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Aphids and Whiteflies in the garden

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Each garden and therefore each gardener is faced with pests that plague their plants from time to time. It’s something that we have to learn how to deal with, and when possible learn to control those pesky pests.

Some plants such as honeysuckle, citrus trees and other flowering shrubs and vines are infested each year with aphids and whiteflies. How can you control some of these pests naturally?

Well, whiteflies can be a real challenge. Planting marigolds near or around plants that frequently get infestations of whiteflies might help. Marigolds secrete a substance around their roots that is absorbed by nearby plants and this helps to repel the insects. This might now work for large shrubs and trees though.

Whiteflies have several natural enemies. Get to know the bugs in your garden. Some of them are beneficial. Insects such as lacewings, big-eyed bugs, minute pirate bugs and a tiny wasp called Encarsia are natural predators of whiteflies. Avoid using pesticides in the area as that will kill off these beneficial bugs that otherwise would find and attack the whiteflies.

Aphids are a big problem in my garden each year. They love my honeysuckle – particularly my Harlequin Honeysuckle for some reason. They also thrive on the newly developing leaves and flower buds of my roses.

When an aphid infestation is really bad I get one of my spray bottles and add a couple of drops of dish washing liquid to the water in the bottle. I then go out and spray the affected areas of each plant with this mixture. By selectively spraying the affected areas of the plants I don’t bother the many other insects that are in my garden- many of which are beneficial. I find that for really bad infestations I have to spray the affected plants with this soapy mixture two or three times in one week. After that the aphids are usually gone.

Like the whitefly, aphids have many natural enemies as well. One of the most important enemies of the aphid are the various species of parasitic wasp that lay their eggs inside aphids. Other predators that feed on aphids are lady bugs or the lady beetle as it’s known in some parts, lacewing and syrphid fly.

There are a number of mail order companies, and some nurseries, that sell a huge variety of beneficial insects for the garden. You might think about purchasing some of these insects to help control your whitefly or aphid problems.

I’ve purchased ladybugs in the past. 2000 I believe! I tried to put them on the plants that I knew the aphids and other pests enjoyed bothering. The lady bugs stayed in my garden for the most part for a day or two but then dispersed throughout the neighborhood. I do think that at the time they stayed long enough to control my pest problem.

If anyone has any other suggestions for controlling whiteflies or aphids in the garden I’d love to hear your suggestions. Please leave a comment.






Controlling house plant pests

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In many parts of North America and other areas of the world gardeners have traded their backyard gardening for indoor houseplant gardening. Bringing some plants in from outdoors, and tending to others that are indoors all year round.

Every home owner who keeps houseplants will encounter, at one time or another the dreaded house plant pests. Little bugs that you can often barely see that start to suck on the leaves or burrow into the stems and cause parts of the plant or the leaves to die. If measures aren’t taken to eradicate these pests quickly a whole plant could die.

There are only five major groups of insect and mite pests on house plants, they are very difficult to control and highly persistent, once established. Not only that- but many types of house plants re sensitive to pesticides when they are used on them, plus pesticides used indoors can be quite dangerous to the home owner, small children and household pets.

The three steps to controlling pests are:

Step 1 . Know how to recognize at least the major insect and mite pests that attack foliage plants: aphids, mealybugs, scale insects, whiteflies, and spider mites.

Step 2. Prevent the introduction of pests into the home or existing plant specimen arrangements:
a) buy or propagate only pest-free plants;
b) keep new plants separated from other plants for 4 to 6 weeks to see if any pest problems develop;
c) carefully inspect all plants at least weekly for signs of insects and mites.

Step 3. If a plant is found to be infested with insects or mites:
a) isolate the plant from other plants;
b) correctly identify the pest;
c) determine and apply appropriate control measures;
d) keep the plant separate from others until all evidence of infestation is eliminated, which may be several weeks or more.

Take Control

There are three popular general methods for treating house plants infestations: physically removing the pests and or washing the plant, general purpose ready to use sprays, and chemical concentrates for preparing spray mixtures.

Physical removal is easy enough for large pests- slugs, caterpillars etc.. Pests can also be swabbed with a small brush or cotton tipped applicator moistened with rubbing alcohol.

You may also opt to rinse or wash plants with a diluted mix of dish detergent soap or an insecticidal soap. Sometimes just placing a plant in your shower stall and gently spraying them with lukewarm water on the tops and undersides of the leaves is enough to rid the plant of an infestation, plus give it a good drink and flush it’s substrate at the same time.

Often the soap sprays or rinses need to be repeated over a period of time to totally rid the plant of pests. I also try to isolate plants that I find are infested – I’ll move them several feet away from uninfected plants at the very least, and often into a totally different room if it’s possible. There’s nothing worse than having several plants infested with pests at the same time.

In your garden centres you’ll find ready to use sprays, but if you go searching for one of these types of sprays make sure it’s labeled that it’s safe for use on house plants. Always read the labels and precautions on any of the ready made sprays that you are planning on using as some sprays are effective only for certain types of insects, while others are only effective when the pests are in certain stages of life.

Whiteflies are very difficult to control with standard sprays, but easily controlled with other sprays that are made specifically for whiteflies. Be sure to follow directions. There are many individual products on the market; be sure to read the label to determine which one to use.

Chemical concentrations are available to mix with water for application with a hand sprayer or mister. Insecticides and/or miticides are available separately or in mixtures. Generally insecticides will not control mites, and miticides will not control insects. Only the appropriate pesticide is needed. The wrong one will not be effective.

Another way to prevent infestations in the first place is to care for the plant properly. Many people end up having white fly and mite infestations on their plants in the winter time. The air is dry in the house and the plants are not kept moist enough. Misting the plants with water sprays a couple times of day or keeping the room they are in adequately humidified should help lower the chance of pest infestations in some plants.

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