Whitefly on my brassicas

[Kayleigh-M]

How do I get rid of them? I am trying to be as organic as possible. They don't seem to be damaging my plants at all, but they are horrible. Any advice please?

[Two_Sheds]

Loads of older threads on the little blighters. Have a go with the search button






* There I said it. So sue me

[piskieinboots]

* There I said it.

Bet you'll have sleepless nights now

[Two_Sheds]

I may even go back and delete

[kate&rob]

they might not be causing a problem now but my experience has been that they will!

[Kayleigh-M]

Believe it or not I actually did search before I posted this thread, but I was a bit confused so thought someone might put it in simpler terms for me.

ETA- So will Marigolds get rid of them now they are here? The first thread I read was about prevention, and I think its a bit late for that now

[Two_Sheds]

I actually did search before I posted this thread, but I was a bit confused

Good girl (said in a friendly, non-patronising way)

I suggested a search because there are lots of methods that different people will suggest, none of which work for everyone, all the time.

My own experience is that Mexican marigold (tagetes minuta) does deter them, but that French & English marigolds do not.

Some people vacuum them off, others use sticky traps, others do nothing. They are horrible, and don't seem to have many predators. Here's a link to a dressing you can put on them. Let us know if it works.

Me, I've now nearly given up growing brassicas - you are not likely to meet a more difficult class of veg

[Kayleigh-M]

Thanks will take a look

[womble]

I'm not that far from you and whitefly are just starting to get to apocalyptic numbers, everything seems to have them, not just brassicas. It's the hot dry weather.

Tried the hoover, maybe makes a dent, no more than that.
Sticky traps won't control them, you can't do nothing because they can multiply out of control. Yet if you do do nothing, the plants survive, albeit with maybe less vigour than before.
Spraying soft soap can help, you need to spray once a day for maybe 3 days.

What you can do if you don't have many plants and they are small, is get up really early and squash them as they sit on the leaf, but I'm not sure about this one, as it can damage the delicate leaf structure.
Washing off with water can work as well, a good blast of spray from the hose, it can knock them to the ground, where they might not recover.
I made up some rhubarb spray for sawfly, which haven't materialised, so I'm going to try some of that.

[Kayleigh-M]

So its trial an error really isn't it. Horrible things