Whitefly
Tiny white moth-like insects that erupt in a cloud when you brush a leaf and coat plants in honeydew.
🔍 How to spot it
Brush the plant and a little cloud of minuscule white flies lifts off, then quickly resettles on the leaf undersides. There you will also find their pale, scale-like young and sticky honeydew. They favour soft-leaved plants and greenhouse crops.
💥 The damage it does
Both adults and young suck sap, weakening the plant and yellowing the leaves, while their honeydew grows sooty mould that blocks light. Large numbers can seriously check the growth of soft-leaved plants and vegetables.
🧴 How to treat it
Yellow sticky traps thin out the adults fast. Spray insecticidal soap or neem oil on the leaf undersides every few days to catch new hatchlings, since eggs resist a single treatment. A gentle vacuum of the flying adults in the morning, when they are sluggish, helps knock numbers down.
🛡️ How to prevent it
Inspect and quarantine new plants, especially soft-leaved ones and anything from a greenhouse. Hang a sticky trap as an early warning, and keep plants uncrowded so infestations do not jump between them.
🌿 Plants that get whitefly
Common on soft-leaved tropicals, fuchsias and greenhouse vegetables. These 11 profiled plants name them in their own troubleshooting notes:
Houseplants 4
Garden 6
Tea 1
Struggling to save a plant? The plant rescue guides walk through recovery step by step, and the problem solver works backwards from a symptom. This is general growing advice, not a diagnosis for a specific plant.