tomato leaf spray for aphids?

[OlderNOTwiser]

I grow Lupines outdoors and I'm very familiar with the aphids they attract. However, I found the tiniest little ones in my cannabis pots. I was admiring my work a week or so ago when I thought I saw a speck of dust moving on my irrigation lines. I used my loupe to look and sure as heck they're aphids! However, they're not what I'm familiar with. They appear to be clear and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. I grabbed the diatomaceous earth and dusted liberally on the top of the soil and my water lines. I've hit them three times now and they're still there but reduced. It's discouraging when you watch them (with 30x) walking on the DE and not seeming bothered at all. Since I don't know what aphid type these are (root aphids?) I've been searching for answers and solutions. My plants are healthy with no spots or damage so far and much taller than I expected so I'm assuming we're mostly ok. They're autos and in flower so I'm limited in what I can use right now but I did find one solution to be intriguing. I'd never heard of using tomato leaves as an insecticide. Granted the smell of the leaves is rather potent but I'd never even considered this. Anyway, the idea is take a couple cups of chopped up tomato leaves and soak in equal amounts of water overnight. Strain, add some more water and spray. I'll likely try this tomorrow morning if things don't improve. Also, I'm growing with Earth Dust (yes, I still have some) and I don't want to clobber all of my natural goodies just to crush some aphids. Have any of you used tomato leaves as an insecticide? Were you successful or fail? Barring that, is "control" the goal or is it total annihilation? If I can get my loupe and phone paired up I'll try for a picture shortly.

[SoOrbudgal]

How far along in flower?

[OlderNOTwiser]

Theoretically these are 8 week autos. Realistically I'm thinking 10 to 12 weeks. Having said that we're currently on day 40. They've been in flower for several weeks.

I did go out and grab some leaves and I have them chopped up in a container and I'll see how today's ISO and water did.

[SoOrbudgal]

OK yeah that's what i was gonna suggest. I had them bad on my peas but use the soapy water spray.

[Rwise]

Tomatoes are a night shade, would not want that on my buds. Nor would I do what my brother does, he uses cyan pepper. ISO/water I would and do use.

[Rootsruler]

Are you sure they're aphids and not mites? Do you have a pic?

When I discover bugs I take a layered approach depending on how advanced the infestation is.

If the infestation is fairly light I'll spray them with an insecticidal soap solution that I make myself from water, Dawn and Vege oil. I make sure to thoroughly wet them down taking special care that all the undersides of the leaves have gotten a good soaking. I'll also give the topsoil a good spraying to kill off any eggs hatching in the soil.

If it's getting out of control, then I move to a harder pesticide. I like using Azamax as it's OMRI certified so you can spray it on fruits and flowers up to 10 days before harvest. Dr. Zymes is another good miticide.

[Rwise]

Not on my flowers

[Bluey]

I wouldn't spray the flowers with anything because you will be smoking that and wet buds equals mold. Keep your buds dry.
Soapy water works with a lot of pests in my experience. I just use dish washing liquid mixed at the same ratio I use to do the dishes. I never ever spray the buds.

[OlderNOTwiser]

Soil mites may be the answer. I took a tablespoon of soil and sat with it and my loupe for a while last evening and there are so many things crawling around in there...the main one appears to be soil mites that look like a grain of white rice scurrying about. There is a lesser population of one that looks very aphid like but research leads me to believe it is a different version of soil mite or a different spot in the life cycle. Anyway, it seems in living organic soil these guys are actually good at dealing with decaying matter. So, I jumped the gun a little.

[changeofpace2014]

Read the product label. There are a lot of soaps for vegetables..