Root aphids

sheepon:

I was repotting some of my plants today and!!! My Puya berteroniana has root aphids!!! Nooo!

Does anyone have any recommendations for getting rid of root aphids? Google is telling my that I’m basically shit out of luck, or that I have to spend ~$90 for a spore suspension of

Beauveria bassiana. Just ordering a new plant from Annie’s Annuals would cost me around $20 so that’s the obvious choice but… it takes so 6-8 years for these plants to reach blooming age. Augh!!!

My boy… can anyone save my boy?

sadly I have not had enough experience with root aphids to really give advice but I’ll signalboost in case someone in my network knows.

In a container culture setting I could see some extreme but potent eradication methods (insecticidal soap soak through the soil could potentially work for example but it may not properly activate due to the soil itself not to mention soap salts if not washed out are stressful to plants, and all the water involved in said method is very risky for succulents) maybe working, outdoor methods I am not familiar outside of encouraging their predators.