Whitefly nightmare!

[BB48]

Hi All

Hope you have all had a good season! I have had a great crop this year. Unfortunately the whitefly seem to have loved the conditions too. My sprouts and cavalo nero are absolutely covered. I have tried a soapy solution but they are still thick. Makes going in the netted frame very unpleasant! Any advice on controlling them?

thanks

BB

[marcofez]

If you have any garlic cloves handy, peel and cut them, then stick them in some hot water overnight. Sieve the garlic out, and pour the garlic water into a sprayer. Then spray onto your brassica's. It's not an overnight fix cause you'll have to spray a few times and then keep on checking. Use it with the soapy solution. I've been using this and it does control it. Let me know how you get on if you have a try!

[Zelenina]

I've had a huge plague of whitefly on everything this year Tried spraying with home remedies early on but it didn't make any difference. The immature scaly stage seems to be resistant to almost anything. Can't even squish them successfully. Some plants seemed to carry on regardless, but others just had the life sucked out of them, especially cucumbers and melons. I think they were so bad because of the mild winter that allowed them to overwinter outside, so maybe a bit of cold weather is needed to kill them off.

[BB48]

Thanks. I will try the garlic water solution. I have never known so many, even on strawberry plants. Its like a big white cloud when I go near the sprouts!!

[Zelenina]

Be sure to let us know how it works for you, BB48. I'm probably not going to bother this late in the season, because if we get a normal Slovak winter it'll kill them off. But I'd love to have a working remedy for next season, or for plants indoors over winter.

[crannman]

same problem here sprayed with a soapy solution seems to have worked a little will try garlic too

[Florence Fennel]

Garlic spray worked for me in the greenhouse (I use that term loosely) and growing borage with the sprouts and kale has helped a lot.

[crannman]

whitefly update sprayed plants with a soapy solution twice and it as made a great differance whitefly nearly all gone

[Zelenina]

When you say "soapy solution" crannman, do you mean real soap or detergent? I tried it with washing up liquid (detergent) and it didn't have any obvious effect. But I've read that real soap works much better. Can you give us some more details about the type and brand you used and how strong you made the solution?

Did it work on the juvenile stage i.e. the small non-moving greenish scaley things on the undersides of the leaves? Or did you have to wait for them to become adults and get them with the second spray?

[starloc]

Dishwash liquid mainly works as a wetting agent, prevents things from being waterproof so the water can smother them, soaps also a wetting agent but also can be poisonous to insects ( soaps also damage plants often...), so a mild detergent is best ( I use any dishwash liquid )

dishwash liquid or soap and water often just wash insects away athough some will drown

use a drop of dishwash liquid to emulsify an oil such as sunflower and it allows the oil to coat the insect and suffocate it, this is the base of a lot of powerful insecticides that often have an active ingredient as well

If instead of soapy water or the sunflower oil add a bit of oil of neem to the mix as the oil.....insects will die instantly, eggs, insects, larvae...., a great contact pesticide and from a natural source, yet safe enough even to be in skin creams, it also scares insects away, I use it to spray around the garden and the well to keep mosquitoes and sand flies away

Another very powerful one is 1 teaspoon of Limonene (distilled orange rind oil, from ebay or similar ) in a litre of water , whitefly and everything else dies if they are sprayed with it, after a few minutes its evaporated and safe, insects it has touched are dead

[Jay-ell]

As a grow your own solution has anyone tried using soapwort infusion as a soap spray? It contains a lot of saponin whis is the active ingredient and also lethal to fish so shouldn't be used near ponds and streams.

[crannman]

just cheap washing up liquid zelenina checked yesterday and nearly all gone

[Greenleaves]

I use empty pop bottles with wide celotape wrapped round sticky side out in addition to sft soap. Keeps it under control for me. Change the bottles weekly