White Flys

C

Capt Mogul

Looking for South Florida pepper advisor.  I am having a terrible time with white fles this year.  They are decimating all my peppers and with all the rain washing anything I apply.  I used a Baier product on our coconut trees when living in Key West but made the nuts uneatable for a year.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Ed
 
Capt Mogul said:
Ищу советника по перцу Южной Флориды. В этом году я ужасно провожу время с белым мясом. Они уничтожают весь мой перец и дождем смывают все, что я наношу. Я использовал продукт Baier на наших кокосовых пальмах, когда жил в Ки-Уэст, но сделал орехи несъедобными в течение года. Мы ценим любые предложения.
Эд
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Can you try https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flonicamid ?
 
Capt Mogul said:
Looking for South Florida pepper advisor.  I am having a terrible time with white fles this year.  They are decimating all my peppers and with all the rain washing anything I apply.  I used a Baier product on our coconut trees when living in Key West but made the nuts uneatable for a year.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Ed
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And what have you tried so far...?
 
White fly are easy to control as long as you're on it fast.
 
Be very careful, have to catch it fast before it becomes an infestation as white fly bring in mites/aphids on their legs. You very possible have them also now if whitefly has been an on going problem... Anytime you see white on underside of leafs, immediately spray/drench/soak till dripping wet with neem. nip it in the bud
 
Organic NEEM oil works great on almost all sucking soft bodies pests and does not affect the pods taste, can be harvested the same day of a neem spray. Just wash off pods before eating.
 
 Or if you don't want to get/mix up some neem solution, and want to do this now, buy some Dr Earth from HD, its ready to spray out of the bottle and works ok for white fly, and can be sprayed anytime of day/nite, but do avoid mid day sun., follow direction on bottle and soak drench dripping wet under/over all leafs...
 
jmo
 
Some people like to use aluminum foil under as reflective mulch.  I've not had the greatest luck with it, but I'm gonna give it another go this season.  One more try.
 
Thanks for the come backs.  In the past I have used Diazinon ( I know its controled), Malathion.  I use dish soap in a spritzer most of the time.  Everything that I use I have to lift up each leaf to apply.  With the first two, gloves, face shield, and mask, pain in the xxx.  Never heard about alm foil mite give a try.  I will also check out the Neem oil.  Pepper harvest slowing down with how weather.
Thanks all
Ed b
 
solid7 said:
Some people like to use aluminum foil under as reflective mulch.  I've not had the greatest luck with it, but I'm gonna give it another go this season.  One more try.
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Hmm, got to try that. Would the added reflected light under the leafs from the foil cause any issues, or maybe more light there would cause faster growth..?
 
I just posted a thread asking this same question about a month ago.  I"ve had sucess with 1/2oz Neem Oil, 1/2oz dish soap, and 4L water.  the recomended 1oz/1oz/4L was giving my plants chem burns and causing leaves to fall off, halving the ration is working great for me.   Best of luck!
 
I have been battling them for a few weeks now myself. I have had yellow sticky traps up and that took care of a lot of the flies. Unfortunately, after a week or so they somehow learned (or adapted) to pull themselves off the sticky trap.
 
Two days ago I used "Natria 706250A Neem Oil Pest and Disease Control, 24-Ounce, Ready-to-Use" (from Amazon) and overnight I have no signs of whitefly at all - none. At the end of the day, I just picked up each pot and sprayed the underside of each plant. So far so good. I'm going to spray again after 7 days to make sure I've hit each stage of the life cycle but this definitely exceeded my expectations. 
 
I was planning on having to use pyrethrins in conjunction with the neem oil but this stuff knocked them out on the first go.
 
I'm in south FL. First you will need to locate and remove any other host plants in your yard that may be harboring whiteflies, I had angels Trumpets that were a nightmare of whitefly. If you can't remove them, then keep them treated with a systemic insecticide labeled for whitefly. You have to remove all points of reinfestation.

Then alternate sprays of hort soap and Neem oil or Azamax 2x week on your pepper plants, spraying under the leaves. Lastly I mulch all my peppers with used coffee grounds and it really helps keep the whitefly under control.


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Nobody understands the white fly infestation in S fl unless you grow here. I had to spray neem too often for control so now I hard spray just with the hose every day. I think keeping the eggs off the plant is important.
 
heatingup said:
Nobody understands the white fly infestation in S fl unless you grow here. I had to spray neem too often for control so now I hard spray just with the hose every day. I think keeping the eggs off the plant is important.
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I tell people this regularly, but everyone seems to think they know better.  I'm glad to hear it from someone else.
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I'm trying a slightly different approach this year.  I'm not overly optimistic, but i'm gonna try, nonetheless.  Instead of hard spraying, I'm going to go a no-fertilize route, planted in composted pine bark, and only leaf mulch to feed.
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Honestly, even my weeds here get attacked by aphids, whitefly, and broadmite.  But you know...  Until you try a thing, you can't claim to know a thing. So here I go...  
 
solid7 said:
 
I tell people this regularly, but everyone seems to think they know better.  I'm glad to hear it from someone else.
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I'm trying a slightly different approach this year.  I'm not overly optimistic, but i'm gonna try, nonetheless.  Instead of hard spraying, I'm going to go a no-fertilize route, planted in composted pine bark, and only leaf mulch to feed.
.
Honestly, even my weeds here get attacked by aphids, whitefly, and broadmite.  But you know...  Until you try a thing, you can't claim to know a thing. So here I go...  
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Try the coffee grounds as mulch. It helps.

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thegreenman said:
Try the coffee grounds as mulch. It helps.

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I use coffee grounds anyway.  I see literally no difference.
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It is often claimed that coffee grounds repels ants.  I posted up a video around here somewhere, that shows ants industriously moving about, through almost 1" of top dressed coffee grounds.
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I appreciate the suggestion, but unfortunately, that one has already been debunked for me.  Nevertheless, I will still use the grounds, cause they're fantastic for other things. :)
 
A neighbor has a burrito hybrid pepper for 6 months. No white fly which amazed me. He also has a basil plant growing in same pot. Maybe he unwittingly discovered  something. My peppers will soon go outside so I will let you know in 2 or 3 months how basil works out.
 
LOL.  God, I don't mean to sound like the contrarian... I really don't.  But the year before last (cause I didn't have a grow this last season), I had FOUR different varieties of basil, catnip, and Marigold.  Everything went pretty smoothly until the marigold got mealy bug/scale, and then the whole system just broke down.
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It tends to happen in the very hottest part of the year, and I'm usually pretty staunch about not putting up shadecloth - cause I don't want to deal with that before a hurricane - but it may have something to do with how well you keep the other parameters in check.  Some people in Florida are more disciplined about the shade cloth than myself, and I'm quite sure that they grow better, healthier plants.  That's on me... but when one thing gives here, the whole shit ball starts picking up a lot of momentum.
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I am gonna say it will have some effect.  But know that your herbs aren't going to be nearly as tolerant of anything that you spray, as your fruit-bearers.  I used a Neem spray on the marigold, and that was lights out.  It did NOT like that.
 
Basil is definitely a known companion plant for both tomatoes and peppers.  I doubt the veracity of published claims with regards to the effectiveness of it against whitefly - especially considering that we have tens of species of whitefly in Florida, and they don't all respond to the same treatemnt - but I'd never try to talk anyone out of using companion plants.  Best case, they work, worst case, they're sacrificial, and take the edge off of the pest load on your main plants.
 
solid7 said:
 
I use coffee grounds anyway.  I see literally no difference.
.
It is often claimed that coffee grounds repels ants.  I posted up a video around here somewhere, that shows ants industriously moving about, through almost 1" of top dressed coffee grounds.
.
I appreciate the suggestion, but unfortunately, that one has already been debunked for me.  Nevertheless, I will still use the grounds, cause they're fantastic for other things. :)
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You can try a used coffee grounds tea spray. I have used this in the past. Tom Broome has a recipe here somewhere. Caffeine has a similar mode of action as Neonics such as imidacloprid or thiacloprid.

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thegreenman said:
You can try a used coffee grounds tea spray. I have used this in the past. Tom Broome has a recipe here somewhere. Caffeine has a similar mode of action as Neonics such as imidacloprid or thiacloprid.
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Interesting.  Maybe I'll give that a shot.
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Coffee grounds are phenomenal for developing mycelial cultures which aid in nutrient retention.  I've had modest amounts of coffee grounds that culture a vast fungal network in my containers.  Once, I dumped out a 27 gallon tote, and it was white webbed from top to bottom, with the healthiest roots I've seen.  I actually prefer using coffee grounds to using mycos. 
 
Hi, its me again. " You have to live here to understand"   In the last two years I have used Neem Oil, water spray, Diazinon, 3 in one graden spray, and malathion.  My Ghost's art 6'+, Reapers 5' and White Habenaro's 6' .  Just too much.  Will pull out the Reapers as they are stunted by the flys. When I shake the plants the flys are like a snow storm and the leaves are like some sprayed them with white paint. I have some new seedlings I will try to grow in the pool cage but ther size may prohibit that later next year.
 
Good Luck with the White Flys
 
Capt Mogul said:
Hi, its me again. " You have to live here to understand"   In the last two years I have used Neem Oil, water spray, Diazinon, 3 in one graden spray, and malathion.  My Ghost's art 6'+, Reapers 5' and White Habenaro's 6' .  Just too much.  Will pull out the Reapers as they are stunted by the flys. When I shake the plants the flys are like a snow storm and the leaves are like some sprayed them with white paint. I have some new seedlings I will try to grow in the pool cage but ther size may prohibit that later next year.
 
Good Luck with the White Flys
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I can totally sympathize.  Whitefly are also cyclical; one year they're barely there, another year, they're pandemic.  At the point that you're spraying that much stuff, it's not even worth growing the peppers - cause who really wants to eat an insecticide cocktail?
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Unfortunately, I'll tell you from experience, that it's even worse inside the pool screen.  The whitefly can still get in, but their predators cannot.  You actually end up making a more favorable condition for them.  The only consolation to that, is you may have better luck with sticky traps, as they won't catch everything else, or get tampered with by night creatures.
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If I had to wish the most horrible punishment on my enemies, it would be that their food garden would be perpetually infested by whitefly.  To say that one "cannot understand, if they don't live here", is a colossal understatement.  And anyone that does live here, that has not yet experienced a legit whitefly infestation, and chimes in that it's not that bad...  You'd best be knocking on wood.
 
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