Long time not talk--white fly infestation-help!!

[miss_thenorth]

I have not been around here in a very long time, but now I come to you seeking help.

I have been battling white flies on my indoor plants for several years now. My 23 year old Hoya is now deceased. My 4 ft tall indoor orange tree is near death, and I have several other indoor plants that have been inflicted. i have treated, I previously thought, successfully; but now they are back again and I don't know what to do. It seems some of my indoor plants are resistant to them.

I have used several sprays in the hopes of getting rid of them. Is there anything else I can do? My mom suggested I be indoor plant free for a while, but considering I have over 30 indoor plants and I use them for decorating purposes ( my house would seem empty without them) ( and I love them).

Has anyone succesfully battled these pests, and what did you use?

Thanks for any tips!

 

[momofdrew]

go to lowes home depot or walmart and buy the traps for white flies they are yellow sticky things you might find them on burpies Johnny's or Parks on line if the stores in your area dont have them

 

[patandchickens]

You've tried the sticky traps, to help keep the populations down? You can also use a vacuum cleaner for the same purpose, just keep after 'em.

Do you kick ALL your houseplants outside in the summer, for as long as possible? That has helped a whole lot for me, although I have to admit that back when I had lotsa houseplants I did resort to putting the worst one or two offenders into the compost pile.

Is it possible that your plants need more humidity, better air circulate, and/or better drainage in their pots? They seem to be worst when plants are not at their healthiest to begin with.

Oh, and when you've sprayed, with Safer soap or something like that I assume, have you sprayed the plants *upside down*, to make sure you get really good coverage on the undersides of leaves/stems? I remember needing to do that for something and I *think* it was whiteflies. Or if you want to do this and don't want to be actually spraying, I have heard recommendations to securely bag the pot and soil and then wash the plant under your shower, upside-down, rubbing all leaves and stems.

Only other thing I can suggest if some plants have intractable infections is that once I resorted to cutting a plant back to virtually pot level, and when it grew back, the whitefly problem was gone. (This was at a time when I didn't have lots of other infected houseplants though). You can do this with a few houseplants, but of course with most it'll likely just kill them.

Good luck, whiteflies are really really tough indoors IME once they get a good foothold,

Pat

 

[miss_thenorth]

I've sprayed (saturated) them with two types of recommended sprays, (at different times)and then put in bags over night, showered them in the shower, put the heavier plants outside (can't do this with all plants due the the wind we have here) I didn't know about the sticky traps though, and will look into them.

I guess come spring I will repot them, focusing on good drainage. The humidity level in the house is good. so for now, I will cut back the ones that are not dead yet, while spraying the other plants and getting the sticky traps.

I really hope this works- I love my plants and am sad my hoya is dead--I've had it for so long. It all started with an English Ivy I bought at a greenhouse three years ago.

 

[vfem]

Go figure.... I had this same question today, but they are only over coming one plant all of a sudden.

I will try the soap / water spray first... but I do have fly sticky I can try.

My issue is the number of eggs they lay UNDER the leaves is more then the amount of white flies I see. I squish 30 flies one day and try to scrape the eggs off by hand, but the next day there are 50 more flies.

Those things are EVIL!!!

 

[homesteadmom]

WE get them really bad here in the summer once the cotton fields get going real well & they start crop dusting. I use the sticky traps & that helps tremendously in my garden.

 

[daisydukers]

Last time this happened to me I tried a couple of over the counter sprays..they just made the problem disappear for a day or 2.

In the end I just mixed up a heavy blend of dishsoap and water and sprayed down my plants completely to the point where they were kinda white from all the soap. I also sprayed the soil.

I then let it dry over night and left the plants alone for anouther day then sprayed them with water to clean the majority of soap off.

I also set out some sticky traps and sprayed a couple shots of general purpose garden insecticide into the air (very little).

Here is my thinking....

Soapy water killed the eggs, insecticide killed any flying bugs in the air, and the sticky traps killed any stragglers..

 

[insiderart]

You could try looking for an imidicloprid soil amendment for your plants (one is Bayer tree and shrub). It's an insecticide that you put in the soil and is translocated up to the leaves. Very effective, but look on the label and make sure they say for whiteflies.

In the greenhouse we used nicotine bombs.. do you have a detatched garage or building where you could use a nicotine bomb?