The little white bugs on your eggplant are likely silver leaf whiteflies. There is more than one variety of these annoying insects, and they don’t usually harm healthy plants.
However, an infestation of them can kill your eggplant, as well as other plants in your garden. Whiteflies, and the other white garden bug, aphids, can be controlled by pesticides and beneficial insects.
Keeping your garden area clean and free of debris also helps keep insects at bay and enables you to prevent disease. On the other hand, rubbish in the garden from last year offers insects a place to grow and can harbor disease.
Keep reading to learn how to identify the white bugs on your eggplants and what to do if you find them.
Table of Contents
What are These Little White Bugs on my Eggplant?
The little white bugs are silver leaf whiteflies, although they could also be aphids. Whiteflies suck the sap from your plant. But, they also leave behind a sticky honey-type substance. If unattended, the sticky goo will grow mold that can keep your plant from turning sunlight into food.
Why Whiteflies Attack my Plants
It’s not unusual for eggplants, lettuce, tomatoes, and other plants in your garden to have insects on them. However, suppose other insects, weather, or other factors have stressed your plant.
In that case, insects may find that it is an easy target and devour it.
If you have a healthy garden, it’s still crucial to inspect your plants frequently. That’s the time you can be sure you’re not developing an insect problem.
White and silver flies, which have a strong taste for eggplants, live on the backside of your plant’s leaves.
The larvae of the whitefly are long and thin, and in its first stage, it has an antenna and legs and is quite mobile. Adult whiteflies are tiny and are about .06 inches in length.
They can be seen with the naked eye if you see well, but you may need a magnifying glass to tell whether you have whitefly or an aphid.
The biggest difference between a silver leaf and an aphid is that aphids do not have wings. Aphids are not necessarily white and can be black, brown, white, yellow, light green, yellow, gray, and even pink.
Their little bodies are shaped like a pear, and they have long antennae. Remedies used for whiteflies will also work to rid your plants of aphids.
How to Know if There are Whiteflies on my Eggplant
To find them, inspect the leaves of your eggplant and your other plants for insects. If you find a few, you can get rid of them by scraping them into a small container of soapy water.
Many gardeners will spray a light solution of soapy water on their plants to deter whiteflies and aphids.
You must be careful about the insecticides you use on vegetables, but products with pyrethrum. Certain oil sprays and insecticidal soaps will rid your eggplant of white and silver flies for those who want an organic solution.
Another method for controlling various flies is to dress your plants with aluminum or silver-colored mulch. Polyethylene ground cover is also effective in minimizing colonies of silver leaf, whiteflies.
Can Whiteflies Kill my Eggplant
Yes, they certainly can if you don’t catch them in time. Whiteflies will suck the sap from your plants, which takes all of its nutrients.
Also, if left unattended, the honey sap they smear the plant with can mold and kill your plant.
Eggplants can be challenging to grow under any circumstance. However, staying on top of insect infestations will help you get this excellent plant to the point it produces for you.
Conditions that are too wet or too dry can make your plants more vulnerable to insect infestations and disease. During drought or excessive rain, pay special attention to your plants.
Be sure to inspect their leaves daily to ensure that masses of pests are not gathering on their leaves, ready for an attack.
How to Rid of Whiteflies
You can kill whiteflies with pyrethrum, insecticidal soap, or neem oil. Other insecticides are suitable for vegetables.
You can check with your local farm supply or agricultural extension agent for advice on controlling whiteflies.
Introducing beneficial insects to your garden can also help rid of the whiteflies. For example, ladybugs eat whiteflies, aphids, mealybugs, and cabbage moths, so they are suitable companions when fighting insects in the garden.
They live to eat the insects you don’t want, so developing ladybugs will benefit you and your plants.
Mulch in your garden is also an effective measure to maintain the number of silver leaf whiteflies and other insects. Mulch promotes plant health, and healthy plants are as good a deterrent as you can have against insects.
Frequently Asked Questions about White Bugs on my Eggplants
Will whiteflies get on my other plants, too?
Whiteflies will and can devastate a garden if you don’t put a stop to them quickly. Times of drought and excessive rain make your eggplant vulnerable to pay special attention to your plants during these conditions.
Will poisoning whiteflies kill other insects, too?
Poisoning whiteflies kills other insects as well because the insecticides used to kill whiteflies also kill mealybugs, aphids, and cabbage moths.
Keeping your Eggplants Free of Little White Bugs and Other Insects
Identifying the pests in your garden is just one of the challenges of growing a garden. Eggplants have beautiful lavender blooms that add to any garden.
Their sizeable purple fruit makes fantastic dishes in your kitchen.
Growing a successful garden requires knowing how to keep pests and diseases from killing your plants. It also requires understanding the needs of each plant you set out, and it can take years to learn what you need to do to succeed.
Daniel has been a plant enthusiast for over 20 years. He owns hundreds of houseplants and prepares for the chili growing seasons yearly with great anticipation. His favorite plants are plant species in the Araceae family, such as Monstera, Philodendron, and Anthurium. He also loves gardening and is growing hot peppers, tomatoes, and many more vegetables.