Getting rid of whiteflies parrot-safely?

Hi guys! We’re trying our hand at apartment gardening for Cairo. One of our young plants has got whiteflies on it unfortunately. We’re getting recommendations to just use chemicals and maybe some old wives tales.

Any way to safely treat it? It’s a candy cane pepper plant meant for Cairo to eat eventually, so I really want to make sure it’s safe. At the same time, the seeds we brought back from the US, so I really don’t want to lose the plant either

I know some of you are plant experts - hoping for parrot-oriented advice 🙏

Soapy water spray! Castile soap is fantastic for everything! Great veggie wash!
[ame="https://youtu.be/fWFy8_FNnSo"]Organic White Fly Control : How to get rid of Whiteflies - YouTube[/ame]

If Cairo won't fly into it, you could try this: [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMftYRNOPwk"]How To Build A Simple White Fly Trap And Identify White Flies - YouTube[/ame]

I am pretty sure Vaseline is safe as long as you don't use TONS and as long as the bird doesn't get into it. Veg oil is another thing that they will (reportedly) stick to--- It seems that they love anything yellow, so if it is yellow and sticky, they will probably be into it.

Going with David on this one, only because it's the only way I have ever done it and also the promenades of my many sources: Mrs Boats, Mother Boats and Grand Mother Boats. Plus its fits the old wives tales near perfectly.

Never tried the oil, but I must admit, I like the idea...

Ugh, whiteflies. When I was a tropical horticulturist I always hated dealing with them.

Let’s start with this: what plants are you growing? And what condition are you growing them? Indoors? Outdoors on patio? If indoors, Are they in front of window? What direction does the window face? Can you post photos of the growing area?

Essentially, you may not have to do any chemicals if part of the problem is cultural. If it’s not cultural and you do need chemicals, there are options available to you. But one step at a time in cases like this.

chris-md said:

Ugh, whiteflies. When I was a tropical horticulturist I always hated dealing with them.

Let’s start with this: what plants are you growing? And what condition are you growing them? Indoors? Outdoors on patio? If indoors, Are they in front of window? What direction does the window face? Can you post photos of the growing area?

Essentially, you may not have to do any chemicals if part of the problem is cultural. If it’s not cultural and you do need chemicals, there are options available to you. But one step at a time in cases like this.

Click to expand...

Ok, let me get you more detailed photos tomorrow (it's 2am here).

It's a candy cane pepper plant (not found in Singapore, but we brought back some veggies from the US and saved the seeds).

It was growing in small pot in the shade of a basil plant in our.... front yard? Easier you see photo bah


The photo is facing south. The basil plant is the big bush in the garden closest to the camera.

Here's the patient after we watered it:


And here are the whiteflies:




After hearing some local advice this evening, I wiped the leaves with alcohol swabs and made sure to wipe off the white stuff and black dots (the eggs from what I understand). After I wiped with alcohol swabs, I washed the leaves with water. Now we've quarantined it in our kitchen.

Our kitchen's windows face north-northeast-ish. Our neighbours in the back and quite close, so while we do get a lot of sunlight, it's mostly indirect. That being said, it used to be an outdoor kitchen, so the roof is metal and warms up very quickly. Hot and humid inside, maybe 30C with 80% humidity?

I just placed it in the kitchen this evening. I plan on keeping it out of direct sunlight and just continually checking it every morning and evening.


One thing to note - the other plants in the garden seem unaffected. The Asian basil is perfect, rosemary is small but healthy, and so are the medicinal plants (I can't get an English name for most of them, but one is a butterfly pea and one seemed to be a variation of amaranthus?) as well as the pomegranate tree. I've tried checking the garden next door (starfruit, jambu, aloe vera), and they're fine too.

Jeez, get some sleep!

The pictures are perfect. Helpful and revealing. But let me ask you two questions:

1) how many hours of DIRECT sunlight does this pepper plant see?
2) how long have you had this plant? Started from seed or bought as a young plant locally?

Tbh, I'm not sure about hours of direct sunlight, since my partner was taking care of it. He learned quickly that direct sunlight wilted the plant (Singaporean sun is insane - Cairo overheats on a sunny day within 5-10 minutes if he's in direct sunlight). If I had to guess, about 2 hours of direct sunlight, then indirect sunlight the rest of the day. And our days are perfectly 12 hours.

As for its original, we went to my hometown in OR and bought some veggies there, including candy cane peppers, to bring back for Cairo. They survived the flights. We kept the seeds and gave the rest of the peppers to Cairo. So not local at all.

My partner planted seed probably in late September and almost killed it a few times before I convinced him it doesn't need 12 hours of direct sunlight.. (the other seedlings turned to crisp - this one survived because it had a bit more shade originally).

Okie dokie, so they were started from seed and about 2 hours of light. Hard one because you are right, light is different.

Here’s the general idea, and you’ll need to work through it from here: peppers are wildly hardy plants. They will really only get whitefly if stresses beyond their limits. The fact that they are getting it so young so badly bodes poorly for the survival. Bad whitefly infestations can stunt a seedling and prevent it from maturing.

My gut is telling me you’ll have to throw it out. I’m betting your getting the whitefly precisely because it’s too far gone.

You can try to save it with a few plans of action:

1) Play with the light, either more or less - this is where I can’t help you, as I’ve only ever done gardening and horticulture in the great north here, so have no frame of reference for light tolerance of plants closer to equator.. Give less during midday and more in the morning or evening if possible.

2) neem oil - parrot safe treatment

3) dr. Bronners peppermint soap - parrot safe treatment. akin to the Castile soap David recommended above but with peppermint oil which is repellent to whitefly.

4) keep it evenly moist. Don’t stress it with dehydration.

5) plant it in the ground if possible. I believe these are perennials in the tropics. If that’s true, Growing in a pot should theoretically not be sufficient for it and stress it further in the long run.

6) yellow sticky traps - whitefly are attracted to yellow. So these are also parrot safe attractants to help control the population.

Thanks so much for this, Chris! I've fwded it to my partner, so we can put an action plan together.

Since removing them from the plant with alcohol and putting the plant in the kitchen, they haven't come back, and I haven't seen them on any other plant in the garden.


How long do you think we can hold off from planting it in the ground? I'm reading that some farmers recommend isolating plants for at least 1-2 weeks to let them become visible. But judging by the size of the plant, I'm tempted to plant it asap (it just seems too big for its roots to be comfortable in that tiny pot). TBH, growing up, we never used pots (just planted them straight into the ground), but my partner is a city boy, so it's hard for both of us to gauge.


In the meantime, I'll try to find neem oil, Castile soap, or Dr. Bronners peppermint soap somewhere locally to continue treating it while in the kitchen. Then I'll figure out a way to rig up some yellow stick traps where Cairo doesn't fly to (he loves going into the garden and trying to prune everything there).


There's already slight lightening on the leaves, so the plant clearly isn't doing well :/ Hopefully, it'll pull through! Thanks again

My pleasure, best of luck!

Ground is always preferable to pots. As soon as possible.