red fly?

hi all, just wondering if anyone can give me some advice on how to get rid of green house pests and if they do any harm. I grow chillies in my green house and they have been covered in white fly for a couple of weeks now. I was led to belive that they are harmless so left them to it. this morning i have discoverd green fly and something that looks like a green fly but is red, can't find any info on "red fly" on the net. will they do any damage to my chillies? I've heard that spraying water with a couple of drops of washing up liquid in will stop the green fly landing is this true, would it harm my crop in any way and will it also get rid of the other critters? Any sugestions would be appreciated, cheers. PT

 

Your red fly sounds like red spider mite RHS Horticultural advice

Spraying with a weak solution of washing up liquid or a neem oil based soap will clog up the beasties' breathing and effectively drown them but you have to keep on spraying every two or three weeks. You will also eliminate their natural predators though. A gentle soapy massage of unripened fruits and leaves will also help remove any honeydew residues and keep sooty mould at bay.

Chemical spays are available but again you eliminate the good guys and lot of pests have become resistant (especially white fly). Besides, chemicals upset some people round here and Hornbeam will probably be along soon to do an exorcisim :D

Too late to do any good now but you can look into companion planting and bio controls for next year

[ 16. October 2006, 03:41 PM: Message edited by: frogesque ]

 

Redspider mite is very nearly invisible to the naked eye. well it is to mine anyway.
If it looks like an aphid (greenfly) then thats probably what it is, they do vary in colour sometimes.

 

Agree with Pete. Aphids can look orange, yellow or red. Nothing like red spider mite

 

Cheers for the info guys. They do look like green fly and are the same size. I've given them a spray witih a weak solution of washing up liquid and picked afew off by hand. if i fail to get rid of the masses will they do any harm to my crop?

 

White fly and greenfly will suck sap from your plants and so weaken them. They can also spread viruses. The weak soap should work, but if not try some organic controls here:

http://www.greengardener.co.uk/aphidug.htm

 

If you have red spider mite you will also have a whitish/gold motling on the leaves and webbing. It is probably the red aphid, as previously mentioned red spider is barely visible to the untrained eye.

 

Did it look like this?

http://tinyurl.com/vsaet