Enviromesh - Too late?

[womble]

Hi

Due to being lazy, I haven't moved the brassicas from their seed bed yet.
The plan was to move them today and cover them with enviromesh. When I looked at them, they have whitefly all over them.
They're a good size (the brassicas) and must be 12-16 inches tall. So its impossible I would say to get them clear of pests before sticking the netting over.

I'm guessing that it would be silly now to put the enviromesh over them, as the pests will just breed underneath, am I right?

[Demeter]

Putting mesh on now will just stop the whitefly-eating insects from getting in there and hoovering them up, I would think?

I've not used the stuff myself, but have read that you are supposed to put it on basically from day 1 to make sure there's nothing in there when you put the mesh over.

[smallblueplanet]

I'd give the whitefly a good squirting with 'washing-up liquid' soap spray and get them under the environmesh asap. You'll loose more brassicas to catterpillars eating them than too whitefly, I'd have thought. You can still squirt them throught the mesh?! Or lift it up to squirt - keep an eye out for those pesky butterflies though!

[womble]

Thanks for your replies, I had already thrown some soft soap at the plants and given them a good drenching, also I put down some yellow sticky traps around them, checked over the plants for any eggs and pinched as many whitefly out as I could catch, I also threw some old marigold flowers around them, not sure if it will work, but it certainly does the trick in the greenhouse.
Then I moved the whole lot under the mesh.

We'll see how it goes, but I do think I left them too late.