White flies - the good news and the bad

It looks like my battle with white flies is coming to an end much faster than I expected. After digging out the infested greater celandine, there were clouds of the little critters all over the garden, settling especially on the royal fern and the bleeding heart. So I sprayed them quite liberally with the all-purpose spray, expecting to have to do this repeatedly for a while to get rid of them. As it turns out, I can't find any more live ones to spray. Awww, shucks!

That is the good news. And now for the bad news:



The royal fern obviously resented being doused in the spray. I'll trim away the shrivelled leaves, but I doubt if there will be any permanent damage. It's probably going to look pretty rough for the rest of the season though.

The sensitive fern got a little spray on it too, and it is also looking a bit crispy, so this might be a generalized problem with ferns. In the future, I'll make sure that I don't spray ferns with the all-purpose spray. If need be, I'll do an experiment or two to find out which of the active ingredients they're objecting to - the mouthwash, the soap or the baking soda - so I'll know what I can safely use on them. I may not need to; I've never had a problem with ferns that required spraying before.

So any fans of the all-purpose spray, be warned. Keep it away from your ferns.

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Technorati tags: All-purpose spray, White flies, Royal fern