Aphids on a purple passion houseplant?
Question:my neighbor gave my spouse a purple passion plant he got from his cuttings. it looks all healthy and has flowers blooming but it also has aphids what I have on hand is some insecticidal soap can this be used on this plant and will it kill the aphids?
Answers:
Excellent answer by RScott, but I wanted to add that you can make your own insecticidal soap by using a few drops of Ivory dish soap to a spray bottle of water. Don't use Dawn or similar because it takes the waxy coating off the leaves. Also, check your other houseplants because they probably have them too. One tale tale sign is honeydew on surfaces. Honeydew leaves a sticky substance under/around surfaces of the plants.
That should work, won't hurt plant. Check other plants in house, they travel.
Sure you can, take it outside and knock a few off with the garden hose and finish up with the soap. Another alternative is to hose it off and leave it in your garden for a few days. My gardens are blessed with predator insects that leave them aphid free. If I import them on my house plants, a couple days of quarantine in the garden beds gets rid of most pests. RScott
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