Whiteflies on houseplants

HELP!!!!! I just noticed whitleflies on some plants that I brought indoors for winter. My plants have been in since the end of Oct and I haven't seen anything until now. One is a petunia, any ideas on how to get rid of them and will they spread to other plants?

Thanks,
Susan

Whiteflies kind of go anywhere. Is there any chance you could take your infested plants outside on a nice day and spray them with horticultural oil before bringing them back inside? Another possibility is to water them with a dilution of Imidacloprid. It is a systemic insecticide that has low mammalian toxicity.

Thanks for the info. It looks like it will be the weekend before temps are above the 40's. We still have snow on the ground in some spots :) I will try your suggestions though.

Thanks again,
Susan

I just read that Imidacloprid is very close in structure to nicotine. That explains why my sister has for years bought cigarettes solely to spread the nicotine around the base of her houseplants. It certainly is a fascinating chemical..... I have a number of victims on which to test it!
Thanks for the info!

Nicotine is one of the most lethal poisons known.

I would be careful using cigarettes because of mosaic disease. If you just brought your plants inside in fall then they are probably soybean whitefly, fairly easy to control but there are greenhouse, silverside,biotype b,biotype q all with varying resistance to imidacloprid (Marthon). I would cut back as much foliage you can handle and use oil every week for three weeks to get them from egg to adult. We use Safari, Tristar, Botanigard, beneficials/biologicals in our greenhouses but this might not feasible for you.

Hi, I also have an infestaton of white flies on my 2 huge Hybiscus plants that are stored in my basement under floresent lightning. I have tried Safer's insectesidal soap and Safer's End All solution on a daily basis, which did not do much to the bugs, they kept muliplying. Then, I took my solution and added a bit of oil and garlic, which reduced the population, but I've now noticed that the leaves are drooping and lifeless. We are Zone 5 here, and still winter, so I cannot bring the plant outside because of the freezing weather... Does anyone have any other advise. There are certain insecticidal products that we can no longer purchase in Quebec. HELP!!!

Your best bet is horticultural oil. I have read studies that show it is the most effective product in dealing with whiteflies - it suffocates the larval stage, and the adult whiteflies (that fly off when you start spraying) return to the plant and get stuck in it.

Can you buy imidacloprid? I would use that as a secondary aid, because it takes awhile for it to be taken up by the plant and to start killing off the whitflies. But it would get any stragglers. Water it into the soil.