is that a beneficial insect on my eggplant?!

[Pathfinder]

Hey guys,

alright this is dead serious, my eggplant is the only healthy plant for now well along with the peppers. When I just came back, I found this on my eggplant !! is that a beneficial or a predator ?! did he cause these holes ?! .... please help !!

[applestar]

It looks like some kind of a grasshopper -- maybe a katydid? Hmm the back legs don't look quite right -- so I doubt it is a beneficial predator.

Are those holes? I can't quite see. Is that top layer of the leaf peeled off?

[Pathfinder]

click the picture, it is very clear, yeah these are holes ... did it make these holes ?! isn't it one of the protectors who eat bugs ?! ,,, if he wasn't a beneficial shouldn't he eat the leaf from the outside ?! .... the leaves are perfect, but I edited the image on my PC.

[Pathfinder]

I am gonna kill it .... waahahhahahahahahahhahahhhahahahaaaaaa

edit: .... and compost it .......

[applestar]

Ah ha! I see now. I'm looking at the color of the container through the holes

[applestar]

Wait! Don't kill it yet! Just found a reference to carnivorous katydid in Africa. Didn't you say you are in the Middle East? Close enough to get African species?

The African katydids of the subfamily Saginae are predators

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/top ... 86/katydid

If I could catch it, I would put it in a jar with holes in the lid or rubber banded cloth lid and try giving it a small piece of the eggplant leaf and an insect that the carnivorous katydid is supposed to eat. Or look for other ways to ID it.

[Pathfinder]

you were late ..too late ... he's in the compost bin !! hahahahahahaha..... he was eating my eggplant leaves ... those leaves have been fighting off white fly which are swarming my eggplant, my peppers and of course my wretched tomatoes !!

do you know of an organic fungicide to kill the white flies but not burn the leaves ?

[rainbowgardener]

why would you want a fungicide to kill whiteflies, which are clearly not fungi? White flies are susceptible to being sprayed with soapy water. (Be sure to use real soap, not detergent which can burn your plants.)

[Pathfinder]

@ rainbowgardener, LOL sorry I didn't even pay attention to the word fungicide, should've said pesticide. How do I know that the soapy water doesn't have detergent ?! ..... you mean like Fairy dish soap ?! what is the concentration so I don't burn out my leaves and will it dry from evening till the next morning.

[rainbowgardener]

I don't know what fairy dish soap is, but here in the US most dish "soap" is actually detergent. You need to look for something that says pure soap. In the US products include Dr. Brunners, Murphy's oil soap, Ivory.

Put 1 -2 tablespoons of soap in a gallon of water, or 1-2 teaspoons in a quart/liter of water. Maybe add a few drops of salad oil to help it stick.

[Pathfinder]

besides a gallon of water is more than a liter, also do you mean olive oil ? usually oil resides on the top, it doesn't mix.

So it should be mentioned that this soap doesn't contain detergents. right ?

would natural olive soap work ??

[rainbowgardener]

Yes a gallon is more like 4 liters. That's why it says TABLE spoons for gallons and TEA spoons for quarts/liters.

Shavings from the olive soap should work.

Olive oil would be fine. Shake it up to emulsify.

[Pathfinder]

thanks for the info, some people are trying a yellow paper with petroleum jelly on it, they say white flies are attracted to the yellow color and will stick and die.
how effective is that ?!

[Pathfinder]

alright the olive soap didn't cut it, I applied fairy dish soap, quite frankly I have no idea if it contains detergents or not, applied 1 tablespoon to 1 and a half liter of water ... it did it for the period of the night, the next day, there were white fly but not at the same numbers.

My third tomato plant has 2 small tomatoes on it, one that has been this size for about a month and the other only 1 week old and they're still small. actually this is the only tomato producing something. My guess is that the whitefly infestation can stun tomatoes and most night shades ... anyway I went berserk today and said what the heck they're not doing good anyway, so I put 3 table spoons of Fairy dishsoap diluted to 1 and half liter of water in my sprayer and sprayed everything I have from tomato to eggplants to peppers.

well as a best case scenario I would expect an irradication of white flies and their eggs !! but if this dish soap had detergent ... what is the worst case scenario what effects I would notice ?!

[applestar]

Worst case --The leaves will turn black and die. Peppers especially are sensitive and droplets of the soapy water lingering on the leaf tips will dry, get concentrated and make them turn black from leaf tip first.

I would now go and rinse everything off with water. Soapy water works within 10-15 minute or they don't. Leaving them on won't help any. In addition, the soapy water will also kill beneficial insects. Then you won't have any to help with the resurgence of the pests.

If you have cordless vacuum cleaner, you could suck up white flies.

I also run sudsy hands over the plants rather than spray -- whiteflies fly up when disturbed and stick to the bubbles. I rinse the plants off afterwards.

-- I posted this once before -- I was going to do this with a bed of potatoes because I noticed a cloud of whiteflies when I disturbed the leaves, then on the next plant, several tiny praying mantis babies scuttled off. So. I DIDN'T treat the plants since the Jr. Garden Patrol was already on the job.