Aphid issues on my propagation-benches (quasi-greenhoused)

Discussions about propagating from cuttings, seeds, air layers etc. Going on a dig (Yamadori) or thinking of importing? Discuss how, when and where here.
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Iheartbougs
Aussie Bonsai Fan
Aussie Bonsai Fan
Posts: 33
Joined: January 15th, 2018, 1:29 am
Favorite Species: Bougainvilleas
Bonsai Age: 1
Location: (US) FL, Tampa Bay, Zn.9a
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Aphid issues on my propagation-benches (quasi-greenhoused)

Post by Iheartbougs »

I wrote 'quasi-greenhoused' because title-length is restricted, right now my area is basically a greenhouse outdoors (I'm not in aus :/ , am in mid-summer, middle of high-rain season in semi-tropical FL in the US so outdoors = greenhouse right now, treating bark with h202&isopropyl is a daily maintenance routine on my trees!), what I've got for propagating is a 5-tiered shelving unit that's jam-packed with little 30-500mL containers (mostly plastic cups, small plastic 'parts boxes', styrofoam cups etc), I've been propagating a ton of stuff both my bonsai pruning clippings as well as other stuff like basil/aloe/succulents, anyways the basil are becoming aphid-factories and I'm having a tough time making the shelves ant-free to stop them, I've got neem oil but don't want to spray oil all over the shelving (also don't want to remove many scores of containers to do individually), any suggestions for combating these aphids would be greatly appreciated! Am thinking it probably makes sense to fight the ants as well although I'm unsure if putting ant-attractor bait-stations around there will do more harm than good (in that it'll draw ants to that area, and since it's outdoors it will never fully kill the ants, so it'd be a perpetual problem of attracting&killing ants if I put boric-acid baits on the shelves! At least I expect so, if someone's had other results I'd love to hear!!)

Thanks for any tips on this :)
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