Aphids (and their ants)

I live in zone 9b and things are heating up and I already have a significant aphid problem. This does not bode well for my season. I came back from being away for a few days to find my hellebore are absolutely covered in green aphids. Even more concerning, I somehow have aphids on my pepper starts I started INDOORS. I think it is because of my nemeses the herder/farmer ants. I have them every year and really don’t have a good solution.

I am not really able to do the “knock them off with water” method because the ants just reestablish the aphid fam.

So that leads me to my other options. Soap and water works on the aphids (but is too targeted to really disturb the ant colony) but damages the plants! The flowers I sprayed have ugly soap damage.

Diatomaceous earth is messy and I also don’t want to harm my neighbors bees that come visit.

I haven’t tried neem oil yet because it also hurts bees and I have the other options on hand.

There are some ladybugs near the hellebore so I am less worried about them. But the Argentine/herder/farmer ants are already making life hard and I don’t even have the plants in the ground! Any tips or tricks?