We’ve found that we needed to spray our Gynura procumbens (longevity spinach) for aphids soon after bringing them inside. Aphids can weaken plants in a hurry, so it was time to make homemade aphid spray for daily application.

Growing outdoors tends to provide natural pest control for many plant pests. The main pest aid for outdoor plants are the natural aphid predators. Natural air and sunlight also help, for after all it’s the plant’s natural environment. Bring them indoors, and there’s often not enough light and humidity.

The Indoor atmosphere is often dry, especially in winter heated environment. To help with that we use humidifiers, especially for our tropical plants like Meyers lemon, hibiscus and ginger, and it has really helped those plants.

Whether indoors or out, homemade aphid spray is easy and organic approved for any plant. We’ll get to the recipe shortly, but first, sharing about organic aphid control for your greenhouse, yard or garden plants, should your aphid issue occur there.

Organic Aphid Control

If you’re growing in a greenhouse, you can release some aphid predators such as ladybugs into your greenhouse environment. There the ladybugs will work for you night and day, though outdoors, they tend to eat by night and fly away by day.

You can purchase ladybugs through Amazon. Depending on your infestation and the size of your greenhouse, you can buy them by the hundreds or thousands.

Prevention is the Best Defense

Prevention is key. By using trap crops and having a diversity of flowers you will attract parasitoid and parasitic wasps, ladybird beetles, green lacewings and other beneficial insects. Regular scouting and monitoring as well as keeping plants healthy are important as well.
~Manny Stockton, horticulturist

See also, our article on organic pest control.

Natural Aphid Predators for Outdoor Plants and Gardening

Outdoor plants are far less likely to be infected with aphids because there are numerous aphid predators around to keep them under control. If you do have an outdoor aphid problem, you can restore a natural balance of aphid predators with any number of natural aphid predators.

• Assassin bugs
• Damsel fly / dragon fly
• Hornets
• Midges
• Hover fly
• Soldier bug
• Spiders
• Yellow jackets
• Wasps

Beneficial Bugs You Can Buy for Aphid Control

There are more bugs that eat aphids, but this is a short list of natural aphid predators you can actually buy and release into your garden.

• Lacewings, brown and green
• Ladybugs / Ladybird beetles
• Parasitic wasps, ichneumon and braconid
• Praying Mantis

Homemade Aphid Sprays

Keeping aphids under control indoors can be a challenge. Aphids and mealybugs can seemingly appear in droves overnight, and then it takes consistent daily spraying to make a dent in the aphid population.

Spray Plants Off First

If it’s above freezing by day, it would be helpful to take your infested plants outside and use a hose with a powerful spray nozzle setting to spray the aphids off. Some will fall into the pot and climb right back onto the plant but many will fall to the ground where are other natural predators in the soil will eat the aphids.

Next, you can then spray the plants with homemade aphids spray to help.

Best Homemade Aphid Spray

We’ve tried many different sprays, and our simple homemade aphid spray worked as well or better than any of the store bought brands. Either way, you’ll still need to diligently apply it a weekly, and maybe even daily at first.

If you can keep the aphids under control enough for your plants to make it through the winter, chances are natural predators will take over for you as soon as you move them outside in spring.

Then this year, shortly after moving them indoors, the aphids appeared again. The ones in our indoor greenhouse faired better because lots of tiny spiders set up shop there. But the plants in our bathtub needed help. 

So I made up a batch of natural aphid control that worked really well.

Organic Homemade Aphid Spray

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 oz Dr. Bronner’s peppermint soap
• 1 oz Neem oil
• 1 Gal water

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Spray thoroughly over top and under leaves once/week for a few couple weeks.
2. Check periodically; repeat as necessary.

I wanted to really zap these, so I used a handy one gallon spray pump once a week for several weeks and that did the trick. If you have a larger area of plants to cover, you may want to invest in a battery powered garden sprayer, which we demonstrate here..

For more on longevity spinach – Gynura procumbens.

Contributions from the Community

Hot Sauce Spray

I just use Dave Hot Insanity sauce. Mix with water in a sprayer. Will not affect your plant. Completely organic. Aphids and other plant eating critters will not come back.

If using a garden sprayer use a half a cup and hook up to hose. If using a spray bottle use 2 Tbs and fill bottle with water.

This can be used on all flowers and vegetables and fruit trees. I have used it on trees as well. Grasshoppers hate it as well as tomatoes worms and birds will leave your fruit alone. Wash vegetables and fruits well before eating. They will not take on the flavor of the hot sauce.

Just make sure you are downwind when spraying!
~Allison Mahaffey

Let us know your favorite aphid treatment and we’ll add it here.

Top feature Image by PollyDot from Pixabay