WHITEFLIES: Should I be worried?

[Vincent VanGrow]

So for 10 years I had cleans grows with nothing more than the occasional fungus gnat, and a few years back a new location brought me these little gifts and even thought I have since harvested those crops and moved to a different house hundreds of miles away, the bitches are back. This year I neemed weekly and that seemed to keep them at bay, but I got lazy and justified it by saying that I don't want to spray them in flowering blah, blah,...well 5 weeks in, the plants look fantastic, but I bumped them and a cloud of whiteflies rose as my anger did as well. Am I trippin over really nothing here? I'm about ready to go back to the neem spray for the next few weeks. I'm also moving them from the sunlit window inside, to the outdoors full time, so maybe natures predators can give me a hand before harvest, Im hoping. Thanks all

 

[Grass Lands]

Before bringing them back in give them a good shake to try and rid as many whiteflies as possible...

When I deal with them, I make up a couple of yellow sticky traps hang'em up and tap the plants while sitting under the traps...little buggers will head right for the yellow...

also you could take a shop vac and tap the plants and suck'em up...lol...never used this method, but heard of others doing the deed...I always had the fear of sucking the tops off the plants with the vac...hahaha

 

[guest2012y]

WHITEFLIES: Should I be worried?

Yes..you should. These guys are nasty and very difficult to get rid of in an organic fashion.. as far as I know. I had an infestation about ten years ago and ended up just trashing all the plants when the common organic sprays at the time failed.

Things are different now and the list of organic based materials to combat pests like whiteflies is large.

I'd go for a bacterial attack from something like Spinosad..etc,etc.

 

[bobman]

Bayer Complete for veg. Bayer Fruit and veg for flower. Best product I have ever used. Battled white flies for the last few years. I thought I was actually breeding a new super whitefly. These things actually attack me if I disturb them. Just used it last weekend. Almost completely gone and the ones left are showing very weird behavior. great product highly recommend.

Sorry, this is in the organic section. Just saw whiteflies and I am so excited i finally kicked there ass. The pesticide involved is just a nicotine based with a pretty short half life.

 

[Vincent VanGrow]

Thanks for the quick replies Im going to do the organic neem things and move them outside under the sun permanently Man you aint kidding about a super race of these fucks I swear theyre evolving to resist even my best neem Maybe some other additive along with it would help Keep the good advice coming and thank you much

 

[bobman]

How many plants you working with? Soaps work well, there is a few organic sprays at homedepot that work to. I think anything work work that is labeled to work even though neem did seem to do much for mine. As you know the key is making sure you get under the leaves good and that can be a pain if your working with big numbers. If think you should be able to get them under control very easy without too much effort. Totally eradicating them is the hard part. Just do something because they love flowering plants and will start really ramping up numbers.

 

[macamus33]

I've had problems with whiteflies in my greenhouse grows this year. I've used AzaMax at 1/3 to 1/2 strength for 2 to 3 applications this summer. Seemed to work very well; no more whiteflys and I had them bad. Also it is OMRI certified. Also works very well for mites but have not had that problem for many years.

 

[Weezard]

Actually, white flies are easy.

Actually, white flies are easy.


Take 2 Kirkland dryer sheet,
Tear them half way through and lay them on the soil surface.
The white "fly" is actually a moth and, like fungus gnats, is sensitive to odors.
The odor of the dryer sheets repels them.

The larval stage does most of the damage, so keeping them from hatching and laying eggs breaks their life cycle.

Now I use the sheet on all my plants.
I have zero white flies, fungus gnat or root aphids now and for the last 4 months.
And that's indoor and out.

A few red spider mites is all I've seen this year.
And spidermites are easy to kill, non-organically. (No pest strip in a chamber 3 times 2 days apart)
Organically? Lots of luck.

Aloha,
Weezard

 

[Vincent VanGrow]

Excellent suggestion everyone, thank you! If I'm diligent with the neem oil (once per week, like I was in veg) they are not eradicated, but kept under strict control. I got complacent and figured I'd kicked there asses and stopped my weekly treatments about 5 weeks ago. Big mistake. They are flowering, but the neem is food grade (smell like fresh peanut butter almost...mmmm) from Ahisma Organics and works very well. Ive heard great things about the Azamax too, so I'll have to grab some of that when the wallet fattens up again. I love the dryer sheets idea, I'm definitely using that. Do you cover the whole surface of the soil, or just put one around the base? I have 3 and 5 gallon pots. Thanks again all, great job

 

[Weezard]

Cover the surface

 

[Snagglepuss]

ya you should be worried.I had them really bad in the middle of summer.What i notice is that some seem more agressive than others.The first time this summer ,i tried everything to get rid of them .They were very agressive and ,once budding started ,forget it.It was impossible .

I had to grow the remaining plants out and destroy over 100+ vegging plants "everything".Just to kill them and stop the madness.When their finally enough of them,they bring plants down in sickness like its nothing,they multiply very fast..I was so pissed....Now i started over ,and i just started noticing today that i appear to have them again on a brand new crop.These don't appear to be as aggresive.

I use this product called orthene,its a special pesticide which i use to treat my outdoor plants for white fly.Im using on my indoor plants this time and see how it goes.Check the undersides of the leaves for small tiny white eggs.If you get lots and lots of them..You may have a big problem on your hands....

 

[Vincent VanGrow]

Thx Weez ima try that

Snaggle...man 100 plants...so sorry brotha, i felt bad with my ten...you obviously know thw pain of these bastards. Exactly as you described, my "star" plant, a massive Romulan within less than a week mow looks all lime green and curled under leaves...i neemed last night and knocked a lot of them down, but we'll see. im gonna hit em again in a few days. Whyyyy when thimgs are going so good...maybe outdoors natural predators will help kick their asses? Hoping...

 

[Vincent VanGrow]

love your sig pic, btw