Black worm castings and other organic soil amendments such as, vermaplex, black sea kelp, coral calcium, hydrolyzed fish, or liquid humate plus, helps home gardeners and farmers alike. This time of year they both spend time battling off the Whitefly. These pesky insects can plaque fruits, vegetables, and flowering plants with diseases that eventually shut down photosynthesis and kill the plant.
How do you know if you have whiteflies?
You can see these small white moth like flies around your plants. If you brush over the leaves, they fly away.
There will be a white chalky material on the underside of the leaves
The plant’s health is declining
The plant can be covered with a sooty mold
You notice ants on the plants
“Whitefly have a straw like mouth part that they insert into the plant and draw out sap. The Whitefly does not use the sugar from the plant, so it is passed out in it’s waste. This sugary waste attracts ants, hence the spotting of ants as sign. Whitefly typically do not cause the plant to die, it’s the secondary infection that gets them. The Whitefly can carry diseases that can be transmitted to the plant and if that doesn’t happen then the sugar left on the leaves will start to form Sooty Mold. Sooty Mold is a black colored mold that accumulates on the leaves surface. The abundance of the mold will shut down photosynthesis and ultimately kill the plant,” explains an article in CBS12.
The easiest way to treat whiteflies and other insects is with organic black worm castings. These castings contain bacteria and fungus. Most insects, including the whitefly have an exoskeleton made of chitin. The bacteria found in black castings eat the chitin.
So, when black worm castings are applied to the soil, the plants soak up the leachate from the castings. They become apart of the plant, the next time a whitefly or other insect feeds on the plant, they fly away because they sense the bacteria in the plant.