Pest Control in our Greenhouse

Several years ago, we adopted some pest control practices that are minimizing the use chemical pesticides. We have begun to introduce predatory bugs that eat the pests that do harm to our plants. It's an interesting concept, since the predatory bugs don't feed on plant material, only on other bugs. Greenhouse whitefly is one insect that is extremely hard to control. It thrives on the bottom side of plant leaves and when we used spray, was very hard to get good coverage. However, the encarsia formosa that we release among the plants will search out whitefly even in the most difficult spots to get at. Fungus gnats live in the soil and multiply quickly in humid, moist conditions. The nematodes that are applied, work in the soil and feed on the little gnats & thrips before they become a problem. In either case, once the prey for either of these applications is depleted, the predator bug will die and your plants are bug-free.