Controlling Whitefly on Citrus

[pogrmman]

Hi y’all!
Last year, I had some pretty awful whitefly issues on my citrus and chiles. A bunch of my chiles got all virus from it. I attributed it to the super mild winter last year.

This year’s winter is shaping up to be even more mild, and I noticed a ton of the scale-like nymphs on my baby citrus plants. It’s caused them to get sooty mold, and on my mandarins, the mold is so bad some leaves are black. The citrus are mostly just cuttings or seedlings that are still quite small.

Do any of y’all have tips for the best way to kill off these nymphs before they hatch out into a massive problem this growing season? Last year, neem didn’t seem to do anything to the nymphs (although it worked on the adults).

Thanks!

[Hillbillyhort]

Many of the white flys around these days seem resistant to about all chemical control.
About the only thing I have found that works well is....
Water !
A VERY forceful spay on the underside of the leaves , on a weekly routine, will keep them at bay.
A summer type horticultural oil may also work

[alanmercieca]

Flypaper aka fly ribbon is the only thing that I have found to stop them.

[pogrmman]

Flypaper aka fly ribbon is the only thing that I have found to stop them.

I figured I might just have to do this. Unfortunately, they’re not just on my citrus. I know my big sweet viburnum hedge has them, and I just saw that a huge wax-leaf ligustrum tree is absolutely loaded in nymphs!

My citrus are just a drop in the bucket compared to those two.

In good news, although the adults are starting to hatch, I did see some sort of predatory insect larva attacking the sessile nymphs on one of my grapefruit.