"Penelope Periwinkle" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:51:19 -0500, "Marie Dodge"
wrote:


No one I know has ever seen such an infestation of whitefly and spider
mite,
including the extension agent.

Do they make dark shadows on your screens at night? Do you have
to wear a bandana when you're working in the garden to avoid
ingesting bunches of whiteflies with each breath?

Yes. I must use a bandanna not to inhale them. I haven't looked at the
window screens at night.

Do they make
pretty abstract patterns on the wall of the house where the
morning sun first hits? Cause, that's what it was like when I
moved into this house in June of 2001.

The type we have do not leave the plants.

Something was clearly out of whack with the food chain for such
an explosion of the white fly population. And...spit! thrips,
they were just not as obvious at first.

So, I started releasing lacewings. The yard was horribly
overgrown, so I also cut back or completely down shrubs and weedy
trees that looked like they were especially overwhelmed by the
whiteflies. I released some ladybugs, too, and the next spring
released more lacewings and ladybugs.

As I mentioned in another post. My ex-husband released these same
"beneficials" plus a third (I can't recall the 3rd one) in the old garden
where I used to live. In 48 hours we couldn't find one left! Not one, but
the pests were still there. And even back then they were expensive. How did
you keep them from flying away?

I talked to my neighbors
with varying success about not using broad spectrum pesticides,
and made sure they all knew what ladybug and lacewing larva
looked like. It took 2 years (and 3 summers) but things finally
swung back into better balance. I still get a whitefly outbreak
every summer, but I put yellow sticky traps out around the garden
for a little extra protection, and let nature take its course
elsewhere. Of course, I get all tingly and feel like an Uber
Garden Geek when I find ladybug eggs or lacewing larva on a plant
that has whitefly. I've been down right orgasmic over the
proliferation of squirrel treefrogs this year, too.

I'd like to know how you kept them in your garden. I know my ex-husband was
bitterly disappointed they were all gone in 2 or maybe 3 days leaving him
with a nice charge on his chargecard and the pests still there to deal with.
I'm not sure what all was infesting that garden but do remember the cucumber
beetles, root worms on the root crops, corn ear worms, SVBs, tomato horn
worms and something that about wiped out the asparagus as he waited for the
beneficials to arrive. He bought some pesticide from a local Co-op and
sprayed the garden several times.... but that was apparently before all
these insects and bugs developed immunity because it took care of the
problem quickly. I remember the corn, rootcrops and squash being a total
loss. He sprayed them too late but we did save the other crops.

The heat, low humidity and lack of rain is
certainly contributing to this infestation. In fact it's spreading across
the grass, other wild plants and the trees on the property around us. It's
spread to the flower beds. At this point trying to control the mite and
w/flies is a waste of time.

Yeah, we were in our fifth year of drought when I moved out here.
I'm sure that contributed to the pest explosion.

Something is, that's for sure. Oddly enough the two older gardens only have
whitefly and are still producing. The garden with the spider-mite and WF is
a total loss - and that's the new garden that laid fallow two years due to
my accident. It's never been sprayed with anything.



Penelope

--
You have proven yourself to be the most malicious,
classless person that I've encountered in years.
- "pointed"