Rid Your Garden of Whiteflies

If you’re sick and tired of fighting whiteflies in the flower garden, consider saying a prayer of thanksgiving because your whitefly problems are going up in smoke. Really! Let's’explain.

A decade ago, we tested a professional insecticide from Bayer (then called Mobay). It was phenomenal. We had large plantings of marigolds and hibiscus, but one application of the product stopped whiteflies like an atom bomb. Even weeks and months later, the single application served notice to whiteflies they were no longer welcome. They never returned.

In conversations with professionals at the company, we asked when they were going to register the product for L&G use (meaning, for homeowners). Nothing happened as the years passed. Somebody at the company saw the light in the past year and started registering the insecticide with EPA. Today, that product is available to you, the same product we used a decade ago to put the whammy on whiteflies.

The product you want for almost total bug control on bedding plants is Bayer’s Advanced Spray for insects. It’s available as a ready-to-use spray, also as a liquid concentrate you mix on your own.

Behind the label is a name you’ve never heard, much less can pronounce. It’s Cyfluthrin, pronounced "sigh-flue-thrin." The common name of the product is "Tempo," and this is the very product we used so long ago to rid whiteflies on bedding plants.

If you buy the liquid concentrate, mix only a few ounces in a hand-held sprayer (like the kind used to spray windows). Spray hibiscus, marigolds and other bedding plants lightly in mid-morning, not later on. Remember, bugs are after the sugar in your plants, so they’re feeding soon after sunrise until shortly before the noon hour. This Cyfluthrin (Tempo) is a contact insecticide, meaning that it only kills insects when it contacts their body. Besides, you only want to spray when temperatures are below 80 degrees; if you spray later in the day, expect to see damaged or twisted leaves two days later.

Finally, liberal sprays work best of all. If you don’t spray well, bugs will continue killing your plants.