Home
 
 
Stargazer
21 April 2009 @ 11:16 pm
I think whiteflies have attacked my seedlings. :(

I wintered over a pepper plant.  When I moved it outside this weekend, I noticed a bunch of little white flecks of something around the area where the pot was.  I didn't think much of it.

About two feet away, my vegetable seedings are on shelves next to a window.  Tonight I noticed that some of the cilantro, parsley, leek, and pepper seedlings are starting to look rather unhappy.  The leaves of the cilantro and parsley are getting pale, and they have very pale spots on the leaves.  The leeks are just droopy - so maybe they have another issue going on.  The peppers also have the pale spots, but their overall color looks OK.  

After running a few internet searches, I found a picture of the litle white specks that were apparently living on the overwintered pepper.  They were identified as whiteflies.  

The overwintered pepper is now outside.  It's not coming back in.  

I guess tomorrow I need to go look for whitefly traps.  I read somewhere about spraying infected plants with neem oil or diluted soap.  I'm a bit wary of this - they're just seedlings!  But if the bugs don't go, the plants will probably die since they cause leaf loss, and seedlings don't have many leaves to lose.

*sigh*

It's late, I guess I'll sleep on it.
Tags:
 
 
Current Mood: sad