Thank you Rick! That's what my plans going to be.

They are really starting to multiply down here as my pepper seedlings in the greenhouse are getting a little larger. I am now having to spray every few days to keep them in check. hopefully when they go outside the ladybugs will take over the work for me.

Bill

[QUOTE=b54red;688597]They are really starting to multiply down here as my pepper seedlings in the greenhouse are getting a little larger. I am now having to spray every few days to keep them in check. hopefully when they go outside the ladybugs will take over the work for me.

Bill[/QUOTE]

can you get some ladybugs through the mail? I really am a big believer in this. I had pansies a few years ago that I couldn't get ahead of the aphids no matter how much I sprayed. I bought ladybugs and released them in the greenhouse and bam! they were gone.

Take dish soap and mix with water to make a solution that just makes bubbles. Spray it well up and under on your pepper plants. About an hour later, you can rinse the plants with fresh water to remove the soap. The soapy solution surrounds the aphid and smothers it. I've watched this work close up on the little buggers. I've never seen this hurt the plants, if you rinse it off.

Aphids generally thrive in temps from the mid 60's to upper 70's. I recently went through an invasion on my kale and collards during a warm spell of upper 70's. Now that the night temps are down in the 30's again they're not so bad. And they reproduce so fast that it takes frequent monitoring to [U]try[/U] to stay ahead of them! :shock:
Fortunately, in my garden they seem to bother only the brassicas. I've never seen any on peppers or tomatoes. *keeping fingers crossed*

When you spray, make sure you get under the leaves using either a gloved hand or a stick to lift leaves and spray under them with the other. That will get the most of them but I'm afraid there's no getting all of them and survivors can reproduce so quickly.

Usually I use a hard water spray to knock down as many aphids as possible first, followed by insecticidal soap (sometimes with permethrin mixed in) on/under the leaves and finally a good spray on the ground all around the plants to get those that were knocked off.