Hey All!
I have been growing tomatoes for 21 years and for the very first time I'm having problems with aphids and white flies on my plants. It started on one plant and has spread to many more of them. I have been trying multiple methods to get rid of them and none of them have worked. They keep returning within a day or 2 of treatments. I had to replace one plant early, because I hadn't recognized the issue yet. All other plants are otherwise very healthy and producing lots of fruit (all still green but producing strongly). Does anyone have an effective method for getting rid of aphids and white flies that actually works? Here's what I've tried so far:
Spray with neem every 3 days tops and bottoms of leaves and stems.
Spray with a mix of neem and Dr Bronners peppermint soap mixture every 2 days.
Spray with Dr Earth, Final Stop, every 3 days.
Spray with a strong stream of water every other day.
None of these methods has rid me of the aphids and white flies. They are gone after I spray, but quickly return. I'm trying to use only organic or natural methods. But I might have to try something stronger...as long as it's not unhealthy.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions that will help.
Best,
Don

You could give up on spraying and buy lacewing and lady bugs as predators.

I bought a pepper plant that had them on top,I decapitated the plant and ok now.
All the sprays were useless for me too,they just gargle with it.
Try a little fire scarecrow,those long butane lighters to dry roast them.

They are pesky buggers, for sure. On the OMRI side of things, I have used Mycotrol (Botanigard; Beauveria bassiana)--seems to work. I've been spraying PureCrop1 this year which is supposed to work on white flies and aphids as well as being an antifungal, it's too early to know if it's working, but it's completely safe.

Oh, PS: Neither of these products are cheap.

Yellow sticky traps!

I have found the yellow sticky traps, DE and spraying with flea and tick shampoo effective but none of these ever eliminated them entirely from my garden. I have learned that the best way to control them is an once of prevention by inspecting every single plant I buy including my flowers. It is always a nightmare for me when I get them.

Fortunately, I only occasionally got aphids on certain varieties I would grow, and never had a problem with whiteflies. However, something that I spray on my tomatoes, as well as most of my other plants, that does keep aphids off of my okra pretty well, is Surround, or kaolin clay powder. I buy it in 25 lb bags, and that lasts a few years. 2 cups/gal of spray, which I also put a tb of potassium bicarbonate in, as a preventative. The problem is, I stop using it on cherries, as soon as they start setting fruit, as it is a pain to rub off those small fruits - same with small peppers, and beans (I just spray those until they start setting fruits, then stop). The key is spraying the undersides of leaves, at least with aphids and flea beetles (it's what I use on eggplants for these). It wipes off larger tomatoes and eggplants, as well as cucumbers, and other large fruited veggies. And one good thing about it is that it doesn't wash off easily, like DE, with a light rain - it takes a heavy rain, though that coating on the undersides stays pretty well! I can't tell you about how it works on whiteflies - maybe someone else here knows, or info online somewhere about it.

Another thing good about it, in warmer areas, like yours, is that it cools the plants! Here's a photo a few days ago, showing one row of my tomatoes (and tomatillos and eggplants at the end) sprayed with the surround, but you can see one dark green variety a few plants in - the only one I didn't spray, because it's the first cherry with fruits.
A few of the tomatoes, doing great in just under a month. 5-30 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

When I see new growth, I just go around and spray in maybe 5 days, being sure to get underneath - takes 10 minutes maybe, for the entire garden, to do this "topping off". I have a dedicated sprayer with just this, so it's always there.

@pepperhead212 what type of sprayer are you using that can handle 2 cups of this per gallon without clogging up?

You won't really get rid of white flies with natural methods. The adults fly and yellow traps won't get all of them.

The aphids should be totally doable though. I think you are using a too low concentration of neem oil, it needs to be at least 3% to kill bigger adults. Also make sure you use enough emulsifier with the oil.

The weird thing is, tomato leaves are themselves used to make an aphid killer spray. Aphids decimate my peppers indoors or in greenhouse, but they rarely become a huge problem on tomatoes. Some varieties do worse, IME. But I always wondered about the tomato leaf spray - I never actually tried it so IDK.
If you've been growing organic and no problems all these years, maybe something has happened to your predator balance. Neighbor sprays or maybe even climate conditions throwing off their survival. The only solution I've found to aphids is to put the plants outdoors, and they're gone in a day.
OTOH with certain garden pests that I control by hosing them off (spit bugs), the natural predator cycle takes about two weeks to kick in. So the daily or two-day hosing cycle has to be maintained for about two weeks minimum, in order for predators to increase their population in response to the bounty of prey. That is because the predators like parasitoid wasps are naturally present at low population levels until they encounter an outbreak of their pest prey. So it's possible that patience is required for them to build a population to do the work. Spraying water in the meantime would not have too adverse an effect on the predator balance. Other sprays OTOH may have broad spectrum effects, which would be self defeating if you're trying to work with the local predators.
FWIW, I have tried every soap, neem, etc for aphids and none of them work any better than water. It's strictly the spray action. IDK if using a leaf blower on the plants, alternately, would also make conditions less friendly to the pests.
Could also be that new pests were introduced to the area (neighbors bought plants?) and there isn't a specific predator on hand. So Cole's approach of buying predator insects might be required. My only hesitation to take that approach is that, if you have already a local predator population, introducing the commercial species might be detrimental to them. Judgment call depends on your environment and conditions. It's a bit different for us being an island and a harsh climate, our local species may need protection. Two spot ladybug for example, they aren't many enough to really do the job but they could be extirpated completely if I imported something more robust.
I had to stop using sticky traps because every time I put one out, the first thing I caught was a parasitoid wasp.
I have also tried for aphid control dusting with lavish amount of baking soda. That seemed to work the first time I tried it, but less so the second time.

@SoCAl_Don Three days later, I've spent two whole days dealing with a huge aphid infestation on my tomato plants! Yesterday I discovered tons of aphids mostly on the lower leaves. Did a major prune out of lower leaves and other infested bits, as that seemed like the fastest way to remove lots of them and also create a little room - way way too crowded and you know that means you don't see the ones that got away. Shuffled the plants around so that I could get at all sides and deciding who should be next to the door, ready to exit greenhouse asap. Also wiped down the exterior walls/vents with Dawn and vinegar soapy water. As vinegar is supposed to remove the ant trails. Today I tied up the plants in permanent positions, and thinned out a few more leaves - yes I found more aphids and yes a few of the winged ones too, which seemed to be dead on the plant IDKY but I can only assume they laid a load of eggs that will hatch out again tomorrow.
I had to google for an ant bait recipe, as I've lost the one I used a couple of years ago which really helped.
And I totally forgot to mention to you, that ants are really the key. They bring on the aphids. Have a look around and you may find an anthill or some overactive ant population that is fueling the outbreak.

Bower wrote: ↑Mon Jun 06, 2022 7:10 pm
I had to google for an ant bait recipe, as I've lost the one I used a couple of years ago which really helped.

Many years ago I made my own ant bait with powdered sugar and borax (edit). It took several weeks to destroy the hive. Now I use Raid gel ant bait which seems to work over night. It is hard to believe the hive has been destroyed that quickly but the ants are gone. I use it inside and more ants do appear in another location but some more diligence and they are gone too.
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I've used commercial baits too and found some of them good - AntBGone max was my best iirc - but the one I made was as good or better - at least I had plenty of it instead of these little squeeze bottles that dry out before they're empty. Different formulations work best depending on the type of ants, but any tenders of aphids are for sure the "sugar ant" variety.
There's a lot of variation in recipes given for proportion of sugar to borax, but too much borax and they won't take the bait so I am thinking the one part borax to three parts sugar is an upper limit for that ratio and close to the recipe I used before. You add boiling water to dissolve everything, and I also used a package of expired pectin powder to make it a gel consistency, and the ants really went for it.

A bought plant I had indoors since day 1 was showing signs of distress.
I looked at it closely today and it had aphids somehow.
I put it outdoors under cheesecloth and maybe lady bugs will find it and do a rescue.
I did have it in a bigger container with added soil,maybe the soil was contaminated.

For whitefly one year in winter I put the plants out in an unheated porch where temps fell below freezing,
but I had the pots on food warming trays to keep the pots and roots warm.Whiteflies expired from the cold temps.
Plants were fine after that.

I took the plunge and moved 8 plants outdoors after finding some aphids on them again. Crowding is the curse. Unmanageable.

I saw a lady bug outside the other day.
If I had known I would have invited her in.

The pepper plant I had to top grew more leaves and is doing well outdoors.

I hesitate to use many pesticides, but last year I had a Biblical plague of white flies. Insecticidal soap, pyrethrin, neem, etc didn't make a dent in their population so I had to use malathion. 2 applications pretty much solved that problem.

Yesterday I found a dozen tiny aphids just hatching right on a baby fruit that was setting. Crushed them off by hand with plans to do a better inspection today. Sunny and getting hot, I started pruning and tying this morning, when I heard a humming... looked up, there bobbing around the rafters a very large, busy paper wasp. Makes me wonder where the huge hole is, that this enormous beast could find her way in.
I am not thrilled, because the stings are no fun. I only hope she does her hunting and finds her way out again.
Meanwhile I feel pretty confident, the ant and aphid issues are over.
One spring when they were really bad, the paper wasps came around the outside and nested close to the house. No more trouble from the pests that year. I did not enjoy my quota of unfriendly stings though.