The curse of aphids

[Marb67]

I am absolutely sick and tired of aphids and whitefly that just seem to get everywhere. Even my houseplants are suffering. The salad, seedlings and herbs in the kitchen get them despite there being non to start with. I always have the door and windows closed but they seem to appear from the bottom of the stems in the compost (as well as those annoying black flies)

Upstairs I have a maidenhair fern which I have treated 3 times with soapy water and a good showering in the bathtub to wash them away but they come back again eating the tender shoots. Ditto for the honeysuckle outside at the front and rear of the house. Hardly any flowers on them now, just dried brown unsightly leaves and stumps where flowers should be. In the greenhouse whitefly in the tomato compost and green aphids under the leaves. I have boiled garlic in water in a bottle which makes the greenhouse smell strong but that doesn't deter them. It used to work.

I will not go down the route of pesticides so I have run out of ideas. I think because of this humid weather and ridiculously mild winters they seem to be here all the time.

[Bigmallly]

There are some ideas here Marb, hope you get rid of them:

How to Prevent & Get Rid of Aphids (+ Companion Planting Tips)

[Scarlet]

How. Often are you watering the house plants? Water from the bottom, let the top dry off.

When was the last time you gave your GH a good clean? Inside and out, all the moss taken off etc.

[Knight of Albion]

I will not go down the route of pesticides.

Respect to you for that, dear Marb!

Though obviously not welcome the level of such bugs is generally a sound indicator of the ecological health of a garden.
We may not like aphids on our lettuce and roses!, but they do play a vital role in the balance of nature. Aphids being a prime source of soft protein for fledglings for example.

Thanks to Big Mally for reminding us that we don't need to resort to chemical warfare to control aphid numbers and areas of residency.
For me, fewer sadder sights in nature than finding a nestful of dead fledglings, eyes popped, because someone chemical sprayed the aphids their parents were feeding them on ...

[jacob]

This anecdote isn't helpful for your kitchen, but might be useful.

I usually give the greenhouse a good hard clean in February, giving it a good scrub with water laced with just a bit of bleach. Now, as well as cleaning the windows and hopefully damping down disease this is probably not great for the more benign insect life living there.

This year I didn't get around to it. So the greenhouse has more early spiders in than usual (the little ones hiding in corners and under leaves, not the terrifying things that scuttle around your house). Result: to date, no aphids. I've also noticed that overwintering chilies that come in with a little spider remain aphid free. Little spiders appear to eat even littler aphids.

The greenhouse also has grubby windows.

[Scarlet]

Perhaps it's just luck then only one year did I miss giving the GH a really good clean. I had the worst greenfly problem on my toms ever, I clean them out every year now. Rake off all the debris, dried leaves and bits and bobs on the floor., dig out some earth and lay a new layer of compost. Only just doing my GH#2 today as it had all my overwintered cabbage and Kale in there.

[Penellype]

There are a lot of aphids this year - they just never died off during the winter. There are also one heck of a lot of spiders in my garden at the moment. Probably not a coincidence.

[Marb67]

I love nature, I really do and am happy within reason to accommodate everything. I have plenty of birds feeding, especially sparrows who I am sure eat some aphids as well as my peas Grrrrrrr... I would never harm anything, but I have to kill aphids because they do so much damage. I also have a very healthy population of frogs, a visiting hedgehog, bees (although some are working their way into my brick mortar). I just would have thought with a thriving eco system that the balance of aphids wouldn't be outweighing everything else.

[roitelet]

A bit late for this year but have you considered insect houses? I have two very rudimentary ones in my tunnel and they seem to work by giving the beneficial insects somewhere to hibernate. I keep the aphids to a manageable level, with soft soap, until they come out of hibernation and then they do the job for me.

[BUFFS]

This anecdote isn't helpful for your kitchen, but might be useful.

I usually give the greenhouse a good hard clean in February, giving it a good scrub with water laced with just a bit of bleach. Now, as well as cleaning the windows and hopefully damping down disease this is probably not great for the more benign insect life living there.

This year I didn't get around to it. So the greenhouse has more early spiders in than usual (the little ones hiding in corners and under leaves, not the terrifying things that scuttle around your house). Result: to date, no aphids. I've also noticed that overwintering chilies that come in with a little spider remain aphid free. Little spiders appear to eat even littler aphids.

The greenhouse also has grubby windows.

I give my greenhouse a good clean at the end of September, so my spider gang are back in their corners before winter, and come the spring ,on a warm day they can be seen out hunting on the nearby tom plants, and the seedlings on the trays don't seem to have any aphids either..