We tried our hand at growing salad greens in the winter time indoors and ended up with an aphid infestation from one small kale plant we brought in from the garden when we started. I'm wondering if anybody has a solution to sterilize the room without getting rid of all the soil? We currently have a 12 ft by 4 ft wide bed that's 4 in deep full of, (what used to be), sterilized soil and organic fertilizer. We started with Pro mix and some sterilized organic compounds and would prefer to not start that again and have to remove it all. I've dealt with mites indoors and know the procedure for removing everything from the room sterilizing the room and starting again and wondering if the same procedure needs to be done for aphids infestation? My thought was to get a blowtorch and kill everything with that. Perhaps turn the heat up for a number of days to nuke everything off like we did with spider mites. Any thoughts? Any help would be appreciated! We do not want to have to remove all the soil and start again if possible, And since we are eating this, we do not want to spray it with anything
I'm not certain of this, but I'd think that considering the trouble of removing everything, sterilizing the room, and starting again, you could put that time into squishing every aphid you see, several times a day. You have to get to the point of killing them before any of them lays eggs. I'd remove any of the plants the aphids like. I decided one year that not having any herbaceous plants with a name beginning with A was a good start (I'm only half joking). Definitely don't have nasturtiums. Sterilizing everything doesn't sound that good for food plants.
I don't think it's necessary to sterilize the media since aphids are found above ground in most cases. Since you have removed all plant material, there is no food source in the soil in any case for them to continue on. Insecticidal soap may be acceptable to you as it is safe for use up to harvest: Insecticidal Soaps for Garden Pest Control.
