Aphid

Magnified picture of live aphids.

Corpses of aphids (white ones) on bell pepper leaves.

  Aphid is a sap sucking insect that is destructive to many of cultivated plants.  In our case, cucumbers, tomatoes, and bell peppers all suffer aphid infestation.  In Merom, Carl mixed chemical in the fertilizer tank that, upon absorption by plants, kills aphids when aphids suck on phloem.  On the other hand, he used Aphidius ervi, a biopesticide solution in the 248 greenhouse.

  Biopesticide is generally a better solution than chemical pesticides because it is less stressful to plants.  Some chemical pesticides may affect workers' health and require license to spray, but bugs are harmless.  The downside of biopesticide is the cost.  Not only product itself is more costly than the chemical pesticide, but also the application takes labor.  For example, we need to use several workers to spread the bottle bugs equally in the greenhouse, whereas we can simply mix the chemical pesticides in the fertilizer (except for the spraying type).