# My poor plants! D=



## Phantom (Apr 4, 2012)

I do not usually rant about things, but this is something that is definitely at the top of my list. I have several plants growing outside, a lemon tree, a chocolate mint plant, four black sapote trees, three ghost peppers, three trinidad scorpion peppers, and a pot of marigold flowers. The mint, lemon, marigold, and sapote trees are perfectly fine. It's the six pepper plants that have been a pain all summer. The ghost peppers are okay, but the trinidads are really a pain. I live in Florida where it's tropical 365 days year round. All of my plants grow really well, but my main issue is the spiral white fly. I've tried literally everything to get rid of it! I've washed all of the leaves with Dawn soap and water (it was recommended by a relative), I've tried using neem oil diluted with water so the leaves do not burn, and I even bought the marigolds hoping they would help. That white fly just will not give up! I do not under any circumstances want to use presticides because my plants produce edible foods. 

The ghost pepper for the main part is okay because they are not that inclined to go after it, but the trinidad is the worst. I think it might be because it is a hybrid. The trinidad would not be so bad if it actually produced peppers that are hot, but the white fly kills off the peppers before they even have a chance of getting some heat. I do not want to pick them off too early because they need to reach a good size first. 

The other main issue, besides the white fly sitting under all of the leaves and killing off the fruit is that it's killing off all of the flowers too! I've had my ghost peppers for almost a year, and my trinidads are about half a year old now. I thought they would not pick on them as much as they got older, but the white fly is still around. Just today I spent two hours washing all of the leaves from all six plants off, picking off dead leaves, spraying neem oil, and fertilizing each plant (I use organic fertilizer). I even put up two new sticky traps. 

Has anyone had any issues with the white fly, and does anyone have any ideas on what else I can do? This little insect drives me absolutely insane when it comes to my pepper plants! It kills everything, and there's really no point in growing pepper plants if they do not produce anything. I do not want to use pesticides because they produce peppers. There has to be something that works. >.<


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## mimsy (Jun 8, 2014)

homemade parasitical sprays only work if you spray from the bottom up, the flys are on the bottom of the leaves. Those also kill off beneficial insects.

Have you tried predatory insects? Parasitical wasps and lady bugs come to mind.


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## Phantom (Apr 4, 2012)

I do spray from the bottom up, and the neem oil does have a small effect, but it's not big enough. I actually had two Hunter Wasps coming around for a while, but they died when it rained really heavily a month or so ago. There were too many white flies for them to eat though. Lol. I was thinking about ladybugs, but I wasn't sure if they would survive the crazy rain weather that Florida's been getting recently.


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## mimsy (Jun 8, 2014)

If you get lady bugs or wasps, I'd drape some bug net over it for a while to keep them on the plants you want them to be.  Ya this is the t ime of year for you to get a ton of rain, I wonder if you put like a little wooden house (like you would use for rats, or smaller, like mice) in the pot if they would use it to get away from the rain.


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## Phantom (Apr 4, 2012)

All of my plants are actually in an indoor screen area so I'm not too worried about wasps or ladybugs getting out. =P
I was actually thinking about an asparagus plant because the leaves are so tiny and it's very bushy so they would have lots of hiding places. My marigolds are a pretty good shelter as well.


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