Veg and white fly!!!

I have cut some veg from the allotment over the last few weeks cabbage, kale and some sprouts. The Kale had grown to about 4ft high and was very "open" leaf wise, alot of the leaves had holes in and when trimmed and brought into the kitchen to wash and prep....released quite a lot of whitefly...not so nice flying around the kitchen at dinner time. There was also whitefly with the cabbage.

Is this normal...what I mean is...is this the way it used to be before your veg came from tesco's...

Is there a solution to prevent the whitefly coming indoors, and as there are now a few already moved in...are the indoor plants at risk.

How did it used to be done????

 

Yes, before the advent of beautiful, ready washed, uniform sized vegetables in the supermarkets, there were scruffy, lumpy vegetables with more than a few examples of wild life on them. It makes you wonder how many times the farmers supplying the supermarkets must spray their crops.

Whitefly is one of the most persistent pests and I don't know of any organic way of controlling them. Provado Ultimate Bug spray is the only weapon I know but I don't use it on my own veg.

The best way to get rid of them from veg you want to bring into the house is to wash the veg off in a bucket of water outside. It's particularly difficult to get them off the undersides of savoy leaves.

I wouldn't worry too much about the ones that have got indoors - just swat the ones that you see.

 

Now I use enviromesh on cabbage, cauli and sprouts I've hardly ever found whitefly on them.
In my greenhouse and polytunnel I use yellow sticky traps - lots of them - and judging by the number of flies caught, they work fairly well. They are not 100% successful, but any whitefly I find on the plants get blasted off with a jet up water from a pump-up hand sprayer.

 

Sprayed on soapy water works after a fashion but you have to be persistent, spraying with chemicals doesn't seem to make much difference but I'd rather not with food crops. I usually just wash the blighters off outside and cook whats left with the cabbage. Hasn'T done us any harm yet!