Vent: aphids took out my whole pepper crop in one week
I checked my balcony peppers on a Monday and they looked fine, then by Thursday every new leaf was curled and sticky. I flipped one over and found a solid line of aphids down the stem, maybe 40 on a single plant. I sprayed soapy water twice and still lost 6 of my 8 plants, plus the two cherry tomato pots next to them. The nursery guy said the heat wave in Sacramento made it worse this month, and I think he was right. How do you all keep aphids off container plants without spraying harsh stuff every other day?
Aphids are basically the kudzu of the bug world, they show up quiet and then just take over everything overnight. Heat making them breed faster is real too, same thing happens with whiteflies when it gets hot here. Once they get that bad, Safer soap alone won't cut it, you kind of have to hit them with neem or just trash the plant before they spread.