As you walk through your garden, admiring the bright flowers and productive vegetables, a cloud of white insects flutters up from the leaves of a plant as you brush past.
Upon taking a closer look, you notice the leaves are speckled or turning yellow, and the plant looks like it’s shedding some leaves.
That’s why you’re here. You are worried those tiny flies might be affecting your plants, so you searched for “white flies,” and you found this article. Well, you are in the right place. Welcome!
We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission.
Whiteflies are notorious pests, with a taste for a wide variety of plants including common vegetables and ornamentals.
We’ve got everything you need to know about these insects covered below, from identification and biology to the control options that are available to you.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
What Are Whiteflies?Whiteflies are not true flies. Instead, they are in the Hemiptera order, related to aphids and mealybugs, and make up the Aleyrodidae family. There are 1,500 known species worldwide.
Thanks to the adults’ tendency to flutter up in a white cloud when disturbed, these are some of the more easily noticed and recognized pests out there.
Pests in the immature and adult stages are sap suckers, using their needle-like mouthparts to pierce plant tissue and sip the plants’ food, including the sugary products of photosynthesis, from the phloem.
They prefer to feed and reproduce on the underside of leaves.
Feeding causes speckling, bleached and yellow leaves, and eventually necrosis. This damage reduces plants’ photosynthetic capacity, weakening them and reducing yields.
Certain
Read more on gardenerspath.com