I have a few non-prime spots open in my strawberry tower, and I didn't want to put really good expensive strawberries in there because they'd either die or produce badly anyways. Now I'm not sure if it was a good idea, but I saw some half-off strawberry plants at the nursery yesterday and they didn't look too bad, so I picked them up.
I was 100% prepared for them to be infested with something, so I chopped off all dodgy looking leaves and all flowers right away and am keeping them quarantined inside for at least 1-2 weeks (all my other strawberries are outside on my balcony). I rinsed them off very thoroughly, first with running tap water then with slightly soapy water from a squirt bottle. the plan is to do that twice a day until I see no more bugs.
Here's all the bug varieties I found before rinsing this morning:
My guess is that it's just green aphids? Although that fat round fella from the first picture and the white guys from the last picture are throwing me for a loop, so I'm not 100% sure.
Do you think rinsing twice a day will be good enough to get rid of them?
You honestly just need some "strong" food safe soap. Mix in a spray bottle at slightly stronger than the recommended solution. Insects stay wet through a small film of natural oils on the outside of their carapace. Remove the oil, and the insect dies in about 5 minutes for large ones like roaches. Aphids and spider mites just dehydrate within 30 seconds. Even bedbugs don't stand a chance, as long as you clean your entire house multiple times a week for a few months. The rest of your brew is good for eating, I wouldn't waste it on pests.