One of the most damaging insect pests seen on crops like Egg plants (brinjal), chilli, capsicum, tomato & leafy vegetables like amaranthus, spinach etc is the pesky white fly.
these white flies are very small & in most cases appear like flying power or dust when the plant is shaken or when watering is done. the chemical treatment is using systemic insecticides like dimethoate & malathion, which is simply toxic & very labour intensive.
a very simple method is by using sticky traps as seen below.
for the above trap, i took discarded cornflakes box & flattened them. then using scissors, i cut out the required amount of yellow plastic sheet (easily available in the market) and stapled it to the cardboard box as seen.then using a gun tacker i stapled it to a long stick as shown.
making it sticky : i then added 1 tiny spoon of used vegetable oil, and smeared the entire yellow sheet both front and back and planted it firmly in my brinjal garden.
the next day, i could see thousands of tiny white spots all spread over the sticky trap. (click on photo to enlarge)
my first impression was , it could have been dust. but on a closer look, it turned out to be the pesky white fly which got caught in the sticky trap & choked to death.(click on photo to enlarge)
the above pic shows an area of about 2 sq inches. (click on photo to enlarge)why yellow plastic is used? - thats because insects have a special liking to the color yellow. it distracts them from the main plants & turns their attention to a nice big bright yellow death trap, kinda the same effect a light bulb has on night moths & night insects.
since the surface is sticky, the tiny feet & wings get & they die due to suffocation on the oily surface.
This is by far the best method in controlling white flies. its safe, non toxic, chemical & pesticide free & the yellow plastic sheet can be used for upto a month.
it can be re used by washing the sticky trap with soap water, and following the same methods as suggested above.
all content and photos by Pritham Dsouza
