By Steve Plunkett

Homeowners find alternatives as fungus wipes out impatiens
   

Homeowners who don’t have professionals tending their ficus hedges are the targets of a renewed war on whiteflies.
    The pests cause ficus to wilt, turn yellow, drop leaves and, if left uncontrolled, to die. A warm winter has given whiteflies more time to devastate.
 Gulf Stream Commissioner Muriel Anderson said her hedges usually are treated twice a year. “But this year we’re going to have to do it three times because they counted on having some cool weather, like 40 degrees, that will kill whiteflies,” she said at the commission’s Feb. 10 meeting. “We didn’t get the cool shot.”
    The town of Palm Beach fired the first salvo against the tiny winged predators, passing an ordinance in January making it a nuisance for anyone to have “any dead, dying or defoliated hedges or trees, or hedges, trees or other plants infested with exotic pests such as whitefly.”
    Gulf Stream Town Attorney John “Skip” Randolph, who also is Palm Beach’s town attorney, drafted the ordinance, which sends Palm Beachers who don’t replace dead hedges to code enforcement.
    “It’s kind of an onerous enforcement mechanism,” Randolph said, urging Gulf Stream commissioners to educate residents before trying a similar ordinance.
    “The first step is clearly let’s see if we can’t get some information out to people,” said Commissioner Garrett Dering, who the following week won the remaining two years of former Commissioner Chris Wheeler’s term when no one filed to oppose him in the March 13 election. Dering was appointed to the seat in October.
    Bob Ganger, president of the Gulf Stream Civic Association, raised the subject to gauge what leaders wanted his group to do.
    “We assume most people have landscapers, exterminators and all the rest, and they’re probably doing what conventional wisdom says you can do to kill whiteflies,” Ganger said. “But there are some people here in town who are doing nothing.”
    Ganger said the Civic Association will email members about whiteflies, then add an informational sheet to mailed notices of its annual meeting.
    Ganger also said the association’s treasurer, Bob Burns, had driven “to the nether part of the county” searching for a local source of chemicals to fight the insects.
    “I drive around this town all the time,” Ganger said. “I don’t think our whitefly situation is nearly as bad as Palm Beach, and I think that’s simply because we probably have less ficus.”
    His sentiments echoed remarks by Manalapan Mayor Basil Diamond, who discussed whiteflies at his town’s Jan. 24 meeting.
    “We’re doing relatively well compared to some other communities,” Diamond said.
    The mayor and Manalapan commissioners decided to remind residents via the town  newsletter about steps they can take to control infestations.
    “If it’s not taken care of, we’re going to see a lot of these hedges actually die,” Diamond said.
    Palm Beach is educating residents on the town’s website, palmbeach.govoffice.com, under “Whitefly Information.”         

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