Last updated on October 23rd, 2023 at 08:47 pm
Whiteflies are a classic garden pest. Indeed, this tiny beast particularly likes to attack our most beautiful plants!
Moreover, not content with turning leaves yellow, slowing down the growth of geraniums, chelidoines, fuchsias or hibiscus, they can also invite themselves in our vegetable gardens and especially in greenhouses where they find the warmth they like so much. Once installed, they like to attack vegetables and tomato plants.
This way, you can see that they have been there, because the garden loses its beauty and the leaves stick because of the honeydew (their sweet dejections). The honeydew promotes the formation of fumaginia, a black, powdery, soot-like fungus.
With their pronounced taste for sap, they are therefore very harmful, especially when the invasion is more pronounced. Here are some chemical-free treatment ideas to deal with whiteflies. Friend gardener, this pest will regret attacking the foliage of your ornamental plants!
Contents
1) First aid in case of whitefly invasion
As explained earlier, they particularly like warm environments and greenhouses that favor their development. In fact, the first thing to do is to move the infected plants. To do this, isolate them in a cooler room. And while this may not seem like a big deal, it will hinder whiteflies and limit the damage to your beloved plants affected by the invasion!
2) Invite other beasts they hate into your gardens
If you don’t want to invest in ugly yellow traps used against whiteflies, consider trying a very effective ecological method: use certain species of auxiliary insects! Indeed, when an insect invades you, inviting its natural enemies and predators usually helps to curb the invasive phenomenon. This is what we call biological control, and there is no better way to fight insect pests! Against white flies, there are for example :
- The great classic: Encarsia formosa, a small wasp to be used between April and October (it does not like the cold and needs time to reproduce)
- Macrolophus caliginosus, a bug that feeds on larvae and is very useful to save vegetable plants (especially eggplants and tomatoes)
- Delphastus pusillus, a ladybug that consumes its eggs
- Amblydromalus limonicus feeds on whitefly eggs and larvae
- Eretmocerus eremicus and mundus
- Mushrooms to spray for large invasions: Paecilomyces fumosoroseus and Verticillium lecani
3) Black soap to eradicate white flies
As with aphids, black soap is an unbeatable insecticide that will be useful in eliminating these little white invaders. Indeed, its sticky texture will prevent them from breathing by suffocating them, which will inevitably lead to the death of these insects. To do this, in a spray bottle, mix 3 tablespoons for 1 liter of water if it is liquid black soap and 1 generous tablespoon if it is in paste. Very quick, this spray solution is also very effective. However, you will need to remember to spray carefully under the leaves, the area usually most affected. Also, make a second application 48 hours later. Reapplying this concoction is very important, as it does not destroy the eggs, which will later hatch and result in a new invasion.
Good to know: Be aware that some gardeners replace the black soap with Marseille soap. What’s more, you can also apply neutral vegetable oil under the leaves or add a little to the water-black soap mixture to smother the eggs!
4) Other natural solutions against whitefly
Many gardeners plant clumps of basil and marigolds to scare away blowflies. This is always good to know! Alternatively, you can use your tomato leaves to make a decoction. Then, let it cool down, add a spoonful of alcohol and a spoonful of liquid soap and spray it on the infected plants. Finally, you should know that nettle manure and orange essential oil diluted and sprayed are other solutions sometimes proposed for the treatment of white flies.
In addition, discover 14 ecological but effective methods to fight against garden pests as well as our best tips against white grubs in plants or to get rid of mealy bugs. These are the proof that there are natural solutions to everything!