What are these white things?

[monkeyboy]

Three jalapeno plants and one padron pepper plant are on the kitchen window sill and are doing fine. One jalapeno and one padron plant on the worktop by the back door (which has been open in the heat) have had little flies around it. I noticed some white spots, naively thought it was pollen but I've had a closer look today.







Focussing was a bit tricky but are they larvae?
What can I do?

[Earthgirl Jen]

To my untrained eye they look like a mix between whitefly/greenfly. I get them on my sweet pepper leaves especially with the humid weather we've had over the last couple of weeks. I spray mine with a weak solution of ecover washing up liquid and water, every couple of days, squirt on both sides of the leaves in a shady corner out of direct sunlight.

Well that's what I do. The little blighters suck all the nutrients out of the leaves making it harder for the plants to take up nutrients. Mine are still growing fine.

Edit to post : nice close up pics by the way.

[chillithyme]

I think it is white fly
They can spread very quickly from plant to plant. Apparently neem oil spray is good, I just send my chillies, peppers etc outside to get rid of them in the sun
If you don't have somewhere outdoors keep spraying as Earthgirl Jen says, and you can also wipe with a wet scrunched up paper towel.
I find that they like wet soil, remove them with a thin layer of soil if need be.

Hope it works

[ESBkevin]

All good advice given so far.
I recently watched a video presented by a man taking care of a permaculture orchard and he had deduced that an excess of Nitrogen fed to plants encourages aphids to suck it out. A balanced soil that was not overfed never seems to have aphids!
It all seemed plausible and he had examples to back it all up. BUT those of us without a couple of acres to let nature do it's thing are left with the option of forcing plants on in pots and in small intensive beds.

Just thought I'd share what I'd recently learned. Balanced soil and gentle feed seems to be the best if you can.

[mrbadexample]

Aphid exuviae would be my guess. Do they move independently?

[Dead Dogs]

I’d second mrbadexample.

Don’t forget to check/spray the growing tips as well. The softer parts are where the majority of the aphids will feed and cause the most damage.

This year, for the first time, I’ve grow Marigolds in the greenhouses. Not a sign of any greenfly.

[monkeyboy]

Well they were crawling up the window next to the plants and some were over the leaves. I ended up resorting to fruit and veg bug killer. Sprayed the window, the sill and the plant leaves. When I came back a few minutes later, they were all dead.

[mrbadexample]

I ended up resorting to fruit and veg bug killer.

I don't know what the stuff you used is based on, but if it's water based you might be able to dilute it. When I get sawfly I use Provado Ultimate Bug Killer but I dilute it 50/50 with water and it still works just as well. Half the chemicals, half the cost.

[Two_Sheds]

those of us without a couple of acres to let nature do it's thing are left with the option of forcing plants on in pots.

Lots of us have just the one greenhouse and we all see aphids. Even when they’re really bad, I’ve never used spray - just pick off the worst leaves (look at the underside) and squish the rest

Aphids on roses: I no longer panic about them, they don’t do huge harm
On cherries: horribly infested again this year and we had a shortage of hoverflies: still, no spray
On beans: really bad every year: I remove the worst affected leaves, squish and wash off the rest
On lupins: these are gross, really big fat grey things. They can kill the plant if not caught early. Again, no spray just pick & squish

If you always reach for the bug gun, you’re never going to have natural predators

[BUFFS]

[QUOTE=Dead Dogs;1613615]I’d second mrbadexample.

Don’t forget to check/spray the growing tips as well. The softer parts are where the majority of the aphids will feed and cause the most damage.

This year, for the first time, I’ve grow Marigolds in the greenhouses. Not a sign of any greenfly.[/QUOT

I grow my peppers/chillies in the greenhouse, just by the stack of empty pots, where we have a really big colony of spiders, big and small, but I have never had any aphid problems and I am convinced they are eating any aphids that try their luck so that is always the location that I use to site the plants..