Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

what method can i use to reduce or eliminate population of white flies cause tomato leaves are kinda not liking it

there was a thread about planting chives or something that tend to ward bugs off your plants. They call it companion planting or some such.
There was also a thread about worm leachate as a natural insecticide and fertiliser.
I hope that helps your searching

i've found the chilli garlic mix to be an old wives tail. tried it and never saw any evidence that it did anything.
i've heard similar with slugs and coffee, i also tried the beer trap with my slug problem and it did nothing.

the only thing's i've had success with have been pyrethium (no good for AP), milk for mildew and rhubarb spray (untested in ap yet).

The basic problem is that most organic remidies don't pack enough punch to take out the bugs.

the only thing that I have had to use so far as a little bit if diipel - had no other bug problems

I made a tea from the hottest cyan pepper I could get then with a drop of dish soap and few drops of olive oil. Strained and sprayed, it was able to drive off worms. My version of that expensive hot pepper wax they sell.

how about a predator?
you would need to know what type the flies in question are:

Trialeurodes vaporariorum or Bemisia tabaci (greenhouse or citrus)

It is simple to distinguish the two whitefly species from each other. Trialeurodes adults rest with their wings folded over the body and completely covering it. They have a triangular outline. Bemisia adults hold the wings at the side of the body, and the yellow of the body can be easily seen. They have a more rounded outline, and are smaller. Larvae of Trialeurodes are oval in shape,, and when nearly fully grown they become quite thickened, so that they have almost vertical sides. They are a translucent white in colour. Bemisia larvae are always flattened to the leaf, and the posterior end tends to be more pointed. They are normally a pale yellow colour.

Encarsia formosa is the predator of Trialeurodes vaporariorum

Eretmocerus eremicus targets Bemisia tabaci

Macrolophus caliginosus might work best with those toms

if the flies are already well established the predator probably won't reduce the population for you it is meant more of a preventative measure to keep the flies in check not actually eliminating them all after all the wasps need the flies in order to live.

this info from http://www.syngenta-bioline.co.uk/

http://www.syngenta-bioline.co.uk/

I have been trying to get Yates Dipel for a couple of weeks now.
Local hardware shops, B, plant nurseries and the like either don't have it or are out of stock. I nearly bought Yates "Success" today, which uses a natural ground dwelling bacteria, until I read about keeping the container and spray away from watercourses.

I will try again next week. The telephone saves a lot of driving time.

I have gone back to picking the looper caterpillars off the leaves. I reckon I get about 50% per day, hopefully more than are hatching (my catch is dropping, so either they are getting better at hiding, or I am in front).
I am getting a lot of wingless grasshoppers also. They all go into the pond for fish food.

Tony

Don't know if they stock anything else you might want... need a $50 order..... Perth based

What the heck... get 4 packets.....

http://www.gardenersdirect.com.au/comme ... id=Dipel01

How about yellow sticky traps?

great idea and you can make your own using tanglefoot tangle trap coating and some yellow or red or blue construction paper and a stake or piece of wire or string.

http://www.tanglefoot.com/products/ttcoating.htm
They had a list of nice website links dealing with pest management:
http://www.tanglefoot.com/links.htm

I looked high and low around here for yellow sticky traps last summer and couldn't find any. So I might order some of this for next season.