Darn Whiteflies!
For whatever reason, whiteflies seem to LOVE my hibiscus plants. I have aggressive removed them with blasts of water and tried the sticky yellow cards you see advertised in gardening catalogs, but nothing seems to help. I don't really like to use pesticides in the garden, but I am afraid that the whiteflies are really starting to hurt these plants.
Any ideas?
Any ideas?
posted by Douglas at 10:46 AM
7 Comments:
I asked my wife (who is the green thumb of the family and also has dealt with whitefly a lot). As soon as I told her it was hibiscus, she shook her head knowingly. Hibiscus is terribly prone to not only whitefly, but also aphids (thanks to ant farming), and other nasty bugs. Here's what she said:
1) If you don't mind using poison, the only quick way to get rid of whitefly is going that route.
2) You can use soap or insecticidal soap, but you pretty much have to keep up on it daily or every other day to make a dent.
3) Longer term, since you're not eating the hibiscus, you can use a Bayer (Bahr? Bear?) Systemic Rose care product. As a side benefit, it will make the hibiscus bloom nicer, but what it also does is draw a little poison into the plant, enough to keep the bugs off.
Hope this helps.
Hmm...the systemic sounds like a possibility. I think that might be a btter choice than sprays or other topical applications.
I feel like i have to do something or risk losing the plants.
Worm castings. Seriously. It looks like plants who are fed a steady diet of worm castings develop something in their sap that makes them taste awful to sucking pests like whitefly and aphids. I did some research about this when I wrote a book about earthworms, and what the experts say is that while there has not been enough hard research done, it appears to work and it certainly can't hurt.
Either mix the castings with water and spray on, or dig them in around the base of the plant so they are underground, then water well. This is more of a long-term solution, but once I started using worm castings on my roses, the aphids went away. (Of course, attracting predator insects and the other usual organic methods also helped...)
Insecticidal soaps will work, but you have to make contact with the whitfly itself. Also prolonged use will toughen your plants and give them an almost leathery look and feel.
A good systemic control is Dysiston. Smells awful for three to four days, but gives good control for 4 to 6 months.
A great product that we use is Botanigard. It's not a poison, but rather a fungus that grows on soft bodied insects (whiteflies and aphids). Your spray it like a poison, but the live spores live on the plant waiting for an insect to wander by. Once an insect is infected the fungus slowly devours it. The great thing about this control is it attacts all stages of insect development from egg to adult. It does not seem to bother larger insects such as butterflies.
Wow! What great comments!
Thank you everyone for your help. I will take all this into consideration.
I would like to direct you to the UC Master Gardeners web site on white flies:
http://www.uccemg.com/docs/Giant_Whitefly_pdf.pdf
Here is something to think about. Many times plants which are not in ideal locations attrack pests. Your plant may not be getting the proper sun, water, nuitriants, pH level. Plants in distress send out signals to pests (such as yellowing leaves). So longer term, you may want to figure out if your plant is in the best location.
http://www.uccemg.com/
I see the web site was truncated. Go to the main page and under the section marked "Hot Topics" you will find the White Flies article.
Good luck.
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