We just dont see any whiteflies in our points. We were going to add Marathon to our next Heritage spray, both as a preventive.
Is it unheard of NOT needing a drench with Marathon at the end of a crop?

Side note:We have had VERY nice weather, tonight is our first night of frost and anything below 40 degrees (Expecting 30). I am thinking the cold will finish them off or drive them in large numbers inside where it is warm. Has anyone ever experienced a large influx of whitefiles after the first frost/freeze?

tnt, I do all my spraying in August and September and then apply Marathon around October 1st. and never apply any other insecticide after the Marathon application. If I see any whitefly in August and September I spray as much as needed and by the time I apply the Marathon in early October the crop is already clean. I think of Marathon as an insurance policy on an already whitefly free crop. I believe in a zero tolerance policy from whitefly in August and September, scout once a week, and spray as needed till I see no activity at all. I also move plants around in August where the Poinsettias are raised in houses with no other plants or weeds under the benches to insure that I will not re-infect the crop later on. Taking care of them (White Fly)by September gives me piece of mind later on in the crop when I'm busy doing everthing else. Down this far South I am already planting for next Spring and it's too busy for me to worry about whitefly now! ....Michael Pawelek

Michael,

The reason I was going to spray is, as I understand it, Marathon does not move into the older leaves (drench) and only a spray will do any needed cleanup. We have aprox 25,000 points of various sizes and I just wanted to save the $$ it would take to drench vrs a spray. Presently we just don't see any whitflies.

Thanks Michael,

PS to others...

I'd appreciate any input on my orignal question.

Thanks again!
TN

It is not unheard of to not have to be using a lot of chemicals at the end of the crop. It just means that you have done a good job throughout the season controlling your whitefly population.

When it comes to whiteflies and dealing with them coming inside from the landscape growers tell us that once they have a killing frost outside the pressure from the insects is not as great but that they do notice a rise in population as temps drop because the insects are coming inside.