"Giles Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> queried thusly:
>My own solution for orchids? Build a greenhouse. But the above
>methods keep the garden reasonably pest-free. Now, if someone can
>suggest a remedy for giant white fly.....
When I was doing transgenic plant stuff, the geniuses in
charge decided that tomatoes were the ideal production crop. Then
they stuck the greenhouse in the middle of cotton fields, and
expected the mesh screens to keep out whitefly.
Well, the screens did a good enough job keeping them IN, I suppose.
Marathon (imidacloprid) was used on "bait" plants, as the
production plants could not be poisoned. Given the mobility of
whitefly, they'd draw from any plant they could, and the poisoned
control tomato plants were ideal as bait plants. Marathon is a
systemic pesticide, reducing exposure to the operator to very low levels.
This was combined with biological controls, including
Encarsia and Eretmocerus. Delphastus was also used; they're
fascinating little ladybugs that have a voracious appetite.
Cheers,
-AJHicks
Chandler, AZ
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