Succulent plagued with white fly

[Marb67]

I have had this succulent from my late mother's house the last 3 years, kept it going as a house plant (just) but I just can't get rid of the whitefly that seems to hide under every small crevice in the leaves.

I have tried spraying firmly with the mist of a hose, running under a tap, spraying with water mixed with garlic. peppermint oil, lavender oil and neem oil. I have even watered the plant with diluted neem so the roots take it up into the plant for the fly to dine on only to get the oil as they drink in the sap (a method shown on Youtube) And yet I find more and more all the time.

I give up

[Jungle Jane]

Is it possible to hold this sort of plant upside down in a bucket of water with wash up liquid added for a couple of seconds or thirty seconds & then spray the leaves with clean water to get soap residue off? Or is it too fragile,I’ve done this in the past with sweet pepper & lettuce plants (green aphids).

[Plot70]

I would put it outside where the ladybirds will be able to access it. There it plenty about this year.
We had masses of aphids on a field maple tree that made the leaves all slimy. It cleared up and then there was swarms of ladybirds.

[Marb67]

I would put it outside where the ladybirds will be able to access it. There it plenty about this year.
We had masses of aphids on a field maple tree that made the leaves all slimy. It cleared up and then there was swarms of ladybirds.

I will try that but I have to say there aphids that were in the garden in abundance last month have seemed to have gone (I have noticed sparrows eating them off the leaves of plants) There are a few blackfly on the nasturtiums and broad beans but not that many as before.

[Plot70]

The aphids have fed on the maples and the ladybirds have been breeding on them.
There will be plenty of hungry ladybirds now to eat them up.
The small birds will take aphids for there young. if there is plenty.

[Marb67]

Well, after washing them off again and again and again (more than Status Quo) re-potting, the gits are still coming thick and fast.

[mothhawk]

Sometimes you just have to give up and chuck the plant away, Marb.

[Marb67]

Sometimes you just have to give up and chuck the plant away, Marb.

It was my late mum's so no I won't. Surely there has to be a way of getting rid of them ?

[Babru]

I've had to throw away infested houseplants in the past. As you say, there is always a crevice for them to hide. The only long-term effective way, for a plant that is truly special to you is a systemic insecticide.

[Nicos]

You know what marb. I know you are organic but sometimes when something is really important to you , and nothing else works….go and buy a pesticide. That would be my last choice too but that plant is clearly very special to you and as everything else seems not to be working, just go for it.

[Babru]

My thoughts would be get rid of the pests now, let the plant recover till spring, repot fully with fresh compost, a second dose of systemic in case there was something still in the foliage. Then hopefully your precious plant will be sorted from then on.