Home and Garden center

[Randi]

Hello....

I am seeing tiny (around 2mm) white flies on my morning glory vines. They appear to be sucking the sap and slowly turning the leaves yellow.

Any idea what they are and how to get rid of them?

Thanks!

[Michael]

Not a clue. Sorry...

[arboggs]

I'm not sure exactly what they are, but I've fought them off a climbing rose with neem oil. You can get a spray bottle of it at the hardware store.

[Randi]

Thanks!
I looked at neem in wiki and it mentioned a number of insects that it fights.
One is whiteflies. That appears to be what I have.

[leelaht]

A coworker swears by neem for every bad plant bug. I haven't used it myself, let us know how it works.

[Maikel]

If it's whiteflies, you're in a spot of bother.
Whiteflies are resistant to almost all chemical pesticides.
You can try special sticky pads, available in most garden centres.
The flies are supposedly attracted by the yellow colour.

It didn't work for me, though.
I ended up stripping all leaves of my infested plant (a red pepper).
If you look carefully you can see the eggs, tiny white dots, on leaves.
Now I can keep it under control by daily checking the regrown leaves and manually kill any whitefly I see.
But if I skip a day or two, the number of flies seems to grow exponentially.

[jil]

There is also a biological control, tiny parasitic wasps, but I think that works best if you're growing in an enclosed space like a glasshouse (so your wasps don't escape!).

https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/glasshouse-whitefly

[Morgan]

White Flies are a terrible nuisance. I can't help more than than the others have already. But since you started this page, I will take advantage. I have come into some Norfolk Pine seeds. More than I will be able to care for. Contact me if you'd like some, no guarantee they will grow- but your chances have got to be better than mine. I don't know the rules about sending them to other countries- we may have to work that out.
Morgan

[Randi]

Oh dear

These are morning glory vines where I can't even reach some of the leaves.

[Morgan]

Good news, Bad news. I have early spring bulbs, Hyacinth and paper whites. I dug them up split them and replanted in the fall. This year they are as much as 3 weeks early blooming. Just wondering if this is global warming or has to do with replanting them.

[Randi]

Or both.

[Randi]

According to the New York Times article "Those Window Stickers to Prevent Bird Strikes? There’s a Catch."

A thump on the window, if you’re around to hear it. A dead songbird below. Many people seek to prevent this sorrowful scenario by warning birds away with decals or film applied to windows of homes and office buildings. But there’s a big catch, a new study suggests: These products only work if affixed to the outside of the glass.
...
Well-intentioned consumers can fall into other ineffective approaches, for example sticking one or two bird-of-prey silhouettes to a window, even on the outside. Birds don’t recognize the shapes as predators, experts say, and might simply try to fly around them, hitting another part of the glass. The American Bird Conservancy, a nonprofit group, has reviewed about 200 window materials and treatments for bird safety, mostly types of glass for new construction but also films, decals and others.

[Randi]

FYI from the New York Times:

Bug zappers kill bugs by the thousands. But there’s a problem: They kill the wrong ones.

While they may help to clear your air of flying pests, bug zappers’ indiscriminate slaughter can disrupt pollination (think of the bees!) and generally throw the environment out of balance. Plus, the force of their electrocution can spew a mist of bug parts out into the air.

[arboggs]

To all my fellow gardeners in the U.S., the Plant Hardiness Zone Map has been updated this year to account for climate change:



Further information HERE

[Randi]