HELP!!!! I've got WHite fly on my brassicas!

lisa26_2

Hi all, what's the best (and cheapest!) way of controlling white fly? SO far I can only see them on my sprouts. I'm pretty sure they weren't there yesterday so hopefully I can catch them early!! Will a water/soap spray work?

roosterpotatoes

Yes, I use a mix of a small amount of washing up liquid and water.
So far so good with mine
Apparently it suffocates them

Mojisola

If the plants are in the garden and you have an extension lead, take your hoover down to the plants, switch it on, shake the plants and hoover up the whitefly.

That will reduce the population. Spray regularly after with rooster's recommended mix and hoover again if the numbers go up.

Kay_Peel

Commercial growers, especially organic growers, use a tobacco solution. You can make your own, I believe but I haven't tried it myself.

Get a couple of cigarettes, take off the filter and steep the cigarettes in water for a few days and strain. Use the water to spray the brassicas.

lisa26_2

Thanks for the replies everyone. I've been awake half the night worrying about it! This morning I've removed a few of the worst affected leaves and put them in the wheelie bin then given them a coating of bleach! Hopefully that'll stop the eggs hatching!

OH is going to get me a spray bottle today so I'll get praying this afternoon when I get home from work.

Zazen999

lisa26 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies everyone. I've been awake half the night worrying about it! This morning I've removed a few of the worst affected leaves and put them in the wheelie bin then given them a coating of bleach! Hopefully that'll stop the eggs hatching!

OH is going to get me a spray bottle today so I'll get praying this afternoon when I get home from work.

Bleach? Why not just tread on them and squish them?

Anyway - you will be praying as spraying with softsoap solution doesn't make a blind bit of difference with whitefly. It works for aphids by reducing the tension on their skin which means they breathe in the water in the spray; it will do nothing for whitefly except make them whiter.

You need to pick off any affected leaves as you see them. If you really want to - you can hang yellow sticky traps down and then knock the leaves so that they fly into the yellow sticky trap. This is best done if you put fine netting up so that they don't fly away.

Or you could spray with insecticidal soap, diluted. However, it works on the fly not the plant so you should agitiate the plant and spray the cloud of flies.

macma

Almost everyone on our allotment site has got whitefly,and as with most problems unless you get a real infestation as long as your plants are otherwise healthy it's not a real issue.When harvesting I wash mine in cold water after a soak in salted water.
Now blackfly on our runner beans now that is something else this year :eek:

lisa26_2

Zazen999 wrote: »

Bleach? Why not just tread on them and squish them?

Anyway - you will be praying as spraying with softsoap solution doesn't make a blind bit of difference with whitefly. It works for aphids by reducing the tension on their skin which means they breathe in the water in the spray; it will do nothing for whitefly except make them whiter.

You need to pick off any affected leaves as you see them. If you really want to - you can hang yellow sticky traps down and then knock the leaves so that they fly into the yellow sticky trap. This is best done if you put fine netting up so that they don't fly away.

Or you could spray with insecticidal soap, diluted. However, it works on the fly not the plant so you should agitiate the plant and spray the cloud of flies.

Squishing them.......now why the hell didn't I think of that?! Silly girl! Although i may have if I hadn't been doing it at 6am when I was late for work!!! Will remember that for next time thanks!

RebekahR

Yah I just noticed 1 lonely white fly last night on my brocalli thats under a cloche! How did he get in there lol. I just flicked him off. Gonna have to keep watch now.

SallyForth_2

Squishing white fly is practically impossible, they are quick to fly off, and tiny, and there are loads. I have them on my kale - not sure how I am going to get the eggs off, my sprouting broccolli and my brussels which are still in pots, so I did manage to get all the eggs off those yesterday.

At the moment I am putting yellow plastic bottles everywhere, coated in cooking oil to trap them, this is working a bit, but seems to be more successful at trapping pollen beatles.

I do hope they don't kill the plants.

irishwexford

We had whitefly last year and I sprayed with watered down washing up liquid which helped. What I discovered that these flies did not harm the plants. When I cut a plant hundreds of these flies swarmed out but the plants were always ok.