I think my peppers have whitefly...

Just opened up the greenhouse this evening to water and check on things, and I noticed one of my sweet peppers has it's first open flower....
Unfortunately when I looked closer, I also saw a load of white specks on a few of the smaller leaves. I think they must be whitefly... hopefully I've caught it early (none of the other plants seem to have an infestation yet). I rubbed them off the leaves gently.
The plants are sat outside in the evening sun at the mo, hopefully the gentle wind might get rid of any left?

The beasties themselves are maybe less than half a millimetre and are clearly white insects of some sort. I also noticed a couple of greenfly living amongst them. I've taken a photo and I'll upload it shortly.

Are the plants going to be okay now, or should I be taking further steps?
Bear in mind I'm just dabbling in potted vegetables as my first attempt, so companion plants and other advanced methods are probably beyond me.

If it helps at all the greenhouse has been very humid recently and the leaves have been getting a bit wet. I don't know if that affects things but I may well ventilate a bit more from now on during the day. Also a few leaves have some holes in them where something has had a nibble, but I gather from searching that this won't be whitefly.

Thanks, and sorry for my gardening naievety! :o

 

Hello Canucks, yes it sounds as if you have whitefly in the greenhouse but don't panic, your plants won't die overnight. They are pests though and you should do something about it.

If you're not averse to using chemicals you can buy sprays in the garden centre, or you can buy sticky fly papers.

If you prefer more organic means grow some calendula (marigold) in the greehouse and some basil.
And see what other people think.

 

They are a hazard of greenhouse gardening :(

You can use parasitic bugs ("Encarsia" from memory) to control them (they lay their eggs in the larvae of the Whitefly I think)

Planting FRENCH Marigolds may help deter them (Whitefly don't like the scent)

Whitefly are difficult to kill with normal Bug-Spray because the larvae are not killed, and their reproduction cycle is very short.

Hopefully I've got that right!

 

" calendula"

I don't think it's Calendula - that's the English Marigold isn't it?

I think its Tagetes patula you need - the French Marigold

and I think the Single flower varieties are preferable to the Doubles

 

Just buy the right spray at The Gc and zap the little Buggas Works for me..

 

I've just nipped out to the garden centre to see what they have... to be honest I'm not averse to using sprays if there's no way around it. I've seen one called Provado that can be used on vegetables and it says it kills whitefly so I might give that a bash.

I'll get a few French Marigolds at the weekend too. I already grow Basil in the greenhouse although the plants are small just yet.

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. :thmb:

Oh and I found the culprit of the little holes.... a small baby snail attached to the bottom of a leaf. The pellets have been sprinkled now so hopefully that'll keep the slithery ******s off.

 

Those baby snails are sneaky little G**s Canucks, found one hiding between the glass and the frame yesterday Grrrrrrr
ps, im using Gfly Bfly Wfly spray from the £1 shop, And it Works

 

Also buy yourself some sticky paper.......sold in garden centres. You put them into the pots as instructed on the box and the flies of all sorts are attracted to the brilliant yellow where they get stuck and die. It's a good follow up to control things relatively well before trouble really starts.

I put in a couple sticky papers with my first seeding in the spring and keep them up to date and fresh throughout the gh months.

 

I found a organic soap based spray for aphids.
Works a treat.
I also use the sticky yollow papers.

 

Yup. Soap spray for me too. You can buy "Savona" concentrated soap through Amazon. Much cheaper in the long run than those ready to use hand squirters.