Greenfly on a pepper plant - what do I do?

[wotulookinat]

I'm a bit of a gardening novice so apologies if I sound stupid! I have a really small pepper plant (capsicum). I bought it as a seedling and it was outside all summer and grew very slowly. I've just brought it inside for the winter - hope that is the right thing to do! I noticed one of the leaves had loads of greenfly on so I took the leaf off. That was yesterday. Today there were a couple more grenfly so I took them off too. Am I doing the right thing? Is there something better I could do? Any advice welcome.

My pepper plant has had greenfly all summer (it's been indoors). I just wipe them off with damp fingers/a cloth leaf by leaf every now & then. It's produced 3 peppers so far & 3 more on the way & seems to exist quite happily with the aphids. I think you can spray chemicals on to kill them, but I'd rather not.

spray with water with a squirt of washing up liquid in it - harmless to us, kills the bugs

Will they spread to other plants? I've put it on a windowsill with some cacti and succulents on?

another vote for the washing up liquid as well.....we always used this for mum's carnations as well. Apparently it coats their skin and they can't breathe.

they shouldn't spread to your cacti and succulents. Some plants are more susceptible than others and things like capsicums, tomatoes and basil are loved by aphids.

Brilliant - I shall give the washing up liquid a go.
I always wondered about things like that - I know people use their bath water to water the plants, but I always thought the soap etc woulod hurt the plants. Is that not the case?

If you use too concentrated a solution it does kill the plant - I know this from experience & it's why I tend not to use it. However I do know lots of people do, so it should be OK.

I shall get one of those spray bottles from Wilkinsons on Monday - would one squirt of washing up liquid in the full bottle of water be too much?

some info here. It mentions an organic spray that you can buy as well.

meant to add that I usually out a couple of drops in one of those bottles, but that link says two drops per gallon!

I'll try one drop in the bottle then to start with.
Thanks for all your help - I shall be back here asking for more advice in the near future, no doubt!!

if you take the thick of them off with your fingers as well, that will help.