I have tiny white flying bugs on my orange tree, buttonbush, and flame acanthus. They hang out on the undersides of the leaves, and seem to be causing the leaves to curl. If I shake the branches then it causes a small cloud of them to fly around. I have been liberally dosing them with orange oil some nights and insecticidal soap on other nights, and just spraying them off with high pressure water on other nights, but I seem to be losing the battle. Does anyone know what these are and how I can rid of them?
Bug problem. Help!
Sounds like White Fly. The best thing to spray with is Forbid on all ornamentals, I do not know what would be the best thing to use on fruits and veges.
It is white fly and apparently it is going to be a tough year for them. A local grower has his plants quarrantined already due to them. He said at dusk they come in and cover up the plants. Never, ever seen them like this before.
How To Get Rid Of White Flies
By Donlin
Easy way to get rid of white flies
White flies, I hate the things. They get in your food, your drinks, your eyes; you sometimes even breathe them in. In the summer my shrubbery is the white fly Hilton. White flies also known as gnats breed worse than roaches and can infest a home in a matter of days. I quit having indoor house plants because of white flies. Its bad enough trying to keep the things out of the kitchen garbage.
I tried everything to get rid of them. I used powders, expensive sprays, and those sticky pest strips that you try to hang somewhere so they don't get stuck to your walls and clothes. I found a great way to get rid of them and wanted to pass it on to all you folks who suffer from the little buggers.
Getting rid of white flies is easy. All you need to do is mix a tablespoon of Dawn liquid dishwashing detergent in one gallon of water and spray it on any infected area. Use a hose sprayer, a garden sprayer, or even one of those hand held spray bottles. Apply it 2-3 times a week for a couple of weeks and your white fly problems will be gone. Soap kills white flies and it won't hurt your plants or the soil or your fruits and vegetables. Spray it on shrubs, fruit trees, house plants, and garbage cans. I can't believe after using all those poisonous pesticides that plain old soap was the best and only thing that has ever worked for me. This stuff also works great on fruit flies and is just the thing to put on orchards. Its sort of fitting that soap kills white flies considering where they land sometimes.
This was posted somewhere. I use it and it does work pretty well for me.
Charlene
I use Murphy's Oil Soap, a dash of compost tea, and fish emulsion or seaweed emulsion in my sprayer to control white flies, aphids, and other pest problems.
puree garlic in a blender with water strain it and use it in a spray bottle... works on lots of things both in and out of the soil
Sometimes sprinkling dry garlic around and on the plant will help, too. If it rains or you water, though, you have to reapply.
So the smell of garlic can keep bugs away? Interesting, and worth trying.
Last night I tried the combination of Dawn and liquid fish. Somehow this actually smells worse to me than just plain liquid fish because the combination is just so WRONG. :)
Just use the soap alone, it works for most things.
I only get whitefly on my gardenias, which also get aphids. But once or twice a year I have to get out the neem oil for black spot and thrips on roses. While I'm spraying them, I give the gardenias a shot. They never get another whitefly or aphid the rest of the season.
Have you tried applying nematodes for thrips? I get thrips on my columbines of all things and the nematodes really seem to get rid of them.
I have applied the soap a few times now, and the whitefly count is way down. Hopefully a few more times will do it. Thanks for all the suggestions!
Texas Lantana draws whiteflys, before poisons the lantana was placed away from the other bushes, dunno if it is the same for the new lantana var? once concentrated, soap. soap was called a 'spreader-sticker' as it allows the poisons you do use to linger on a plant, lo sudsing, plz! works on poisons for unwanted weeds, or debug-acides
by the way, plain ol black pepper, fresh, will drive away the fleas, however, then the fire ants move in, and they love pepper, dont mind garlic either.