Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi,

I'm new to gardening and have some questions!!
I want to try and garden as organically as possible, but have noticed I seem to have a HUGE amount of whitefly around my compost bin.
What can I do to get rid of them organically?

I also seem to have a large amounts of Ants, which I just don't want in my garden, I have seen that they can be beneficial but can also increase certain Aphids?

Can anyone help at all please?

Thanks

If the question was,Can I get rid of whitefly,the answer would be "With Great Dificultly".

Organically, impossible!

If they are outside, not the greatest problem in the garden.
But, if you have a greenhouse and they are on your tomatoes thats when they are a problem.

Ants and greenfly are easily dealt with any insecticide, but whitefly are different.

Cheers

Hi Lurganspade,
Being of the old school I treat Nicotine as 100% organic and that works on Brassica White Flies.
Nicotine will kill most things and is not selective so can kill the bees and other beneficial creatures off. This being said, Brassica White Flies during the winter months can be treated successfully without harming anything. It is too late for this winter as the beneficial insects are now out and about but you can still put a fleece over the plants and spray under the fleece.
That said how many bees do you see on a cabbage patch as there is nothing to attract them.
JB.

Hello Johnboy.

I work in the Research Dept. of a chemical company.
There I have free access to "The Chemical Labs" and it's contents, which are many and varied.
A few season ago (3?) I discovered concentrated liquid nicotine there, so I helped myself to some.
This was to dilute and spray onto my indoor tomato plants against white fly, as nothing else was any use at all.

it was no more successful than any of the other bought products, so I had to put up with mouldy leaves and fruit.

Last year was actually not too bad at all, and I did not spray anything at all on the plants!

I was in The Poundshop yesterday, they had "ORGANIC LIQUID SEAWEED" so I bought 3 bottles,as it said on the bottle, that using it helped keep pests and diseased,at bay.

I had just read some where that "Maxicrop" was helpful in deterring whitefly in greenhouses,so as I will try anything within reason once, I will give it a go this season.

I have already given everything in the GH a good soaking today!

Cheers!

If the whitefly are in a greenhouse there is an effective biological control using a tiny parasitic wasp called Encarsia. Commercial growers use it very successfully and you can buy it in domestic/amateur quantities. Putting "biological control whitefly" into Google gives you details and suppliers.

Hi Lurganspade,
How strange that the Nicotine concentrate that I produce for myself seems to work a treat.
I cannot understand why yours did not work but I can assure you that mine does and is extremely effective against White Fly.
JB.

"to heyjude"

Hello,
Commercially they work fine, because of the size of their Gh's.
My greenhouse is 10x8, during the summer months the door and 2 roof lights are open 24 hours per day.
Any expensively bought wasps would be off, pronto i'm afraid!

Saying that, I have "homing" Leafcutter bees and "homing" Whitefly.
The leafcutter bees excavate under my potted plants in the GH to make their nests,cutting their leaves from next doors roses.
And when I give one of my pot plants a shake outside the GH to get rid of any whitefly, they find their way unearing back to the door and "home" again.

Hello Again Johnboy!

Are you making yours with cigarettes?

My liquid was 100% pure, but was useless.

Cheers!

I find the yellow sticky fly traps very effective in the greenhouse. I don't find whitefly a problem in there.

Beryl.

Are these whitefly things you southerners keep talking about the same as we would call Cabbage butterflys, they are the only white flying things we ever see up here.
Arthur e