Budding Plant with whiteflies or lice

[opie737]

So, growing plants leads to one hurdle after another, eh?

I have plants now that are budding nicely. They are outside. Trouble is, now that it is getting colder and I'm starting to think about bringing them in and harvesting, I'm wondering how to deal with this bug problem.

My plants have little whiteflies or lice. How can I tell the difference? When I shake the plants, lots of these things fly around. Does that mean that these are whiteflies, and not lice? Do lice fly? How can I tell the difference? Do the two creatures act differently?

I see them on the backside of leaves, but really notice them when I shake the trees. They don't seem to be biting holes or eating the leaves. I do have tomato plants though and the leaves of these babies are all chewed up. So, these bugs are on both my tomato plants and my pot plants, but they only seem to be easting the tomato plant leaves. Weird.

Anyways, assuming that these are whiteflies and I bring them inside with the plants, what will happen? Will they get into my carpet, linens, couch, etc. and infest my house? Or will they die off without plants to feed on?

Is there any way that I can get rid of these things? Now that my plants are budding, I don't really want to spray anything onto them. Do I?

I have no idea where I would buy those predator wasps, and I really can't imagine getting enough yellow sticky tape to do the job.

Any answers to some or all of these questions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.