Hello everyone,

I've got around 16 6-8 week old tomato and pepper seedlings growing on a shelf near a window and under lights. I noticed recently that my pepper plants were starting to grow curly distorted leaves, and at first thought there was a nutritional problem. Only today did I look very close and find that the plants were being sucked on by tiny tiny green bugs that I believe are aphids... or maybe thrips? Not sure. Anyway I have had a tomato plant, a Big Beef, that has for a long time had sickly lower leaves, and yellow spots on some of its foliage. What's odd is that my HEIRLOOM plants did not have this problem (and they are more or less showing no symptoms right now, or just barely), so I assumed that the big beef was weak because of it's variety.

Now I found that the Big Beef in question has bugs on the undersides of the leaves. All my plants are very close together, all touching one another, so I think that a bug infestation is imminent if I don't try to stop this now. However, these are indoor plants that I have not started to harden off yet (weather is too damn cool this year). Can anyone tell me what the best way to protect them is? I suppose I can just take each one off the shelf and pick it carefully by hand, and with a spray bottle, but really I doubt I can get all the nasties, since I didn't even notice them for what must have been a couple of weeks. And I _did_ look... it's just that they are hard to find if you don't expect them.

Isn't it a hoot that the only hybrid I am growing has bugs, but the heirloom / OP varieties show practically no symptoms? I know that Big Beef has good fruit and production, but it's looking kind of lame compared to the OP plants I have now that don't seem to be suffering from the bugs despite being next to them for so long.

Anyway, I was wondering if the more drastic measures such as neem oil or soap sprays are called for here? Will it help much? Will my tender unhardened starts be able to handle these without getting burned? Will just spraying them off with a water bottle do the job? As I said, only one plant is showing symptoms right now, and there are not many bugs right now, few enough that it is hard to find them.

Also, will hardening off the plants perhaps help protect them from the problem? I'm wondering if these bugs can't do much to them if the leaves are tougher. The only problem is, it's still rather cool out here, as around 50 * F around 11:00 AM. Yes, I started them too early. :(

Sorry for the long post, executive summary: found aphids/thrips on my indoor seedlings, 6-8 week old plants, not hardened, what to do?