Black bug eggs on pepper plant

Glitterati

I am new to gardening so sorry if this is a stupid question, but I just went to check on my plants and noticed on my pepper plant loads of yucky tiny black bug eggs on one area of the plant, looked like some tiny black beetle things moving about and some super mini babies too. I tried to dislodge alot of them and then poured water over it to to wash them away but some still seem to be there and are hard to get at. Are there any non chemical ways I can treat this and kill the bugs/eggs? I am going to check all my others carefully now too, yuck!

Farway

Sounds like blackfly / aphids

You will see on here some rckon using soapy water spray, but I have never found this to work for long

I use chemicals and it works

morg_monster

i find the soapy water thing works. the theory is they dry out their waxy coating and then they just dehydrate to death. Often I come back to the plant and it still looks just as bad but then if you shake the branch they just fall off as they're all dead. Worth a try to start with, I think.
what I do is a good squirt of fairy (say a line about 2" long) in a squirty bottle and fill up with water, give a good shake.
I also relocate ladybirds onto my crops which seems to help a bit! That is one problem with chemicals - they'll usually kill other helpful bugs too.
I find dealing with any problematic ants helps too as they "farm" the blackfly and move them around the plant, and feed off the sticky stuff they secrete. ew.

Glitterati

Ah thanks for that! I thought maybe they were beetles as they don't appear to have wings, but I googled blackfly and found pics of infestations that look like on my plant! I will search the house for a spray bottle and try the washing up liquid treatment on them!

olly300

I suggest as well as ladybirds you try and attract hoverflies to your garden. (Some look like funny wasps.) Some of their larvae feed on aphids. I try and grow vegetables that attract aphids near flowers that attract other predator insects.