'where have all the white fly gone '

21 years ago

Hi- Over here in the UK, for years and years, we were absolutly pestered to death every year with millions of white flies, clouds of them on the tomatoes in July,on brussel sprouts,and cabbages, hawthorn hedges,etc, etc,it was a constant battle every year with white fly traps and sprays, and then all of a sudden about four years ago they suddently started to dissapear, for the last two years I havnt seen a single one, it cant be the climate change as white fly can stand extreme cold and heat and used to overwinter in greenhouses etc, so-whats happened to them all !! , personaly speaking there is a clear band of england stretching from norfolk to nottinghamshire that seems to be white fly free (lets pray very hard and hope so) have the pesky little blighters gone for good,as I got so fed up with spraying every ten days with alternating types of insecticide to kill them, as they quickly built up resistancy, and having my greenhouse cluttered with bright yellow sticky board traps.

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Comments (5)

nandina
21 years ago
Very interesting. It would be your local experts who might have an explanation. For what it's worth the following thought came to mind. White fly needs certain host plants to reproduce. If you Google the situation you will find that the host plants vary around the world depending on the type of white fly. It occurs to me that one of the favored hosts in your region may have suddenly died off due to disease or insects. As I said...this is just a thought. Someone over there must have the answer.
bothenjs
21 years ago
I have white flies for the first time in 15 years! What's the best way to get rid of them fast?
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terrybateman2
Original Author
21 years ago
hi-Bothenjs, with great difficulty- they are one of the hardest pests to get rid of,they are resistant to most insecticides- you have to spray them on the underside of the leaves, with three different alternating types of spray every three weeks from first seeing them, otherwise they quickly adjust to each type of chemical, other than that-bright yellow sticky boards,hung all over your plants near the tips, you catch thousands like this, they stick to the boards,but they breed so fast,every ten to fifteen days they increase to more than treble the amount if left,
The only damage they do is to suck the sap from the top of the plant leaves,but the droppings drop down and shower the leaves and fruit which then go mouldy, nasty horrible little creatures, who originated from Brazil, they can stand extreme variations of heat and cold, even frost.
John A
21 years ago
I think Terry must have sent them all to southern CT. I have had many this year, but haven't noticed any damage yet. I sprayed a specticide general insecticide a week ago, but that seemed to have not effect. I went to my garden this morning, and they are gone! Was that the result of the spectricide, or did they decide to leave on their own?
John
mira360
19 years ago
i had severe white flies on my tomatoes and i do believe buying plants opposed to seeding caused my problem. i was spraying with pesticides almost every day. i live in s. florida and finally i got rid of them. i used a power sprayer of cold water and blasted the plants. i guess i stunned the white flies . spray from underneath if you can and avoid the flowers.