Today's title is a homage to one of our favorite cartoons: Avatar - The Last Airbender (highly recommended for both adults and kids). In this cartoon there are jings which represent options for directing your energy. There is positive, negative and neutral jing. Positive = advancing, progressing, attacking; Negative = retreating, evading; Neutral = not doing anything. A lot of times when gardening the best option is to do nothing. Just sit back and let nature take its course.
Remember those whiteflies we were battling (see Pests: Whiteflies)? Well, they're gone. How did we eradicate them you ask? To be honest we don't know. Here's what we tried. We bought some sticky traps and set them around our plants (negative jing). The traps caught every insect imaginable but very few whiteflies. We also tried to kill with our bare hands (oh, the humanity!) as many of the flies as we could find early in the morning when the flies are not very active (positive jing). None of these things were very effective. In the end we just let them be and nature took its course (neutral jing). We believe the whiteflies were eradicated by a combination of factors.
Biological: Spiders set-up shop where the whitefly population density was highest. They probably helped control the adult population.
Environmental: Temperatures dipped which normally results in less whiteflies. If true it means they might come back in spring or summer.
Luck: A highly likely candidate. Never underestimate the power of pure dumb luck.
So there you have it, our experience on how to control whiteflies. Do nothing and just enjoy your garden. Join us next time when we might actually do something.
Remember those whiteflies we were battling (see Pests: Whiteflies)? Well, they're gone. How did we eradicate them you ask? To be honest we don't know. Here's what we tried. We bought some sticky traps and set them around our plants (negative jing). The traps caught every insect imaginable but very few whiteflies. We also tried to kill with our bare hands (oh, the humanity!) as many of the flies as we could find early in the morning when the flies are not very active (positive jing). None of these things were very effective. In the end we just let them be and nature took its course (neutral jing). We believe the whiteflies were eradicated by a combination of factors.
Biological: Spiders set-up shop where the whitefly population density was highest. They probably helped control the adult population.
Environmental: Temperatures dipped which normally results in less whiteflies. If true it means they might come back in spring or summer.
Luck: A highly likely candidate. Never underestimate the power of pure dumb luck.
So there you have it, our experience on how to control whiteflies. Do nothing and just enjoy your garden. Join us next time when we might actually do something.
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