|
Before you are able to kill whiteflies effectively, you should first know what whiteflies are, how they develop, and why they are harmful. You have to learn what signs to look out for and which plants they feed on. Most of all, you must decide on what early preventive measures to take and what alternatives to resort to if your initial remedies don’t work. Only then can you be whitefly-free.
What Are Whiteflies?
Whiteflies are tiny insects which secrete a white, waxy substance over their wings and bodies. They hide under leaves and feed on plant juice causing leaves to turn pale. They develop from eggs laid on the underside of leaves, to crawlers which suck sap from leaf veins, to oval nymphs which emerge as adult whiteflies. The most common species which occur in North America, especially in California, are the greenhouse whiteflies, silverleaf or sweet potato whiteflies and ash whiteflies, which grow in colonies and reproduce rapidly. It becomes essential to kill whiteflies immediately.
Signs of Whitefly Infestation
A prudent gardener would be able to kill whiteflies by detecting early signs of whitefly infestation through wax deposits, sticky honeydew, and small nymphs attached under leaves, on fruits, and beneath plants. Black sooty mold which is fungus that thrives on honeydew confirms this. Be alarmed by the paling, yellowing and silvering, then drying out of leaves. Look after host plants which attract certain whiteflies. Herbaceous plants are favorites of greenhouse whiteflies, while leafy trees and shrubs like poinsettias are territories of ash whiteflies. Silverleafs attack almost anything like tomatoes and strawberries.
Iris whiteflies love iris, gladiolus, cotton, and other vegetables, while giant whiteflies and band-winged whiteflies zero in on ornamental plants.
Preventive Measures
Increased plant growth and warmer summer temperature attract whiteflies. Nature helps you kill whiteflies through their enemies like ladybeetles, lacewings, pirate bugs, damsel bugs, and certain wasps like Encarsia formosa. However, ants are on friendly terms with whiteflies so keep them away. On your part, you should prune out infested leaves as soon as you detect them.
Wash, spray, or hose off the underside of leaves or hand-vacuum them to remove any nymphs. Use sticky traps near vegetables and fruits or near vents and doors of greenhouses to kill whiteflies. You may also install a reflective plastic mulch or aluminum-coated paper to cover young plants and repel insects. You may remove these when the weather gets too hot and when plants have grown bigger.
Management and Control
Choose a chemical product which is least harmful to a whitefly’s natural enemies. To kill whiteflies effectively, you may use insecticidal soaps and neem oil, and combine their use with organic pesticides like pyrethrin and permethrin. Use pesticides which are non-chemical, less toxic, and non-polluting to water sources.
Staying Whitefly-Free
Your gardening work is made easier by natural enemies which kill whiteflies even before you do. However, you have to be watchful for early signs of whitefly infestation. Act on preventive measures like pruning, spraying, trapping, and covering. Treat infested plants with environmentally-friendly pesticides. These will make your overall job of killing whiteflies a healthier and more manageable task.
|
Author Bio Box: Patricia Wainwright
Get all the facts about Pest and Disease and organic gardening at GreenThumbArticles.com!
Didn't really find what you were looking for?
|
|
|
| |
|
|
![[Valid RSS feed]](images/rss.gif "Subscribe to our XML Feed for RSS")
(Read 500+ times)
