A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Aphids...I think

Hello everyone. I have small red bugs all over my tomato and pepper plants. I searched the internet and they sure look like aphids. On the tomatoes they are all over the stalk, stems, and flowers. On the peppers they seem to be mostly on the bottom of the leaves.

I do not see any apparent damage to the plants. Both my tomatoes and peppers are flowering and producing fruit. Something has been eating the leaves on my radishes and kohlrabi, but I haven't figured out what though.

I bought some Sevin-5 today, but am hesitant to use it. I really want to be as organic as possible...but don't want to lose all the work/time/care I have put into my plants.

Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Shawn

You should be. I would never use anything of that nature in my vegetable garden.

Aphids are normally green in color. Aphids can be controlled with a simple insecticidal soap or neem oil.

OK John...what are "a simple insecticidal soap or neem oil".

I am real limited here, my Korean isn't the best. It took me 2 days to find a place that I could by a hoe. I could just imagine how tough it would be to find a friendly insecticide.

When I checked the internet there seemed to be quite a few aphid pictures that had red bugs. I will probably just deal with the bugs, since I've been growing here for 3 years and haven't had any problems with getting production out of my peppers and tomatoes.

Thanks

Shawn

Aphids, can be black, green, brown, yellow, purple, rosy-pink*ish*, even gray like.

And I was just reading up on the Wooley Aphid, that has a cotton like material that gives them a woolly appearance.
(when you squish them, it's all red/rusty colored inside)

Shawn,
Also, check the growing conditions..
Aphids love a plant thats' growing conditions aren't quite right..
ie; too much nitrogen is #1 usually..
They love that extra lush, tender new green growth..
Or if it's too hot, and the plant would require cooler temps,
or it's too dry and it would require moisture..

Oh yeah, that's true. Forgot you are in Korea. Not sure what's available there, but neem oil is quite common and insecticidal soaps are becoming more and more so. Good luck.

http://www.homestead.com/ipmofalaska/files/soap.html