Your observation might be correct but my observation is that ants actually establish aphid colonies on seemingly healthy plants. The ants are interested in the sweet, sticky excreta from the aphids. So another way of controlling aphids is to eliminate the ants. You could check for the presence of ants on the plants where aphids are present.

Hey there, I'm a researcher and farmer from India. I usually here these kinds of conversations. Aphids are heavy reproducers, so just relying on lace wings or lady beatles is over optimistic as they are easily outnumbered. I suggest some proactive approach to this, although it's nothing new but still makes sense. First understand at what temperature they thrive, it's 20-30 degrees or mostly when it's cloudy. So keep look on weather forecasts and be proactive if you see prolonged weather patterns conducive to aphids. Next take preventive measures. Here choose what suits you. I prefer nutrition management. Just pouring everything in soil is not the way. Insects suck the parts which are fresh and easy to chew. So idea is to bar excess nitrogen or smoothness in leaves by increasing K and P. I also give zinc and silicon to aid it and make cell wall strong. Sprays are good if done proactively, otherwise you can't keep up with their growth rate. OK, all the best. Happy farming! Understand science and use it to your advantage, don't shy away from using right thing at right time.

Most folks aphid infestation issues can be boiled down to one issue. Exclusion/extermination of predators. I stopped having aphid issues in my garden when I stopped spraying wasp nests around my home. I still knock them off my actual house, im not insane, but I make areas around the property where they are more liable to nest safely and happily. My kids know to leave their area alone, and the wasps are perfectly polite neighbors in the garden. They've never stung me or either of my boys despite landing on us and having a ride around the patch now and again. We dont have to stop moving or be overly precious around them. They fully know and trust us just like a beekeeper and their bees. So long as we aren't messing with their nest they're perfectly happy to share the space.

I finally found the channel that i can resonate with! I totally agree with you. Last year, after i tried spraying multiple times for weeks, my bell pepper plants were still heavily infested by aphids. Neem oil, soapy water, aphid spray, all did not help to improve the situation. I gave up and concluded with the theory that if the plant is healthy, it will survive pest attack/ attract lesser pests. I just prune it and let it grow. Unfortunately they could not produce new branch and finally died. I accepted the fact and just replan from seeds. No problem. I no longer get too upset with sick plants. If they can survive, they will. If not, I'll let it fight against the sickness. You are right, think and spend more energy on improving the health of the plants rather than killing the signals. Thank you so much. 🎉

17 year old trying to learn regenerative farming, just subscribed😅

Yea im not leaving aphids on my plants healthy or not 🤷 ive seen aphids attack perfectly healthy plants plenty of times....

Thanks Patti for the repetition and reminders. I finally got it. I specifically enjoyed the "teaching kids" comment. I'm in my 70th year of gardening and haven't been called a kid in many decades. I remember pulling weeds and, a couple wings off of a lacewing, at my grandpa's feet in the garden. I remember him explain how beneficial lacewings are for the plants. "If ever I let my plants get weak," he'd say, "the lacewings and lady bugs are the plants defenders from the aphid army. Leave the dandelions alone, the bees and lacewings love them, and so do I in my tea." I sure do miss that old fella. He sure taught me a lot. More than I can remember these days.

I have to disagree. Aphids in my experience with them are able to eat anything that is edible. Yes they can feed faster on plants that are wilting, but they still eat ones that are thriving. Anything that isnt toxic to them gets dessicated. I had a completely healthy soilless plant ( one of those ones with no soil, the air plants ) and it put out the most beautiful flowers and aphids ate them and ruined such a beautiful bloom. I only got aphids in my home because I took in rain water from outside. They wouldnt of been able to enter the home if I didnt transport them in. Lesson learned. Only use clean spring or reverse osmosis/distilled water. Your point of view is similar to saying we have internal parasites because we need to eat better. Fact is, you can eat alot cleaner and you still wont get rid of the parasites once they are in You. The measures You have to take there-after are extreme. The aphids in my home are now gone because they consumed every plant that wasnt toxic until they all died, only plants like my snake plants and a couple other ones that are toxic to aphids remained. Now I'll be careful to look for pests in plants I buy and isolate them after buying.

The affected kale was incredibly strong and robust. Insect pests rely on plants to live...a healthy plant has more goodness to extract than a weak one.

Your strategy also goes for the human body! Everything depends on some sort of microbiome to thrive. I did not think of your idea that the plants were not getting enough of certain nutrients to be healthy and ward off the predators and diseases. I'll work on the nutrition by adding more worm castings and some worms. Note: Recently I had aphids appear from nowhere indoors (maybe my living soil?) so I ordered some lady beetles but they just walked right over the aphids! To get rid of the aphids I took the plants outside and hosed them off. Another thing about aphids is to see if the ants are farming them. That's a whole other chapter!!

Any links to the products?

Less nitrogen if anything... aphids like fast growing green 💚

Last year I 1st encountered these black bean aphids on my Asian long beans and what a pain in the rear but why all of a sudden these critters 10 year never before, it dawned on me last year was the year I didn’t use manure with my veggies, I switched to fertiliser only. My thinking is aphids don’t not like manure grown veggies so I planted 1 roe with fertiliser and 1 with manure and wow look at that the roe with fertiliser is full of them and the other is clean and now I’m seeing them on other veggies but not the roe with manure. As for killing them sunflower oil and dish soap did the job but they return quickly either because of the ants or the spray misses a few but either way what a pain….

I"ve learned a lot! Thank you!

Tomorrow I am going to fertilize my okra plants and make them healthy and bug resistant. Thank you. I’m gonna spray for aphids also.

If you don’t want aphids get rid of snow ball trees and bottle bush trees they hibernate in them . Best way if you can check your underside of leave’s daily. Don’t use wood chips in your garden.

The answer to this is WASPS, keep them around...

This is my first year growing peppers in my greenhouse. It is a learning experience. I just now got a shade cloth over the GH. Some of my pepper plants have aphids and others do not. Not sure what to think.

If it wasn't for the crap they put on my car I wouldn't mind the aphids.

Lol rubbish, I live in the bush, where insects are abundant and veracious, they are everywhere. If you don't protect your plants u will have 0 produce.