The Invasion of Whiteflies

Controlling Whiteflies in your Garden

What is beginning to happen here in the garden center is exactly what customers are reporting is happening in their own gardens.  A sudden die off of certain annuals that started when the humidity showed up.  Whitefly  seems to be the general consensus with most. after a brief description of the symptoms.   All whiteflies suffer from an identity crisis, as they are not “true” flies at all. Their appearance resembles tiny, pure white “moths” but they are in fact, closely related to sap-sucking aphids. Aphid-cast skins can easily be mistaken for whitefly, but whitefly will quickly flutter up and fly away when disturbed.Their quick flight pattern coupled with the fact that they hide on the underside of leaves make them difficult to control. Whiteflies are also prolific because their numbers increase from two to four, four becomes eight, eight becomes 16 and so on. During the hottest part of the summer, whiteflies may mature from the egg stage to an adult (ready to lay more eggs) in as few as 16 days.Whiteflies can cause two types of damage to a plant.  But we are more concerned about the immediate threat.  Whiteflies can seriously injure plants by sucking juices from them, causing leaves to yellow, shrivel, and drop prematurely. If the numbers of whiteflies per leaf are great enough, it could possibly lead to plant death.Control of Whitefly can be difficult since they multiply so quickly, hide under the leaves which make them almost invisible until it is too late.   Spray your plants with a Neem oil or Imidaclorprid based product.***  Do me a huge favor and spray early morning or late evening and PLEASE make sure there are no lady bugs on the plants.  ***