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[XDX]

Forreal how do I eradicate these suckers??

We’ve had an infestation now for about 18 months
I don’t know where they came from, but now I don’t know how to get rid of them

I’ve tried sticky traps, water blasts, neem oil, essential oils, garlic, chilis, basils & other herbs, tobacco, soaps, chlorhexidine, physical removal of insects and larvae, changing temps & humidity, removing obvious host plants, nothing works. Even summertime outside, idk what the natural predators are, but they are not doing a very good job.

If I make a mix of neem, soaps, oils, and chlorhexidine or tobacco, they seemed to get knocked back a lil bit, but I was doing 2 applications a week for 2 or 3 weeks, then stopped for a week and they came back. That means it wasn’t really working. If it was working, I should only have needed to do like 3 applications every 3 days, I doubled that.

The older more mature plants have learned to cope, maybe they grow a lil slower, but no serious signs of stress. The younger plants and seedlings however, they get ravaged before strong enough to fend for themselves. I keep starting stuff, then they stall out and slowly get eaten.

They will use just about anything as a host. Right now they are really loving the t. corymbosa, but if I move it they’ll just switch to a different plant. They like the ayas, avocados, any lamiaceae, solanacea, fabacea, etc. now they are killing acacia seedlings, grrr.

How can I eradicate these things? Scale bugs and spider mites are also present, but the whiteflies are bad. I typically don’t use real pesticides, but if there’s a treatment that is actually effective and safe to use in an indoor grow room, I may consider it.
I am really more interested in using biocontrols, specifically Beauveria or Metarrhizium fungi. I am only hesitant to try these because I also breed feeder roaches for reptiles, and I am a little concerned that these fungi might attack the roaches. I can’t find any solid references about this, I tried contacting some manufacturers of these biocontrol products to see if they had this info or other suggestions, well they never responded, go figure...

Does anyone have any experience or info anout any of the following:

1: eradicating white flies
2: using biocontrols such as beauveria or metarrhizium
3: either of these in relation to Blaberidae roaches

Please help!

[LIBERTYNY]

I know alot of people wont touch it but acephate or Imidacloprid  will get rid of them for 3+ months.

1 Like XDX likes this.

[pastanostra]

Hey dude,

I heard some ppl using rue tea (from seeds & aerial parts) as a natural insect repellant. Maybe it should worth a try  as a natural repellant. Hoever you tried all i knew as natural 

1 Like XDX likes this.

[nucleoPhil]

How big of an infestation are you talking? I noticed one indoor plant that had white flies about a month ago and after a couple weeks of just pinching the leaves every day they were eradicated.

[XDX]

oh its pretty big....
i have too many plants, thats probably the root of the problem.
if it were just a plant or two, i could quarantine and and treat
try like 40 plants, waist high or taller, lots of leaves and surface area
plus a bunch of seedlings and small pots.
Thats just what i can tell is infected, ~25% of the garden.

takes at least half a day to go through picking bugs off by hand, and still only feel like its maybe half effective. theres lots of small delicate leaflets and such that further complicate things. i wish i had time like that to spend in the garden everyday, but i just dont right now.

i was thinking the biocontrol would be good because these fungi can "hold down the fort" when i cant be as thorough monitoring and hand picking
with 2-3 applications, the whole garden should be well inoculated and provide lasting protection
work with nature

[cunningplatypus]

Hey XDX,

I know I'm a little late to this game.

For my indoor plants, I seem to have more trouble with fungus gnats than with white flies. I use a product called Gnatrol, which is a larvacide (active ingredient Bti, Bacillus thuringiensis, subsp israelensis). I believe it's quite safe, easy-peasy to apply (just water it in to your soil), and effective.

I don't know if it also works on white fly larvae, but there's a good chance that it does (it also knocks back mosquito and black fly larvae).

You can get it from ebay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Fungus-Gnat-Larvicide-2-oz-GNATROL-BTI-will-eliminate-Fungus-Gnats-Larvae/253588786413?hash=item3b0b11cced:g:-8MAAOSwIs1cC1zw

[ShareForFirst]

you can simply eradicate them spraying oil to choke them
better with neem oil (contain natural insecticide) but any biological oil can do it