Aphids, Spider mites, something else? How to deal with them?

I can't tell what these guys are. They are so small that I think they must be spider mites, only, I don't see any webs anywhere. They are also only on the underside of my Charentais vine leaves. Oddly enough I'm not seeing them on any other plants, even other melons, just the Charentais.

They hold on very tight, hitting them with water gets only a few of them off. I have to really blast the leaves (from the bottom up) to get them off and then I only get about 75-90% of them. To entirely clean a leaf it can take 5-10 minutes and some finger work, and the next day they are all back like nothing happened.

I was hoping something would come along and eat these little guys, but I'm not seeing anything. I have little gnats or fruit flies (please don't be fungus gnats) around the Charentais vines, so I hope they are feeding on these little guys, but even if they are it's not fast enough to keep the population under control. I was thinking of ordering some Ladybugs, but I've heard they don't eat spider mites, is this true? I was told for those I'd have to get Green Lacewings.

What are my other options? Is there a better or simpler solution? The vine is huge and spraying something on the underside of every leaf could easily take all day. I'd also prefer not to use systemic poisons on plants that produce fruit.

For what it's worth, they are aphids - the one on the top left shows the spiked backside some of them have.

I've had good luck with the hose approach to getting rid of aphids, you can also hit them with insecticidal soap if that's not working for you.

Spider mites are way, way smaller than that--they'll look like little tiny dots that you can barely see.

ecrane3, these pictures might be misleading. That is a high resolution macro picture, and these are probably the smallest aphids I've seen. This one has the tip of my finger in the shot on accident. Compare for size.

Also, as I mentioned, water doesn't seem to wash these guys off. They hold on really tight. If I want to clean a leaf entirely I pretty much have to peel away at them with my finger nails.

There are a bunch of different species of aphids, this is just one I haven't seen before.

Claypa is right - These are aphids, no matter how tiny they are. Only aphids have the cornicles or little stove pipe looking projections at the top rear of their abdomen. Hit them with soapy water - either that which you mix up yourself at about 1-2 Tablespoons to a gallon of water, or with Insecticidal soap. They are very soft-bodied and it will dessicate them (IOW they will dry up). You have to hit them directly. Watch for any that may have escaped. You will probably have to repeat a week or so later. Constant vigilance is the key here.

Saw this while looking for a way to eradicate aphids...there are thousands of them this year, on plants I have never seen them on before. What kind of soap would you use to mix with the water? I have a hard time finding insecticidal soap here.....

You can use dish soap too (diluted in water). I wouldn't use the antibacterial sort of dish soap because it has extra stuff in it that may not be good for the plants, but plain old dish soap will work fine too. The garden hose can be remarkably effective too. Just keep in mind no matter what you do, you're going to have to stay on top of them, no matter what you do you're going to miss a few and they reproduce like crazy, so you'll have to keep repeating the treatment, if you spray once and then think it's taken care off, they'll be all over the place again before you know it.

Thanks ecrane3....I guess my no name lemon scented dish soap will work then...tried the hose thing, they all hung on no matter how hard I blasted them. How much soap you figure in an ordinary mister bottle..I think it's a litre bottle....

threegardeners...I have the perfect soap for you, better than dish soap.
Kirk's Coco Castille, it's made from coconut oils and it's a bar soap. Found it with the soaps in Publix (a grocery store in the south) so google it and see if you can get some. You just put a few flakes in a sprayer, fill it with water and a day later you can spray away.

Got rid of my spider mites and aphids REALLY fast. Love this stuff.

I googled it, from the look of their order form I don't think they ship out of the US...they don't ship to PO boxes anyways...a practice which I have never figured out.

I've seen Castille soap (probably different brands though) at grocery stores here in the natural/organic type cleaners section so you might try looking by you. If you've got a store like Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, or Wild Oats near you I can pretty much guarantee they'll have some.

A lot of places won't ship to PO boxes, maybe it has something to do with the PO boxes are really only a size to fit envelopes? I always figured that was why, but since I don't have a PO box I never really investigated the reasons.

I don't get it, I have received many large parcels...they just keep it in back and put a card in my box to let me know it's there....a good many companies have not gotten my business on account of that rule....it just seems silly.

Any dish soap will do the job. 1 US gallon = 3.7854118 litres, so around 1 teaspoon for 1 litre should do it.

Spray with Neem Oil and Insectidal soap.