I'm so mad I could kill 1,000 aphids....

...so I did! Those little *#"§()&?!-ers!!!!!

Since I've been home from my vacation, I've been a bit worried about my chili pepper plants. Although some are getting buds and have even produced some flowers, the new leaves all do not look very healthy - kinda shriveled (not in a lack-of-water kind of way), and even have spotty discoloration:

....jalapeno that I have indoors now

At first I attributed at least the spotting to construction damage (see recent post), but upon closer inspection I discovered:

APHIDS!!!!!! Those stupid little *+"!"§$%!"§! Look at them all on there!!!

  

And of course on the backs of the leaves, too. I mean, just look at all of them on there! Greedy buggers! Groooossss! 

so many....right at the sweet center! eeww!

Of course they go for the good stuff, the nice, new, sweet, tender little buds and flowers. They would do that.

But they can kiss the good times goodbye - I just took action, a sort of balcony genocide if you will (did I really just say that?!)

How to get rid of aphids:

Step One: Power-blast them off with soapy water (I used a hand sprayer and a water/dish soap mix).

Step Two: Swab the rest off (carefully!) with a soapy paper towel. I just sprayed the mix on the towel and wiped off the tops and bottoms of the leaves, not forgetting the stems too.

Step Three: Hope that lasts a while and my plants survive all the soap exposure :) If they come back, I will probably just try spraying with water to see how long that lasts.

These aphids appear to be the monophagous kind, feeding only on one species, in this case my chili peppers. At least they aren't spreading to devour all my plants, and are fairly easy to keep under control (I hope?!) since I have a small garden. I think the plants wanted a little TLC anyway!