Infestation

This is the second year that my pansies have suffered from an extreme infestation of green aphids in the spring. I was shocked but not surprised to see one of my window boxes totally covered with aphids and dead aphids. A carpet of aphids is one of the few things in the world that could gross me out but this was a slimy carpet of green aphids plus the dreaded black aphids on my succulents.

I gave up entirely on one window box, it was almost all dead but will try to revive the mostly infested but not dead yet other box. The only thing that works but isn't totally toxic is a soapy water spray and smushing of the bugs with ones fingers. Honestly, and this is going to be gross, with an infestation like this its more of a wiping motion since there are so many bugs.