What kinds are they? What plants are they on?

Jean all i can tell you honestly is that they are white flies.Didn't realize there are different kinds of them.

Anyway they are on my bleedingheart vine,geraniums,weeds,nasturciums etc.Seems when i water ,swarms of them fly up from whatever i'm watering.

I just googled,which jogged my memory,and i now remeber years ago we dealt with this same problem,and then i used yellow plastic knives that i coated with vaseline and hung and stuck them all around the garden.If memory serves me correctly it worked,so i'll try that again.

Thanks for your reply,appreciate it.
kathi

Our previous Spanish-style home had a courtyard and the whiteflies were ubiquitous. The area was semi-shady, damp and completely protected from the wind.

At this house in a coastal valley, it is always breezy or windy and there are no protected areas like at our last place. I've never had whiteflies here.

Have heard that vacuuming helps with whiteflies. Shake the plants so the whiteflies fly and then WOOSH them into the hose. Never tried it but sounds kinda fun.

Thanks slogal,we live along the coast and always have nice sea breezes,Maybe it's the heat and humidity we've had these past few months.
Kathi

Yes, terrible time with Giant Whitefly. I've never had them until this year. On one hydrangea and on my blueberries! Then, just last week, I found my Canna 'Tropicana" just covered with those spiral egg cases, ugh! I washed them all off, took me forever. It must definitely be due to our prolonged hot, humid summer. They are so hard to control once they get a foothold in your garden, I am so bummed. I have a yard just filled with hibiscus, so hoping they do not find them all.

Patty S.

Worm castings solve whitefly infestation

When I diligently use the worm castings, the problem is greatly reduced and then disappears.

Well, my blueberries are in a combination of worm castings and peat/compost. Didn't seem to keep the whiteflies off my blueberries :-(

Patty S.

I also have a lot of hibiscus,and i check them everyday,for white flies and/or aphids.

Hoosierquilt,patty
Did you ever belong to the El Camino quilters club??Just curious.
Kathi

We put in a hedge of white wing hibiscus along the front of our house when we bought it20 years ago. They were beautiful and the past few years they'd been plagued with giant white fly. Tried everything from water spray, hand picking organic and chemical pest controls, including hiring a service and they kept coming back. Didn't hurt the plant, but so unsightly with all that cotton candy looking stuff hanging off them which would get sooty mold and turn black. And expensive. Finally gave up and had them removed a few weeks ago. Looks naked and ugly out there, and no clue what to plant instead, but at least I'm done with the white flies and chemicals...until they find something else to go after.
Didn't know they liked cannas. Was going to put them in my back yard, but no way.
I'm interested to hear if anyone else has a solution. I have a red hibiscus in my back yard and am afraid they'll find it!

Again....worm castings, about 1" deep as a mulch.

I had no luck with worm castings either. Hope the OP does. Please let us know.

Earthworm castings are expensive, so sometimes the tendency is to maybe not use enough as mulch, but I only had to do it once and they've never come back...had the whitefly infestation very bad on my Blue Dawn morning glories and on the Rose of Sharons. The whiteflies were gone almost immediately.

Me too! They are all over the melon plants. Sigh. Seems particularly bad this year for my garden.

I cleaned out that garden yesterday and there were hardly any white flies.All i did was blast them with water,then later went out and mixed a little dawn and water in the sprayer,and that seemed to help quite a bit,plus i pulled out all the nasturciums,they seemed to be where most of them were,and a martha washington geranium.

Now i'm fightin the war with Racoons that are tearing up my lawn.Never a dull moment!!
Kathi

Dogs are a good way to solve the raccoon problems. I also bought a Scarecrow, a motion detecting sprinkler. That works nicely against the neighbor's goats, too.
Renee

Nope don't want anymore dogs,cats or any critters that have 4 legs or that fly,or slither.We've had many animals over the years,and don't want anymore.

We do dog sit ds german shepard once in a while,and that's enough.
Kathi

Whiteflies are the worst. I even mailordered special predators but where they went I don't know. Sucking them up works if you have a small plant. I used to wash down the big hibiscus hedge 2X a day and they would always return. Finally I was sick of it and cut the hedge down.

Yup, worse than usual for me, mainly on the citrus and pelargoniums.