Dr. Who
Well-Known Member
Yup! I screwed the pooch on that one DB!sorry doc but the leaf pictured was covered with aphids not whitefly...females and males look different. Juveniles and adults look different...here's a diagram....
the whitefly looking thing is actually a male aphid. The black scale like insect on the same leaf is also an aphid.
Aphids are some of the easiest insects to eradicate. In IPM (Integrated Pest Management) we don't use the most toxic measure and work our way to the least toxic one, its the other way around...use the insecticidal soap first then the oil sprays and never use imidicloprid on a crop that you plan on ingesting and shouldn't be used indoors anyway. Read the label. Its a systemic so its drenched into the soil and taken up through the plants vascular system. I have never sprayed imidicloprid and had a sprayers license for 4yrs in PA.
First thing to do OP is use a garden hose and knock those guys off, its pretty easy. Do it every day for about a week. That way any eggs that remain will hatch and be knocked off when they hatch You can also use alcohol pads and just wipe down the leaves since you said you only had a few leaves infected anyway...you'll find piercing and sucking insects at the tops of the plant most bc the soft leaf tissue is easier for them to get their mouth parts into. Oil sprays like Neem or whatever hort oil you're using work well but don't work on eggs.. Spray in the morning outdoors and in temps lower than 90F. The rate should be about 1% oil to 99% water unless its premixed.
Pyrethrin comes from the Chrysanthemum flower and is safe to use on Cannabis and indoors as well.
Here's a pic of whiteflies...you can see that the whitefly pictured and the white male aphid in the OP's pic are pretty different.
Hope that helps.
Two of the few things I have yet TO get! (knocking wood as we speak).....Even the farm has been trouble free of any big aphid attack now for around 10+ years....Last time it was aphids on Brussels sprouts and we cleared the infected by pulling and burning...lucky it did not spread.....lost about a 1/4 acre.