Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all. I have thousands of these tiny little guys mostly over my kale and celery. When i shake the plant hundreds start flying around. Anyone know what it is and whether it is a problem? Doesn't seem to be eating much so not a problem as yet. I have ants crawling up into my system and who knows what they are harvesting in there..do you think the ants may be harvesting much like they do aphids? All comments are much appreciated.

You will have to zoom in on the image to see him in centre of the frame.

I think I had them... I think I have a slightly closer photo of them than that.

edit:
Here they are, look like these?

Whitefly.... Not nice, try yellow stick traps..

Great pic though Werdna..

so white fly is it? Hmmm ill try the sticky traps. Thanks guys. Know what they do to the plant? They don't seem to be eating it..just setting up shop there and I guess eventually flying off to explore the world?

They are sap suckers so damage isn't highly obvious straight away like caterpillar damage, but your plants will be suffering and not growing as well as they could. Plus they spread disease as well..

Thanks for the advice. Just read a wiki on them and will head down to get some yellow sticky traps. Thankfully kale are really strong at the moment so shouldn't be too disturbed until I can get rid of or control the little suckers!

Cheers EB

Mine seemed to be feeding on the algae my water pump was picking up that collected around the water outlets around the grow bed edges.

They eventually just dissappeared, however I had planted carrots, and they are supposed to attract lacewings...

Hi greenhorn, Agree with everyone above that they are whitefly. I have low level all year in my greenhouse and are well controlled by the yellow sticky traps. earlier this week I found some heavily infested leaves on the cucumber growing out of the greenhouse, so i put a couple of yellow traps in the vicinity. Within seconds there were whitefly on them and after an hour were covered in them. Now a few days later they don't catch many more as they are full and i will need to replace them. They are an outstanding product.

I have lost whole broccoli to whitefly before treatment. Ants farm them like aphids I think. Giving your plants a shake after putting out the sticky traps will speed up the process

If you live in Texas where would you buy them. I have never seen them for sale. We can buy fly sticky tape, but nothing yellow. Does the yellow color make that much diference. Thinks Jerry

Yellow trails have been alright but the best means I've found is the trusty dyson vacuum! With the small attaché,met on I've been sucking up thousands of the flys...trouble is the eggs remain so will have to find something for that...

Yellow traps

BYAP sell two types of these traps, one blue, one yellow. They are for different types of insects so it looks like the colors are important. They can be found in the BYAP online shop under accessories to see the brand to do a search of your local garden shops.

Just cut strips of poster board about 2" x 12", spray with adhesive (any kind that remains tacky ... such as the 3M stuff meant for auto headliners) and hang about 6" above the "soil" surface. You want them at about the same height as the leaves.

In my soil garden (just getting started on aquaponics as of last night) I stapled them to sticks. Might try punching a hole in them and adding a hanging string before spraying them for use in AP.

Probably cheaper than "store bought" and definitely easier to re-supply as needed.

As Greenhorn recommends, do a good job of vacuuming just before putting up whatever sticky traps you use. That should make the sticky traps last longer. .