Whiteflies or Thrips?

[Fert1]

In recent years I've developed a problem with what I think is whiteflies. It seems like the incidence of disease also increased greatly about the same time. I've read that thrips often convey disease, but I've never seen reference to whiteflies doing so. That got me wondering if what I have is really thrips. How can you tell the difference? Do whiteflies convey disease too?

What I have are tiny white bugs that scatter at the least provocation. Whatever they are, it seems almost impossible to get rid of them.

[Fert1]

Sounds like it is whiteflies, because these things fly. They are tiny, almost pinpoint sized tiny. The slightest movement sends them flying out in a cloud. Fortunately, (knock on wood), I've yet to see the dreaded Tomato Spotted Wilt, but I've seen plenty of other disease.

Last year many of my plants got some sort of wilt that killed them overnight. No spots, healthy, green plants that went from perfect health to instant wilted death overnight. It started from the top of the plant and worked its way down from what I could tell.

This year I'm fighting a fierce case of Early Blight and my usual Septoria Leaf Spot. A couple of plants have gotten wilty looking, but they had not looked healthy for a while. They didn't die overnight like my plants from last year did, so I don't think it's the same thing. I planted in a different spot this year.

It seems like the amount of disease multiplied by loads once the whiteflies showed up. Nothing seems to deter these things either. The minute I start to spray anything, they scatter like crazy, and come back later completely healthy and unphased. I've ordered ladybugs, lacewings, praying mantis eggs, and other carnivorous insects. Nothing has stopped them. This year I signed up to get regular shipments from Gardens Alive, and that has reduced their numbers, but not eliminated them by any means. Oddly enough, I don't think they've bothered my peppers at all, at least not that I've noticed.

[Althea]

Whiteflies, ugghhh. I've had two experiences with them. The first when there was a mild infestation of the roses was easily dealt with by planting some nicotiana as a trap. The whiteflies preferred nicotiana and moved to them leaving the roses alone.

Last summer there were millions of whiteflies on naturalized celandine poppies. I put out yellow sticky traps which caught several thousand, sprayed with soapy water killing several more thousand, pulled many of the plants and placed them in garbage bags, and finally, realizing they were only interested in the poppies (I thought they would move to other plants), left them alone.

If you would like some seeds for celandine poppies to plant as a trap let me know. Otherwise try planting nicotiana to lure them away, or yellow sticky traps.

Thrips - double ugghhh. They love roses too and I had no luck getting rid of them in our old garden. Moving solved that problem. If they find our new rose garden, even though I don't like using broad-spectrum, non-selective insecticides, I will try neem.

[Fert1]

Originally Posted by kctomato

Very hard to deal with.

Both of those wilts are SOL diseases.

You can prevent them by moving.
:wink:

My, but you're so encouraging and optimistic. LOL! I can't argue with it though. The Whiteflies have been a pain to deal with, and yes soil diseases are bad news. I'm pretty sure I don't have the bacterial wilt. If you cut the stem it doesn't ooze anything. I tried the cut stem in a glass of water thing, and it did nothing. In fact, the stems tended to be completely hollow. I had not heard of Fusarium crown wilt. I will research that one. Thanks for the imput.

Althea, yes I would love to take you up on the poppy seeds if they will draw away the whiteflies. What is nicotiana exactly? I have not heard of that before.

[Fert1]

I didn't find much on Fusarium Crown Wilt, but I assume the wilting starts at the top of the plant in this case. Can it also cause hollow stems?

[Althea]

I dont know, maybe it was the roses.

All I know is I could not leave them there.

Holly, nicotiana is decorative flowering tobacco. Send me you address via pm and I drop some celandine seeds in the mail.

[Fert1]

Thanks!