Fixing the Whiteflies problem

Today I woke up bright and early so I could run into Bunnings as soon as they opened and find a solution for my whiteflies infestation. It has taken me a grand total of a week to do something about this extremely serious problem, which is very bad gardening behaviour. Things like this needs to be nipped in the bud quickly, do not wait!

The main reason for my procrastination is because I just didn't know what to do. I wanted to find a soluation that was free of pesticides and chemicals but the solutions I read online filled me with doubt. Dishwashing liquid mixed in with water? Yellow sticky traps? I didn't particularly want to run out and buy some ladybugs either.

So, with panicky thoughts of whiteflies clouding my mind, I went into Bunnings and asked for a pesticide to eradicate them all. I walked out with Hortico Insect Killer, which contains natural pyrethrum extracts. Hey, at least there's something natural in there right?

So here's how my lemon balm was looking:

Sad looking lemon balm plant

A ravaged leaf - and look at that sneaky bug in there!

Here is my mint plant:

Look at those black spots!

I did what I had to do... I cut off most of the leaves, scaling it way back so you can only see little shoots near the soil. This didn't bother me because I knew both lemon balm and mint plants would grow back very quickly. I then drenched both plants with the Insect Killer, careful to spray the underside of the leaves. Hopefully the job is done.

It bothers me that less than a month after I started on the project I ran for the pesticide option, even after reading that pesticides may not work on whiteflies, that's how stubborn these little buggers are! What bothers me even more that is that I used pesticides on edible plants. But, what's done is done and I'm just going to sit back and see how things turn out.