What is this and how can I get rid of it?

9 years ago

I have seen this on a lot of my hot peppers this past summer and still now. I think it is whitefly but I have tried spraying with water but there is so much of them I never see the problem go away. Can I use a systemic pesticide like Seven to kill these things before they kill my plants?

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Comments (12)

woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a
9 years ago
Looks like a major infestation of whitefly or scale. Systemic or broad spectrum pesticides are frowned upon since they also kill natural predators and it appears you're lacking those.

If it was my plant, I'd rub off as much as I could, blast with water a good 3 days in a row and then get on a very stringent regimen of neem oil.

In the meantime, you may want to research Integrated Pest Management(IPM), and seriously think about ordering some lacewing eggs/larvae. Multiple shipments may be necessary.

Good luck and keep us updated.

Kevin
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seysonn
9 years ago
First thing that crosses my mind is :
prune, bag, dispose off all those heavily infested leaves.

After that go ahead with the fight.
White flies have 3 stages of life. So killing them in one stage is not going to solve the problem.

Seysonn
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jean001a
9 years ago
Doesn't look like any sort of whitefly I know about. But I don't live in Florida either.

Because Florida has so much stuff & bugs the rest of us don't, I suggest you contact your county's Extension Service office.

Use the link below...

Once you find out what it is, please tell us so that it will help other gardenwebbers.

Here is a link that might be useful: locate your County's Extension Service office
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woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a
9 years ago
Jean: I have similar on my citrus trees and I took a leaf down to a nursery one time and they said whitefly. That's why I guessed whitefly.

Could it be the moltings of whitefly nymphs?

pkapeckopickldpepprz: I could be wrong now that jean has spoken. She's one of my go-to's for pest i.d. You might want to post the pic in the Garden Clinic forum. Rhizo1 is also a trusted member that knows her bugs.

Kevin
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seysonn
9 years ago
Most probably whitefly.

Here is a link that might be useful: Palm Beach County
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DMForcier
9 years ago
Initial diagnosis: Snow.

Second diagnosis: WTF?

Remove and dispose of heavily infested leaves.

Apply insecticidal soap. Apply lots of it from every angle.

You say that there are other plants infested as well? That is a problem.

Dennis

P.S. Do peppers get dandruff?

This post was edited by DMForcier on Thu, Nov 13, 14 at 13:57
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jean001a
9 years ago
Certainly looks like spiraling whitefly may be the culprits, what with all that debris they produce.

To slightly modify what I originally said: It's not a whitefly I know about.
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jean001a
9 years ago
Here's what UFL has to say about rugose spiraling whitefly
http://trec.ifas.ufl.edu/mannion/pdfs/Rugose%20spiraling%20whitefly.pdf

Here is a link that might be useful: UFL re rugose spiraling whitefly
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kclost
9 years ago
Damn!!! That's sickening....
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pkapeckopickldpepprz
Original Author
9 years ago
I have tried in the past when I saw this to spray with neem oil but everytime they are on multiple leaves the plant will die. I just had a beautiful 3 year old serrano/tabasco? hybrid that succumbed to this whitefly problem. I know you are supposed to wipe down / remove and then spray every leaf and stem where these whiteflies are but with a plant like my Serrano there would have to have been thousands of tiny leaves. Impossible to do every leaf every 2-3 days until they were gone and then hope they don't return from other plants or neighbors that have them as well. It is odd as this year I have seen these infestations around my area in many locations. Not sure why this year is worse than most. Also I do see lacewings but the whitefly seems to laugh at them as the lacewings arent putting a dent in the whitefly population. I also have citrus trees and these whitefly and blackfly are intertwined throughout those trees as well.
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pkapeckopickldpepprz
Original Author
9 years ago
My original picture above is from a job where I work and that is a tabasco pepper plant. On a completely opposite part of that 1 3/4 acre property there are Habanero plants that have it bad as well and they are outdoors so natural predators should be plenty. I remember years ago a Habanero plant that was inside the pool cage got it pretty bad and the plant died but I assumed it was because no natural predators able to get inside the screened lanai. This year is much worse than that.
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DMForcier
9 years ago
You will certainly have plenty of natural predators next year!

(Assuming that you don't employ the chemical equivalent of The Bomb this year.)

Good luck,

Dennis
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