spiraling white fly. the regular ones are bad enough but this new spiraling one is horrid.

Look to your County Extension for treatment regimen. When I was doing that ride-along with the Lee County guy a few years ago-a great person BTW-we were looking at a number of species being affected by that thing. I'm sure they've got the best info on what to do.

+oM

Before you jump on the chemical bandwagon, try this:

1 gallon of water in a sprayer

add: 1 cup of garlic juice either from a jar of minced garlic or use 2 tablespoons of garlic powder, 1/2 a cup of liquid soap.

Mix well and spray the crap out of everything - top and bottom of the leaves. Give it a week and see what's still moving.

All materials listed in above post are "chemicals" including water. What people usually mean when they say chemicals is synthetic chemicals. And County Extension agents are as on top of relatively benign control regimens as anybody, more than most in Florida I'll wager, where heavy chemical use seems the norm. There was nothing in my above post-a simple bit of advice to seek counsel from experts-that should be construed as my advocating for heavy synthetic chemical use.

Or maybe that's not where you were going with that, Fawnridge! I'm in one of those moods, having just gotten unfairly maligned in "Container Gardening" by a sneaky, passive-aggressive repost to something I'd written earlier. My apologies if I'm off-base here.

+om

Tom - no, I wasn't responding to your post or maligning the use of chemicals. Trust me, there are times after spraying my garden that I shouldn't go in there without a hazmat suit. Unfortunately, my bug problems are way beyond the garlic and dish soap solution. But for small infestations, especially where there are edibles nearby or involved, I've seen it work and have gotten in the habit of recommending it as a first, non-poisonous shot.

By the way, this mixture was first taught to me by the local county AG agent.

I broke down and sprayed with some stuff I had forgotten i had bought for big ants (bull or carpenter) on the bush/mail box (nothing like fighting ants over the junk mail and bills).

I was thinking it was "ant" spray since that was why I bought it, but then I read the label and it said a bunch of bugs including white fly and mealybug,

I feel a little bad, I am guessing since the sprays can't keep the naughty bugs away forever then the good bugs should one day be back too.

It felt like things were just getting worse and worse, hoping to bring things under control and then keeping thing manageable with less heavy types of sprays/ DIY stuff.

Share you feelings, Tom with Container Gardening. I'm staying away from there. Nasty bunch.

Jane

Thanks Fawn...and yes, thanks too to you Jane! I'm out of there. As you sensed-and as so few others did-I was merely trying to offer another perspective (on a thread on Container Gardening forum), and one which has a ton and a half of backing in terms of my own work and experiences. I don't need the grief!

+oM