Kitchen Garden Forum

Thought we'd got away without a whitefly plague this year but they have arrived in force and are all over everything - even get into cups of coffee.
Anyone any ways of controlling them?

When my brassicas become infested I mix a spray up and walk along the rows kicking the base of each plant. When the whitefly swarm in the air I give them a good spraying. I prefer this to spraying the plants.I spray every week until I am on top of them.

What do you spray them with?
I too suffer hordes of the little blighters. I find the only way I can clear any dead leaves from the plants is to take a deep breath, do a bit of clearing and come up for air, brushing them out of my hair and clothes at the same time, as the air around the plants is literally unbreathable once the plants are disturbed.

Same here. I've hadn't seen any whitefly since the spring but now they have turned up in force. I spray with anything that contains 'bifenthrin'.

John

Hi all,
When I posted this problem here about a year ago Johnboy came up with his nicotine spray! However I have also heard you can hoover them up which works surprisingly well!! Last year after I cleared the crop I lit a a sulphur candle in the greenhouse and this year not a single one has been seen!!!
Hilary

Hoovering would probably work but it's a bit difficult on an allotment and knowing my luck I'd probably suck up the plant too.

I appreciate that Nicotine is frowned on by many organic gardeners but it
is exceedingly effective and is actually quite short lived. It is said that it will kill off Bees and the Predator Bugs but what attracts Bees is not cabbages suffering with Whitefly but flowers that have pollen which I do not have on my cabbage patch also it is abundantly clear in most cases that the Predator Bugs are not present either otherwise you would not have the concentration of Whitefly. If spraying is done late in the day there should be no passing Bees as they are early to bed or even not moving about on wet days. If you use Nicotine simply use your loaf when and how you spray.
JB.

Hi Johnboy. I didn't have a computer a year ago and I hadn't heard of nicotine spray, so I used the excellent "search" facility on here ( isn't that just magic?) and found your original postings on it.

My heart sinks at the thought of storing our fag ends, let alone boiling them up..... I was hoping I could whizz out to the garden center and buy some!! (or perhaps not, since they are now filling every available space with christmas paraphernalia ....but that's another topic)

Our brassicas have clouds of the little horrors too, especially the sprouts, which now also have sooty mould growing. Any advice as to how I can treat that please...apart from getting rid of the source, which seems impossible?

Cheers.