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The warm weather always brings on the bugs. Right now it seems whitefly are all the go.
Tiny clouds of them rise when you disturb carrot leaves or any pumpkins or melon leaves
and even stinging nettles!
While you can spray insecticide until you are blue in the face, their life cycle is so
short, they rapidly re-infest, so a more permanent and safer tact is required. I use the
yellow sticky Trappit™ lures, with great success. There is a water resistant sticky
coat to them that they love to get close to, much to their own peril.
There is a blue sticky trap also marketed by Trappit™, that is very effective for
attracting aphids too, but It seems to be used more by professional IPM growers than home
gardeners. Both seem not to attract too many off target insects too which is very
reassuring.
Sorry IPM= Integrated Pest Management which is a way orchardists and vegetable growers
are increasingly trying to cut down on their use of insecticides, by using predatory
insects to eat the villains. "Off target" refers to the goodies in the garden,
you know the Mantids, Wasps, Lacewings and Ladybirds that all eat Aphids or Thrips and
assist with control. Blanket spray with any insecticide and they go too!
You might ask why all the concern over controlling whitefly and aphids anyhow? Well they
are sap suckers and when they suck your plants’ sap, they spread viral diseases, sort
of like the way HIV spreads, but not nearly as dangerous.
Now that nights are getting warmer too, it’s time to mulch those annual garden
beds, with any organic material that you favour. Use pea straw on flowers and vegetables
that favour warm soil and lower humidity.
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