Tuesday, July 28, 2009

attack of the monster whitefly

I recently picked up a new houseplant. It's a jasmine or false jasmine - I can't recall what the lady told me at the store anymore. I picked it up from a greenhouse, somewhere I'd expect to get a very healthy plant. However, I noticed that it began to do poorly about two weeks after I brought it home.

At first I thought it just couldn't stand the heat in the apartment, or that it was getting too much sun. I didn't realize it was diseased! A few days ago, I noticed some small white fuzzy areas at the leaf nodes, and recoiled in horror. It's infected with greenhouse whitefly!

If anyone wants to make a really scary movie monster, they should think about basing it on the whitefly nymph. Those things give me the shivers.

I spent part of this evening attempting to eradicate the critters. It kind of looks like they've invaded my other plants, too.

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