A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Aphids??

I have these little white bugs on the underside of of one of my plants.......I'm pretty sure they are aphids.......is there a natural way to get rid of them? (without using pesticides?)

Ladybugs get rid of aphids in the wild but I don't know how you feel about having them inside your house, you could always just drown them if there are only a few. Thats what I did.

Soap and water with a little mineral oil added in works pretty well if you are very thorough. Hot pepper wax also is pretty effective.

how about Safer (brand) Insecticide Soap?

Well aphids are not usually white. Their cast skins can be white. They might be a kind of scale. Either way a 1% soap solution would work. I did not catch what the host plant was so i would be very cautious using anything unless you read the label. Some soaps / oils can have a phytotoxic effect on some plant species.

Often i just wash my plant with water for aphids or crush them with my fingers (not good bug karma)

Chirps!

If it's not to tender of a plant, take it outside and spray the aphids off with a hard stream of water from the garden hose. I use Safer's Soap too. The Buglady's right though, you need to be sure it won't harm your plant. It will list some plants on the label that you shouldn't spray. If you decide you can use it, follow up with a second spray about 3 days later cause you won't get them all the first time. Then check again in a week or so. You should see a big improvement but there might still be a few survivors.