Whitefly?

Pic #1

Pic #2

Hello Donna, a little bit more information please if possible. Were those photos taken recently in this rainy weather we've been having? What kind of a plant is that? Would you be able to take photos of the undersides of the leaves please and more photos of crotches and maybe a close up of the leaf in the second photo in the lower left hand corner? I suppose that could be a secondary fungal infection from Whiteflies but my initial thoughts are maybe Sclerotinia minor which affects a lot more species than what people think.

These pics were taken today. Here in FL... I've seen the same thing in my green house on good plant material recently but treated with Sevin and it went away. This plant is a pothos aka devils ivy. Sits on my front porch. I can get more photos if needed. The white stuff flies all over when the least bit disturbed.... like dust or something.

Thanks,
Donna

I have been fighting whitefly for years and years. Sometimes I think I have reduced their numbers and then again NOT. I will be watching this thread for any advice to get rid of these things.

Susan
=^..^=

Sevin is kind of intense. You might want to wait until somebody comes along and says they are pretty sure they know what it is that you have. Sevin is an insecticide and I am thinking what you have may or may not be insect damage. It could very well be secondary damage to an insect and whiteflies are notorious for spreading around viruses and bacterial infections but I'm not too sure I'm even on the right track to what you have.

Here's an interesting link-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitefly

This is what a whitefly looks like for the most part but there are a bunch of them out there-
http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/SEM/pages/marina/whitefly.jpg

And here's a decent photo I found of some whitefly nymphs on the underside of a leaf-
http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/SEM/pages/marina/whitefly.jpg

And here's a photo I found of Sclerotinia minor-
http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/pp728/S_minor/Sclerotinia_minor.html

Equilibrium,

Just to clarify, the damage shown there, was there before the white things appeared. My fault :( .... but any how... I've seen the exact same stuff on some of my impatiens in the green house. I sprinkled a little Seven and whatever it was, was gone.

No, the plant kind of has been suffering from mostly neglect on my part. I planned to cut it all back in the spring. I have the same plant in other containers that are fine... so I wasn't worried about this one going down hill. Thing is it has grown a 10' long runner up the bamboo pole, over my railing and into my garden. So I was gonna leave it till spring. Just was wondering what that was on it. Just came within the last few days.... as I said... appears to be the same as I saw in my green house, in which the Sevin did take care of.

I do not use Sevin all the time... but in the case in the green house, I had no choice as I did not want it spreading to all my plants in there. This one, I have not treated. I always use Sevin as a last resort.

Thanks,
Donna

That doesn't look like whitefly or whitefly damage. In my experience with whiteflies, the damage does not alter the shape of the leaf . What you have kind of looks like a fungus. Here is a picture of whiteflies.

X

This message was edited Jan 7, 2007 1:05 PM

As I stated, the damage was not caused by whatever the white stuff is. It was caused by ME.... neglect. but other parts of the plant are thriving.

Those are fungal Myceliums. Which probably are only secondary to the problem. They may be the source though if your pot has a root fungus or root rot. The white flies that you see around may be the cause or they are only another secondary part to a root rot. Put a nice juicy spider in the plant and see if they get bigger = insect. Or if they leave viral/fungal.

Soferdig,

Well, I had the same thing occur on a perfeclty healthy impatien in my green house. I used Sevin and it all disappeared.

Donna

You will find on the parasites eliminated with the use of 'Sevin' fungus is included. I am sure they have included an antifungal in the ingredients as a preservative. http://www.bayercropscienceus.com/products/view:sevin/

Soferdig,

You are probably right. Thing is... the stuff blows right off and becomes air born. Is why I took immediate action in the green house.

Donna

I totally agree with Soferdig. That is fungal, and those white sprouts are the fruiting structures. Notice that it is on dead and/or dying material. That makes me think it may be decomposing fungi. I would remove the dead plant material, and wash off, spray, whatever, the rest of the plant to remove any spores, just in case it isn't merely decomposing. It is definitely not insects.

ceejaytown,

Yeah, but I've had it on perfectly healthy impatien plants as well... in a green house. It wasn't dieing or decaying plant materail there. I dusted with Sevin and it all disappeared.

Donna

Donna - I think maybe it looked similar, from memory, but there was something different about it that you might not have noticed. The impatien problem, in a green house, sounds very much like whitefly or possibly scale. You could even have been seeing the "sheds" of aphids. We'll never know now, but I would suggest that you go ahead and treat this as fungal, and if any turns up on live, healthy tissue, get a picture to us. I know that I would want to see it.

The link I posted was to mycelium of Sclerotinia minor. One of the common names of Sclerotinia minor is White Mold. I'm really thinking this is a fungal infection whether it is primary or secondary. The spores to Sclerotinia minor will blow right off. Actually, wind currents can send them airborn and onto other plants. This particular fungus can plague a considerable number of species with Impatiens being one of them.

White Flies could easily be spreading this if they are present but aphids could also as could any other number of pests but don't forget air currents being another transport mechanism.

You might want to consider removing all dead plant material as suggested by ceejaytown. If this were me, I'd probably stop using the sevin as that might be overkill right now. If this is S. minor, I believe it (like many others) resides in the soil which may mean you might have recurring issues. You could treat the plants with a fungicide that you are comfortable using given there's no definite that this is sclerotina but pretty much everyone is convinced it is fungal as opposed to bacterial. Maybe good old sulfur? Possibly the broad spectrum fungicide GreenCure? Safer has a copper fungicide out there that might be worth looking into. More isn't better with fungicides so see what the label says no matter what you use. If you are interested in trying sulfur, the one thing I'd say would be to only use it when you know temps won't go over 90F. Whatever you treat with, hold for a week or so and then disinfect your tools and pots before repotting all the plants into a new medium. This might just work regardless of whether you get an ID or not.

If I continued to get plagued by this, I'd probably bite the bullet and send it out to Cornell and pay their fee to have this cultured. If it did turn out to be a sclerotina, this is the route I would probably try to go-
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/biopesticides/ingredients/factsheets/factsheet_028836.htm
Non toxic.

I hate fungal infections.

They always make me want to pull my hair out. Best wishes to you what ever you decide is the best route to go but if you find something that worked will you please come back and share?

Or perhaps your County Extension Office can send it to whichever lab they use to ID (here in Texas they go to Texas A&M). Misting (or rain) is another mode of transportation from plant to plant. And fungal spores just love to settle in where plant tissue stays moist. Greenhouses are welcoming homes for insects and fungi.

Yeah, understood. I'll let you know what happens....

Donna

I've had occasional mold problems pop up in my greenhouse in the winter and I've had pretty good luck spraying the affected plants with a neem oil product (I use one called Garden Safe but there are others too), it's a little friendlier than some of the hard core fungicides out there (I don't know if my fungus was the same as yours though). I also try to be good about picking up spent flowers, leaves, etc that fall to the ground because that's usually where the fungal problems start, every time I've had an outbreak I always seem to find a moldy Hibiscus flower hiding somewhere!

What ever the problem the plants are stressed. I always treat my house plants with stress using compost tea. Once weekly for 3 weeks. I feel that it can provide the balance of soil, and resolve what the plant needs naturally. And I always remove any dead leaves asap. Oh I also vaccum off the top of the plant soil every few weeks to remove debris. Of course I replace the loss with compost.

Soferdig,

Tea? Please do explain further.

Thanks,
Donna

I always have a compost pile in the back yard and I take the "cooked" or finished pile and dump it in a pail and soak it for a couple of days. then I pour the pail through a sieve and use that to water my plants. This is great to establishing the bacteria/fungi, nitrogen, potassium, and many other essentials that the soil is lacking by using tap water and inorganic fertilizer. This also provides more acidity, a common need for indoor plants due to the salts that accumulate with miracle grow type fertilizers used instead of compost. Oh yes and Beethoven and Pucchini would help the plants attitude about life. LOL

Soferdig,

LOL... I heard plants prefer rock music!!

Donna