Are you finding a lot of strange-looking white fur on the bottom-side of leaves in your garden? The spiral white fly is here and it's not going away!
Keep an eye out for white spirals and a build-up of a white, waxy substance on the underside of leaves. This coats the eggs and immature whiteflies. If populations build-up greatly, infested plants can become covered with the white, waxy substance. This can sometimes become weakened and also be disfigured by the black sooty mold that grows on the insect’s excrement (referred to as honeydew). The sticky honeydew can accumulate on cars, pool decks and patio furniture from infested trees overhead.
Almost nothing in our landscape is safe. Spiral whitefly (sometimes also called gumbo limbo white fly) seems to like about everything, including:
- gumbo limbo
- banana
- black olive
- mango
- palms
- live oak
- and other plants
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| Spiral whitefly on a palm tree |
They can cause plant decline such as yellowing, leaf drop or stunting because they suck nutrients from the leaves, but they don't appear to be killing plants. But in my experience they can set the plant back in growth & appearance.
As always, the university of Florida is a great resource for finding a solution to the problem. This factsheet includes a recommendation of treatments, including spraying with water and soap for smaller plants and systemic treatment for trees and large shrubs.
This is personal. The spiral whitefly have invaded my yard and i'm not going to take it anymore! They love my night-blooming jasmine--but not as much as I do! I'll let you know how it goes.
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