so I leave it inside.

Are there any insecticide soaps that don't use any harsh chemicals and are organic based?

[tedln]

Insecticidal soaps are not themselves pesticides. They are simply soaps which are harmful to the insects. You can make the solution weaker or stronger as you choose. Start with a weak solution and determine the effects. Keep in mind that if you start with a strong solution and harm your plant, you can't reverse the damage. Some plants like succulents have a waxy or protective coating over their leaves. The soap and other solvents can harm that coating (based only on my experience).

Ted

[garden5]

Those are good points Dil and Apple. We sometimes get so involved with trying to figure out how "we" can control a pest that we sometimes forget that nature can be the best pest removal system there is. Some people actually buy beneficial insects and release them into the garden, but I'm unsure just how well this works. Most probably just fly away.