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whiteflies #!"&+%@&!

Mark Furtak SoCal Sunset 10/USDA 8b

last year

The whiteflies this year are particularly stubborn. Homemade insecticidal soap (Dr Bronners) and neem oil don't have much of an effect on them. The nuclear option (malathion) for the ornamentals hasn't cleared them out either

Featured Answer

chloebud

last year

Mark, we've had a problem in the past with white flies on our ficus. We used the worm castings and this "Eight" spray from the nursery. They are persistent but the combination seemed to work for us. Interesting they only seemed to attack the ficus and nothing else.

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Comments (11)

socks
last year
last modified: last year
Are they in your annuals?

I had them once on marigolds. I just ripped out the plants.
Mark Furtak SoCal Sunset 10/USDA 8b thanked socks
Mark Furtak SoCal Sunset 10/USDA 8b
Original Author
last year
They're pretty much on everything. Beans, morning glorys, marigolds, verbena, calistephus, melons, squash
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Thank you, Ben! I will give Forbid a try- last year I tried everything but that. Only the soil drench did the trick and I hate to resort to that again. I wondered if the heliotrope that I was so fond of last year, brought the flies to my garden. Do you have any knowledge of that? I googled but nothing came up. The heliotrope was so successful last year in my purple- orange bed.
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Fori
last year
I have giant whiteflies. I do believe they are unstoppable.
Mark Furtak SoCal Sunset 10/USDA 8b thanked Fori
Mark Furtak SoCal Sunset 10/USDA 8b
Original Author
last year
They are definitely persistent. I will continue to apply the soap/neem on the food crops and chemicals on the ornamentals
Mark Furtak SoCal Sunset 10/USDA 8b
Original Author
last year
I'm going to try the worm casting mulch as per some posts from last year. Found one on Amazon 30# for $32 which is way cheaper than most others. If it works it will be money well spent

BTW the whiteflies have been joined by leafhoppers
Mark Furtak SoCal Sunset 10/USDA 8b
Original Author
last year
I applied the worm castings yesterday and today I can't find a whitely anywhere. Nothing short of a miracle. I was spending hours spraying (underside of leaves is the hard part) before. Thanks chloebud!!
party_music50
last year
Wow, I’ve never heard/read this about worm castings! Must remember this because two years ago I had problems with whiteflies on my potted lantana and Invincible hosta. I tried sticky traps for the hosta, and ultimately chopped down my lantanas to get it under control. Turns out that the lantana loved being chopped back. lol!
chloebud
last year
Mark, I'm glad it helped! It took a little longer to work for us, so keep checking to be sure.

party_music, we had no idea either until the nursery suggested the worm castings.
Babka NorCal 9b
last year
I posted this last year. You've tried everything else, why not give cafeine a try?

Bob Tanem in Northern CA (Sunday morning KSFO radio show) has for years said that he uses old coffee grounds after you make your morning coffee.

-Babka

https://www.bobtanem.com/recipes-for-pests-and-diseases

Solution #2: This is my favorite organic solution: Place 2 lbs of old coffee grounds in one gallon of water. Bring to a boil, cool and run through a coffee filter. Spray on infested plants.
Mark Furtak SoCal Sunset 10/USDA 8b
Original Author
last year
Thanks Babka I will try the coffee grounds. If I have to spray maybe it will be something that actually works because they're back. It sounds like you're kind of brewing the coffee again because it's too strong otherwise. I've seen mention of the sticky cards also so I'll try that too

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