i want the "WHY" & "HOW" - WhiteFlies

[MAZEinaHAZE]

Hello to you all:

my thread is in regards to WHITEFLIES.....

i unfortunately have just encountered them for the first time -- and as always -- have done my research on how to remedy the situation....

i found these little bastards in both my VEG chamber and FLOWER chamber. They have totally killed a few beautiful ladies already, before i caught on. With it being summer time, i thought my issues were all heat related, so i have been adjusting and tweaking my grow room and equipment as if my dead girls were heat stress....

but NO, so, as of today, i have sprayed my plants down with a water/Neem oil mixture ( 2 tablespoons per gallon of water )......i have also ordered some Doktor Doom foggers, but will be a week until they arrive @ my doorstep....

there is TONS of info on what they are......how they fuck things up...and how to kill them and rid them from your garden. I cannot seem to find anywhere the reason and theory on WHY my garden has them. I do NOT use any soil -- I am an INDOOR gardener...and have NEVER brought anything in from the outdoors or another garden. All my tree's have been grown from seed at first, then cuttings and cloning.....and always DWC in single 5 gal buckets.

one piece of the puzzle is location of grow room is in my attic space. There are not many basements in Florida, and i have a busy household with visitors and kids, so my only safe haven was within my trussed roof. So needless to say, my grow room is triangular in shape....roughly 10 feet off the ground and fairly sealed.

SO......do i have insects kickin around the attic/wall cavity and did these specific Whiteflies find and smell my killer bud ?? or did they come from the exterior because of the sweet smelling weed ?? is it a summertime thing ? WTF.....

What came first, the chicken or the egg ????

HELP.....HELP.....HELP.......

 

[SkunkyDemon]

I would recommend doing a search on white flies. Theres quite a few threads on the topic. I was just looking up that subject just the other day. Hope it helps.
Peace

 

[MAZEinaHAZE]

Skunky...thanks. I did do a search ( advanced options ) and really found tons of info on how to remedy the situation, which i am in the process of trying to fix right now...

BUT....i want to have an idea on what got me in this situation in the first place. Are these pests always present outside, and did my growing attract them to my garden. They are common pests, but i've never seen them around before ( while growing and prior to growing MJ )

 

[Grønn]

It's amazing how many hitchhikers u can bring inside just by going into your growroom wearing the same clothes as you did outside.

All it takes is one little bugger.

Other possible source of infection would be your intake air.

If you use a pesticide containing Imidacloprid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imidacloprid u should have no problem genociding the little bastards.

White flies are extremely fast breeders in the right conditions, but relatively easy to get rid of if you use the right systemic.

GL with the war.

 

[MAZEinaHAZE]

Gronn -- you are smack on !!! i guess the obvious was the least obvious to me. Needed the outsider to help direct me.....

there is only one lawn i mow, an investment property, and i must have taken a little peak at the ladies prior to cleaning up....you're right, only takes ONE little bugger.

my intake is certainly not the cause of the whiteflies, but nice thought ....

certainly appreciate the ideas, i feel kinda like a blond cheerleader airhead

 

[Mr. Greengenes]

I've been battling whiteflies this summer too. I think I got them from a clone, but I'm always gunshy about clones and what they bring in. They could just as easily have come in from the backyard. My door is often open in the day so the dog can wander into the yard. I've found caterpillars on my indoor plants once or twice, though I don't remember seeing butterflies or moths actually in there. The upside of the 'insect corridor' is that I apparently have an outdoor population of predator mites invading, because my spidermite problem has spontaneously dissappeared (!).

For the whiteflies, I've been using the yellow sticky traps and the occassional shot of neem on the lower areas of the plants where they congregate most. Seems to keep them well beat down without much effort. They don't seem anywhere near as debilitating to plant health as spidermites, at least not in smaller concentrations.

 

[tejashidrow]

Its not really the white flys ... its their POOP!! The poop is like honey dew and sticky, and MOLD loves it...Its the MOLD that will do in your plants.... I am in White fly hell myself... I have been useing neem and safer spray, but i think its time to call out the big guns!!1 (sevin concentrate..) Still got 5 weeks to go till harvest...pax

 

[MAZEinaHAZE]

thanks for further input....

Mr Greengenes, i don't have the luxury of clones -- i fly a solo, mum's the word, operation, so no entry in that respect. i guess it was a hitchhiker on my person that brought it in.

in my scenerio, i never really noticed i had an infestation until one day, a very healthy AK-47 plant ( 6 of 8 weeks of flower ) became completely wilted, very moist to the touch, and all the "green" color of the stem and branches were GONE....pal as a ghost, sort of.

i then removed it from my garden and placed it my bathroom until morning -- as i was brushing my teeth, gazing at my dying beauty....i saw a shit load of these flying bastards.

it then killed a 4 week old, flowering Chronic too.........i was bummed to say the least !

Yellow stickies and Neem for me too -- i find the lower fan leaves and the top flower seem to be the two worst areas...

tejashidrow -- thanks for stoppin by.....what you descibe ii guess is the light orange looking balls on the underside of the leaves -- mainly fan leaves. i thought these were the lava. dunno.....as per the "big guns"....i see that Doktor Doom foggers are pretty non-toxic ( as far as pesticides go ... ) and work well for exactly our issues. there are 3 size cans depending on your square footage and whatknot....

i have 3 at my place....on standby......my No Pest stripes, yellow stickies and Neem have really put a hold on things, but i still have fliers in there. if i have controlled the problem, then i probably won't use my Dr Dooms, but if the lifecycle's keep coming back in popluation -- kaaaa boommmmmm

PS....i also increased my interior air movement, and hope that as fall and winter approach, the cold will kick their ass too !!!

 

[Dramajic]

Maybe strange, but I think certain strains attract white flies. Also, potting soils can carry their eggs.

No insecticides for me. A cheap vacuum cleaner above the grow works. I have a Sun reflector with a can fan suction. Open the glass lens about 2 inches and tape off the top air intake screen. This creates a fairly good suction and the little devils are sucked out the window.

There is no permenent solution to the damned things.

 

[MickFoster]

I grow hydroponically in an air-conditioned garage and had some white flies show up a couple of weeks ago. Bought some pyrethrum spray from my local hydro shop - now they are gone.