Though not technically an insecticide, I use a low dosage of Bonide's All Season's Horticultural Spray Oil for Aphids and Spider mites which are common in my area. They work by smothering the insects and are very safe as they are usually some kind of petroleum based oil. They are effective against white flies in their immature state. i buy it at a reputable local nursery and they have some highly experienced people who recommended this product.
Some people I know use Fish Emulsion in a dilute dose as a spray for these insects. I do not like my fruit to smell of fish, so I don't use it.
So, if your pest level is low, you can get away without using insecticides. I am not an expert, this is just what I do for my two dozen fruit trees. I am sure that there are more experienced people in this forum who would chime in with more information. Good luck.
PS: I love seeing your posts about your new trees - I am "expanding" my orchard this season with about 10 trees too.

Thank you ashleysf. I just ordered some Tree Tanglefoot and will pick up some Bonide locally. I have enjoyed your posts too and think your yard looks lovely.

If you get sick of tangletrap, ant stakes at the base of trees is a lot easier, and because it's a bait, the ideal way to poison insects. Only the target gets hit and the poison is not spread.

You are wise to focus on the ants- where I am predators get aphids under control pretty quickly if ants are excluded except on cherries. However, aphids rarely cause any significant damage to established trees. Slowing growth in mid-season can actually be helpful.

I'm curious how you could ever have a problem with whitefly in your climate- here they only appear during periods of incessant rain. You're not over fertilizing or over watering your trees, are you?

Hi harvestman, no I'm not over watering or over fertilizing. In fact so far this year I'm hardly watering at all. Some years we get a lot more rain than others and we get monsoon rains practically every summer. During the monsoons our typically low humidity can jump to 100% for weeks at a time if we get back to back monsoons. In such years we can have massive whitefly infestations.

With all the rain we have been having this year I have gnats in my potted trees. This is the first year I have had a gnat problem and as I said I have not been watering.

I have already purchased the Tanglefoot. I have tried ant baits before that did not seem to help much. Is there an ant bait you recommend?

Sorry, thought the AZ was for Arizona. I just use ortho stakes. You have to be sure that bait is for sugar eaters and I can't imagine why they wouldn't work unless poison is being washed out, in which case an improvised shelter would do the trick. Tangletrap is a nightmare. Cheapest from Great Lakes IPM.

lol harvestman. AZ is for Arizona and in the ten years I have been here we have had major whitefly infestations three of those years.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Arizona

Thisisme,

Am I reading that link right? Average three month monsoon (July, Aug, Sept) rainfall is 2.45 inches? I'm laughing, that's not a monsoon, that's a drought. Even the heaviest monsoon on record - 9.38" for three months, is funny. I guess it's all relative.

Olpea

P.S. Try to stay afloat this monsoon season :-)

Olpea those statistics only run up to 1992. We have broken all records for rainfall several times since then and this winter we broke the record for rainfall too.

Our high humidity point today was 82% and we are expecting more rain Saturday.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mesa, AZ weather

I'm still laughing (all in good fun). Just a little humorous that Arizonians view their rainfall as a monsoon. According to the Mesa AR weather archive, the heaviest annual rainfall since 1992 is 15" (2008). We'd be screaming for rain if it was ever that dry here.

Without looking it up, I believe last year we were above 50", which is somewhat higher than normal, but by no means a record.

I'm also wondering about why whitefly would be such an issue there. Maybe it is the higher temps. We had 25" of precip during one August alone and on that month a 90% humidity would have been a relief.

At least now I now why John Mcain is one of the few Republicans to believe in human made climate change. I lived in AZ in the late '50s to early 60's and any significant rain then felt miraculous.

We are getting hit by the tail end of all these storms that have been hitting California. I'm tired of all the rain. I keep asking my wife and kids... "Is this really Arizona?"

There is little safer than horticultural soap (pardon the pun), but it too smells a bit.

I get white flies on potted citrus and Japanese persimmons and am going to try a trick I once read about. White flies are said to be attracted to the color of manilia paper. It is said that if you spray the paper with an adhesive and hold it up as you shake the tree (bush sized) to scatter the white flies that a good proportion will re-alight instead onto the paper and be stuck.

We will see.