On Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:58:24 EDT, ~ jan wrote:

The pest strip is in a plastic tent outside. I used it this spring on my
hibiscus tree that got white fly, and in the living room when the taro came
down with aphids, this keeps the flumes encased. Though when I took the
tent off I'm sure we were somewhat exposed till the room cleared of the
residual left behind. Didn't bother the plants at all, of course I wouldn't
do this if I had fish in the stock tank or patio pond.

The hibiscus had white fly so bad, I was hoping moving it outside would
blow them away. What it did was infect my whole yard. The hibiscus
continued to produce them and looked very sick. Tented it with strip and it
killed them all, 2 weeks apparently wasn't long enough as they started to
come back, so I used these new potted plant tabs with the long acting
systemic and that did them in finally. Course their kin by that time had
moved to the grass... and then found the tomatoes and cucumbers. Even using
harvest spray (like Safer's soap) didn't knock down the numbers. I still
got enough produce, but I wasn't sorry to see the freeze last night do them
all in! ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

Wow! Those are some persistent white flies. I control the ones I get
with an assortment of carnivorous plants I get from Logees.com. I get
butterworts, pitcher plants and sundews from them. I have some plants
that stay inside under grow lights year 'round. I used to get
predatory mites (they work good on spider mites) but the things are
just too darned expensive and when they do their job, they eat up all
their food and starve to death. The carnivorous plants eventually die
too, but I hope it's because they get too rich a diet from too many
bugs to eat (they bloom a lot, then seem sort of "overfed") and not
due to my (admittedly poor) care. The other thing I use is an
oscillating tower fan I got at Wal Mart. It has a "breeze" setting
where the fan oscillates, but only blows now and again, seemingly at
random. I set it in front of my plants for only a few hours each day.
It seems to disrupt the feeding cycle, the reproductive cycle, or
perhaps their sleep cycle, I don't know, but since I have been using
the fan I have been able to both prevent and cure infestations of
several types of critter. Oh yeah, I also use a "mist" type sprayer
device twice weekly.

Outside, the critters don't stand a chance. Considering the lizards
and frogs and praying mantises and stuff it must be tough just being a
bug here. And there is no relief in the air, either. I've got more
dragonflies than you can shake a stick at (by the way, just how many
dragonflies can you shake a stick at anyway?). I've talked about how
dragonflies will follow me around when I'm mowing with my tractor, but
I never realized how many there were around here 'till I started work
on the cabin by the back pond. I figured a swampy pond in northern
Florida would be just the ticket for mosquito infestation. I got
screening, bug repellant, etc. Turned out there was no need. I have
zero, I mean ZERO, mosquitoes down there. I didn't need any bug
repellant, and I didn't bother with the screens (except the ones that
came with the sliding glass doors, but that was just recently). What
I do have down there are oodles of dragonflies, and scads of
damselflies, though the damselflies are smaller and you don't notice
them at first. It isn't quite like clouds of dragonflies obscure the
sun, or even make it difficult to see across the pond, but there are,
quite literally, hundreds in sight at any given moment. They fly into
the cabin, fly around and check it out, and then fly out. They love
to fly in through the sliding door on the side and then out through
one of the ends of the cabin. They will alight on the floor, even on
my shoe. They seem to understand that while I'm a big critter, I pose
no threat to them and they're almost friendly. Of course I get some
enjoyment in pretending I have squadrons of fighter bugs to protect me
from those mean, nasty mosquitoes. Besides, they are incredible stunt
fliers: I have spent hours with binoculars just watching them fly,
and they never crash.