You Will Be the Ultimate Pest Fighter – Whiteflies
Peacefully sipping my sweet tea while relaxing in the shade, I glance over at my tomato plants and see little white fairies flitting from limb to limb. Fairies?!? There aren’t fairies in my garden, they are whiteflies! I slam the glass down, jump up, anxiously run to my tomato babies as the ultimate pest fighter.
My eyes bug out of my head. (Yes bug.) Whiteflies! I turn the leaf over and see a mass of eggs. Scientifically named Aleyrodidae, these garden pests are the ultimate nightmare of a pest fighter. I frantically start cleaning them off. Then, I leap to my feet when I realize I need more help. Later, with goggles, rubber gloves, long sleeves, and wader boots, i tackle the Whitefy pests.
White flies are a soft-bodied insect related to an aphid or mealybug. They are triangular in shape less than ½ inch long and typically found in clusters on the undersides of leaves. These pests are active during the day. Mostly partial to warm weather, they like Malaysia a lot, so these fairie-like pests breed throughout the year here. They especially like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, and sweet potatoes which are all staple produce here in my state of Terengganu. They are a real problem, just as I know whitefiles are a problem in the warmer areas of other countries too!
Whiteflies produce a clear sticky substance (that ants particularly like and some harvest) called dew. The dew can cause the leaves to rot, turning yellow, then brown, and stunt growth. Eggs are laid on the underside of leaves (one female can lay 400 eggs), the larva hatch, and you have a real garden pest problem. The baby larva drink the plant juice, grow quickly, to start the process all over again.
The key to any garden pest control is to catch pests early. Check every day for pests, looking around the stems where they meet the main branch for little white “eggs” and especially the undersides of leaves.
Pest control should be done late in the day when it is shady and the sun is setting. At this time, the plant will not be shocked when you blast the plants with water to wash off as many pests and eggs as possible. Then, use a insecticidal spray to coat the areas of infestation. Note that 2-3 daily applications may be needed to win this battle.
The pesticide does not have to be toxic but application must be regular if you aspire to be the ultimate pest fighter. By following the steps for eradication, you will be the ultimate king of your garden and the envy of all your neighbors. They will look to you because all of your plants will be green, healthy, with lots of produce. In fact, you will probably be sharing your produce to everyone else because you have too much for yourself. That is how important this fight is.
A Pest Fighter’s Pesticide Spray Recipe
- LIquid soap – 2 parts
- Lemongrass – 2 stalks smashed
- Water – 5 parts
- Alcohol – 3 parts (The alcohol evaporates quickly so the soapy mixture more readily sticks to the leaves.)
Annihilate the Infestation
By consistently following the steps below for 2-3 days, you will be the king of your domain. I mean, it is a little white fly, so you have the power to knock out the infestation by following steps 1 and 2 carefully. I don’t even want to think you may need step 4. If you need step 4, you have been sitting on the couch too long.
- If there is a heavy infestation, pinch off the leaves that are already sickly or heavily infested.
- Wash the rest of the plant thoroughly and brush off any larva that you see.
- If infestation continues, use a vacuum to suck up the larva.
- As a last resort, get rid of plants that persist with whiteflies. I know it is hard to do, but you may save your hardiest plants.
Preventative Care
There are preventative care measures you can take to ensure your veggie babies stay safe. Plant marigolds and other pest discouraging plants in between vegetable plants. My next post is going to be about these beneficial herbs like basil, chamomile, catnip (although you may attract felines), chives, garlic, and lavender. They are all pest preventatives. You can use some of these cooking, so why not plant them among your vegetables?
Place yellow sticky traps so you can visually see the start of infestations. The whiteflies will stick to the traps so you will be able to notice the pests before they become a problem. If you see a few sticking to the trap, just mix up your pesticide, spray the plants, and the game is already won.
A Pest Fighter Attracts An Army
You can coat leaves with Neem oil to prevent pests from feeding on the foliage but may deter beneficial insects who want to join the fight.
Attract lady bugs, damsel flies (a small dragonfly), big eye bugs, praying mantis, and other beneficial predators by including flowers in your garden. There are a lot of beneficial bugs out there but, if the turncoats (your chickens) are eating all the bugs, I suggest you keep the chickens in a tractor to allow these predatory bugs to do their job. I just wish I could get the chickens to eat the whiteflies instead of my tomato plants.
I hope you find this information about whiteflies beneficial. I plan to write a series of short blogs (in between regular blogs) about garden pests. The next post will be about Squash bugs (sounds icky but they like squash, not “I squash them”…although…) — subscribe so you don’t miss it! My regular post, as noted above, will be about the overlooked benefits of herbs. Subscribe to my posts, if you haven’t, and join the ranks of other successful gardeners. I look forward to your comments! To those of you who have subscribed, a warm Thank You for supporting my website. I am currently working on a free ebooklet – Composting 101 – it’s a “hot” topic! Thank you for your time and support, I really appreciate you reading my blogs.
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