My Serious Whitefly Problem!

I was out in my garden this afternoon and I finally realized that I have a major whitefly problem. When I nudged some red flowering poppies near my front gate to cut off some dead leaves, I could not believe the swarm that flew out. I also have pots of marigolds nearby and swarms flew out from them too. I decided to do a quick check of everything in the garden. All you have to do is go to each plant and gently shake the leaves. My strawberries were infected. Each one of my six tomatoes had small infestations too. I already have a those yellow sticky traps on the side of all of my tomato cages and those traps have caught quite a few bugs but not that many white flies.

What on Earth is going on here?

First of all, I am using the sticky yellow traps sold by Seabright Laboratories, located in Emeryville, CA. Only about 80 miles or so from my front door here in Guerneville, CA. They do work and I used them last year by tying one on each my tomato cages. Siince I knew they caught bugs I put them up on the cages as soon as I planted my tomatoes this year. These cages are not too far away from the other plants I mentioned above. I simply do not understand how all of those whiteflies took up residence in my garden. Also, I do not understand  why or how they infested most of my tomatoes? Did they slip in under cover of night like insect versions of Navy Seals or some Black OPS group right out of a Tom Clancy novel? Aren’t they supposed to make a beeline directly to those sticky traps as soon as they see the color yellow? 

Well, I took immediate action to halt my infestation and I installed a new trap within inches of the poppies. After shaking the poppies, a Luftwaffe squad of those little white critters dive-bombed that sticky trap. YES!!!  I also decided to pulled up the poppies and they were tossed into the yard waste bin. Two of my tomato cages got additional traps. And one trap was placed near my cucumbers. Now I have 10 traps that are in an area that is probably less than 100 square feet. Since my garden is in my front yard, the neighbors must be thinking that I am signaling to alien spacecraft. They are probably also waiting for me to start wearing an aluminum garden hat to stop the government from hearing my thoughts and transferring information to those pesky Navy Seal, Black OPS whiteflies that have invaded my garden.