This year I first noticed them on June 19. That is earlier than I usually see them but if you grow peppers you know that eventually you will see them-- aphids. This year I noticed small holes in some of my pepper leaves and then I noticed ants crawling up and down my pepper plants. Ants are a sure sign of aphids because they like to eat sweet residue that aphids leave. So after examination I found a few of the light green little pests.
Years ago I worked in a greenhouse and we would put on our haz mat suits and spray poison. The last couple years I have been able to keep them under control by washing them off and applying soapy water, but this year I am going to call in the big guns--ladybugs. I just ordered 1500 ladybugs from Amazon.com. (It is truly amazing what you can order on the Internet.) Here is the link:
I will keep you updated in the next week to let you know how this works. Will they be alive? Will they all fly away in a week? Will I need to buy something else in two weeks to eat the ladybugs? (I seem to remember a great Simpsons episode about that--I think that at some point they released lions to eat something they had released earlier.)
Any tips for me?
No comments:
Post a Comment