Does anyone know a cure for the dang white fly that is on my indoor plants already. I am using soapy water right now... It is horrible on my banana plant.
malathion deluted with water may help rid them. I used it on my tomatoe plants during the first part of summer and it seemed to work.
Whitefly Control White flies have a short life cycle - only 5 to 8 days. That means, they propagate so fast and its very hard to get rid of it. In their larvae stage, they are almost invisible and indestructible. If you poison them, they may just bounce back in about a week. You have to be persistent with them and there is no once-forever solution. I prefer non-toxic treatment, especially for indoor treatment. If your plant has a heavy infection and you can move your plant outside, you can wash them off by a sharp blast of water to the undersides of the leaves every day for two weeks. When the population has decreased, you can then spray vinegar or mixture of dishwashing liquid and water (2 tsp in 1 gal). Outside, whiteflies have many natural enemies. Water wash is better in the long run than using toxic treatment too, because water wash will not kill their predators. I Also learned a lesson: when you move plants indoor from outside, you need to wash them thoroughly before you move them in. This works great for getting rid of spidermites and aphids, too. Inside, if you don't mind to keep beneficial insects, you can release a special kind of black ladybugs, Delphastus (http://tiptopbio.com/green_d_pusillus.html) that eat white fly eggs. They are especially delight in sweet potato and silverleaf whiteflies. You can use Whitefly Parasitoid (http://www.gardensalive.com/product.asp?pn=5080), a small parasite wasp (<1mm) which is used for control of greenhouse whiteflies in greenhouses. They do not bother people or pets, and they die out when whiteflies are eliminated. I use regular ladybugs (orange with black spots) for controlling both white flies and aphids. They eat aphids, mites, scale, thrips, whitefly larva and eggs. Using predators may not get rid of all white flies but this is a natural way to take care of the pest problem.
Don't use Malathion indoors. It is not safe and stinks to high heaven. Try one of the Insecticidal Soaps.
I tried vinegar yesteday. Here is my experience: when you use vinegar, you'll need to add water for some plants. Pepers, beans, and eggplants are okay with vinegar. But tomatoes and greens are not. Lettuce and swiss chard are very sensitive to vinegar. Always spray a small area to test before the application to the whole plant!
Vinegar is actually sold as an herbicide in strong concentrations so be careful. Bradfield Horticultural Vinegar
Thanks for the information. I use 5% vinegar which is sold in food store. It is still too strong for some plants with thin leaves.
