In article , Phil L
writes
Kay wrote:
:: In article , Phil
:: L writes
::: ...in my front garden, literally hundreds of them...is there any
::: point in trying to introduce them to my whitefly in the
::: greenhouse?
::
:: I don't know that they eat whitefly, but no harm in trying.
::
::: Will LB's live in a greenhouse?
::
:: In theory they will. Suppliers of biological controls will sell you
:: ladybird larvae. Keep the windows shut until they've laid eggs else
:: they'll just fly away if they don't like it.
::
I've put one onto an infested plant to try, it didn't seem too interested
though...

It's mainly the larvae that eat aphids, so I wouldn't expect an adult to
eat whitefly.

::: and more to the point, will they eat
::: whitefly?...I've lost half a dozen fuchsia cuttings and a few
::: chilli plants inside a week to whitefly,
::
:: Really? I get heavy infestations, but they seem to do less damage
:: than, say, red spider or even aphids.
::
Upon closer inspection, they may be greenfly or aphids (I'm not too well up
on insect identification)

Greenfly/aphids - round, green or pale brown, typically all round the
newest stems and the freshest buds. Dehydrate the plant and can kill
very easily. Will drop to the ground if you disturb them enough.

Whitefly - little white triangles on the underneath of the leaf. Fly up
in clouds if disturbed.


What brought my attention to them in the first place was hundreds of what I
thought were dead ones on the compost underneath the infected leaves....I
think these may be egg casings or similar but the actual insects themselves
don't look white, they have a green tinge to them.

Aphids.
They definitely are the food of ladybird larvae.

meanwhile, try running finger and thumb up the tips of the plant where
they're thickest - that will get rid of a lot. Then tap the tips of the
plant sharply over your open palm, a lot more will fall off, and you can
then just rub your hands together. They're about 99 per cent water so
it's nowhere near as messy as it sounds.


:: Are you sure you don't have a red spider infestation as well as the
:: whitefly?
::

no red spiders, there are one or two minute spiders who have built webs
amongst the plantpots, but I'm leaving these in as they are catching the
flies as they fall off the plant.

Sensible.

red spider is the colloquial name for red spider mite. Little brownish
things almost too small to see. You notice first a mottling of the
leaves as if scattered with pepper, and what looks like white dust
underneath the leaf. Later you will see their webs, quite fine and
dense, around the growing tips - not like spider webs which are coraser
and singly across bigger gaps between stems.

:: have you tried the yellow sticky fly papers? And butterwort
:: (insectivorous plant) seem to like them.
::

I've not tried anything apart from marigolds...where do you get that yellow
sticky stuff from? - what's it called?

No idea! You can get boxes of them from garden centres. But since you
seem to have aphids rather than whitefly, no need to worry.



--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"