I didn't wanna do it

b54red · June 22, 2014

I was forced into doing something I hate doing and haven't had to do in years. I had a sudden and massive outbreak of both spider mites and aphids along with increasing numbers of stinkbugs. Last weekend I noticed them on a few plants but by yesterday afternoon the damage was becoming too much and I have been having to remove fruit damaged by stinkbugs for several weeks now. For some reason this year I have had hardly any predator bugs. I had a huge population of Assassin bugs, lots of lacewings,spiders, and a goodly number of ladybugs last year but this year I have only seen one lacewing and a few ladybugs in late spring and nothing since then. The attack by the aphids and spider mites was not confined to just a few struggling plants like it usually is this early in the season but damage was becoming noticeable on many of my largest and healthiest plants. I could hardly see the new growth on some of my pepper plants for the aphids and the spider mites were causing a lot of leaves to start dying from the damage. I finally gave in after trying several soapy water sprays and high pressure water sprays and used the Permithrin, soapy water and IGR solution on my tomatoes and peppers just before dark yesterday evening.

I tried removing some of the worst damaged leaf stems on some of the more pitiful looking plants but found I was leaving too much fruit just hanging in the open even when only removing the really badly damaged leaves. I realized at the rate the damage was increasing and spreading I would have massive loses of plants soon if I didn't do something very quickly to stem the outbreak and temperatures in the high 90s weren't helping. I have been picking off stinkbugs everyday since two weeks after setting my plants out and only seeing more each day. I had so few pests last year it was like a vacation so I guess I'm paying for the nearly pest free year last year with a double whammy this year. I have never had to resort to spraying everything this early in the summer that I can remember. This is bringing back memories of a few years ago during the drought when I had the last massive spider mite outbreak but that didn't start til late in July or early August. I sure hope I'm not going to have one of those summers when I have to battle pests constantly.

I will be in the garden at daylight rinsing the tops of the plants off with fresh water in hopes of not exposing the new growing bee population to the poison and to get the worst of the soap off the leaves to lessen sun damage. I used a fairly high concentration of soap in order to penetrate the mite webbing so I don't want to leave it on the tops of the leaves too long. I will probably hit the whole mess with a bleach spray to lessen the chance of a massive disease outbreak from all the insect damage and follow up with Daconil in the afternoon as a preventative. So far my disease problems have been very mild with the drier than normal weather the last couple of weeks but I have noticed over the years that large aphid and spider mite outbreaks can be shortly followed by some serious disease problems which I would like to prevent if possible.

Keeping my fingers crossed that this one treatment will be enough at least for a long while but I have a bad feeling about this happening so early and to such healthy plants.

Bill

madddawg · June 22, 2014

If it aint one thing its another. Ya gotta wonder, Why does a garden have to be so troublesome. Blight, bugs, droughts. I guess if it was easy everyone would do it.

saltmarsh · June 22, 2014

Sorry for your problems, Bill. I lost my fall tomatoes to Leaf Footed bugs last year. An overnight plague which coincided with a bad storm with wind the last week in July.

I decided to use it as an opportunity to try to figure out how to control them. I don't use any insecticides other than Palmolive Orange dishwashing liquid and this doesn't work on them.

They love cowpeas. I had Purple Eye Purple Hull peas planted on a bed with tomatoes and the peas climbed to the top of the 7' tomato trellis and back down to the ground. Cowpeas would make an excellent trap crop if managed properly. I decided against it because I didn't want to kill my predator population.

I had a row of pole beans (Rattlesnake) and cucumbers (Boston Pickling) planted on the next bed (70' of beans and 40' of cucumbers). There were thousands and thousands of stink bugs on the cowpeas and not a single stink bug on the pole beans 4' away. But the beans didn't offer any protection to the cucumbers which were moderately infested with the stink bugs (probably 2 - 3 per plant).

I had a row of Early Long Purple eggplant with a row of Thorogreen Baby limas on both sides of the eggplant to see if it detered the Colorado Potato beatle. It does but only after the limas get 8 -10 inches high. I had to hand pick the beatles and larvae until the limas kicked in. But the limas also repell flea beatles and stink bugs. The eggplant were undamaged by the stink bugs until I pulled the vines after harvest. After the lima vines were removed the stink bugs moved in on the eggplant.

I also had a few eggplant planted on the next bed without limas and they were protected by the limas on the next bed. It seems the limas will repell for about 6 - 8 feet.

I tried hanging yellow buckets with soapy water on the trellis with the cowpeas. It caught about twice as many beneficials as it did stink bugs so if you want to kill your beneficials this is a great way to do it.

When I picked the lima beans I made a tea from the fresh hulls and leaves and saved the tea until transplant this year. The tea works as well as the vines. Used it on tomatoes, peppers and eggplant at transplant. Some Sophie's Choice were set out at a later date and weren't sprayed (I didn't have my sprayer with me.). They soon had a problem with Colorado Potato beatles and their larvae eating the tops of the plants. Crushed the beatles and larvae and sprayed with the tea, no more problems.

Dave Whitinger reported problems with stink bugs last year. He grew Franchi Giant Red Pear and said it had very little damage from the stink bugs.

This year I'm intercropping rows of the limas with the tomatoes peppers and eggplant. I should know about the Franchi Giant Red Pear in less than a week, they are starting to pink. Claud

Dewayne mater · June 22, 2014

Bill what IGR do you use? I noticed a great influx of spider mites this week too. The wife has ornamental pots with potato vine in them and they are absolutely eaten up and I'm not sure they are acting as an attracting plant or a trap or both. Either way, I applied permethrin last night about 8:30 for the first time this year. I got lucky. About 4 this morning it started raining. I'm hoping that was enough time to knock back the red devils' population and when it stops raining, I'll go back out with azamax IGR this evening.

Dewayne mater

creister · June 22, 2014

Bill,

I hope your spray knocked them back for a while. Spider Mites are my number one problem, and if we have a dry hot spell, I have had them show up in May. I usually try all the natural/organic stuff so as not to harm beneficials. A few times I use my nuclear option of Kelthane. It works well, but is nasty and it is no longer available. Some of the triple action mite/fungus work well, but also contain pyrethrums or their synthetic equivalent. Spider mites are a real drag. Good luck.

Salsacharley · June 22, 2014

I watched a movie on Netflix about marajuana growers in California. One farmer used a shop vac to suck up the spider mites on his weed. I guess he has to do it regularly.

saltmarsh · June 22, 2014

Bill, have you tried this for your Spider Mites?

http://spiderwipe.com/sliders/whatisit

It's a natural miticide. It appears to be made from Rosemary. You might try making a tea from Rosemary. Try 1/2 cup of Rosemary with 3 gallons of water, boil for fifteen minutes, allow to cool, strain and spray full strength with a teaspoon of molasses per gallon as a sticker to the point of runoff.

I don't have Spider Mites but if they show up I'm going to try the tea. If you try it, let us know if it works. Claud

I buy my herbs from a restaurant supply store in bulk.

June 22, 2014

The info on Spiderwipe sounds interesting but the website is not much help- whatever you click it doesn't go anywhere.
Fir the first year that I can remember I don't have a spidermite problem(yet)- Hoping our very cold long winter wiped some of them out. Aphids are not here either -just one case on some petunias. Not complaining- very happy!

saltmarsh · June 22, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoParrott

The info on Spiderwipe sounds interesting but the website is not much help- whatever you click it doesn't go anywhere.
Fir the first year that I can remember I don't have a spidermite problem(yet)- Hoping our very cold long winter wiped some of them out. Aphids are not here either -just one case on some petunias. Not complaining- very happy!

Jo, the link works when I click it. Anyone else having problems with it? I haven't tried the products. At $15 a gallon it has a bit of a snake oil smell to it. Even $5 a gallon at the 32 gallon concentrate price is too rich for my blood. Claud

(plus shipping)

b54red · June 22, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

Bill what IGR do you use? I noticed a great influx of spider mites this week too. The wife has ornamental pots with potato vine in them and they are absolutely eaten up and I'm not sure they are acting as an attracting plant or a trap or both. Either way, I applied permethrin last night about 8:30 for the first time this year. I got lucky. About 4 this morning it started raining. I'm hoping that was enough time to knock back the red devils' population and when it stops raining, I'll go back out with azamax IGR this evening.

Dewayne mater

I used Martin's. I got the 4 oz bottle 3 years ago for around 12 dollars and haven't needed it since then until now.

After I rinsed the tops of the leaves with the water hose I checked for aphids and found a couple of peppers plants that I missed when spraying but other than that they are gone and I took care of them with a hand sprayer with some of the mix in it. I must have killed millions of them from what I was seeing on the plants yesterday so if they don't come back too thick maybe some predators will show up soon. This was also the first day in months that I didn't see a single stink bug. I'll have to wait and see on the mites because they are so hard to get rid of once they start. I may have to do a second application but I hope not.

By mid morning the plants were already looking much better so I'm assuming not having the aphids and spider mites sucking the life out of them in such numbers really made a difference. It was kind of amazing how much brighter green the plants looked after being treated. Now if they will stay away for a while.

Bill

efisakov · June 22, 2014

I had a huge spider mites infestation at the end of the season last year. I did not think they would spread that fast but they did. My marigolds were looking like they were dressed for halloween. I have some in few locations this year but am trying to control them by spraying just soapy water.
Goog luck, Bill.

peebee · June 23, 2014

For the first time ever I have a bad infestation of spider mites at my office garden, so I bought neem oil as I read that it works on them. Has anyone tried that? I sprayed last Thursday so the verdict isn't out yet, but nearly all the plants look pretty bad. Should've treated earlier but I'd never seen them before and thought it was a virus or disease at first. Then the webs appeared for my first clue.

Do plants ever recover and start producing?

b54red · June 23, 2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by peebee

For the first time ever I have a bad infestation of spider mites at my office garden, so I bought neem oil as I read that it works on them. Has anyone tried that? I sprayed last Thursday so the verdict isn't out yet, but nearly all the plants look pretty bad. Should've treated earlier but I'd never seen them before and thought it was a virus or disease at first. Then the webs appeared for my first clue.

Do plants ever recover and start producing?

Neem oil seems to slow them down but I could never totally control them with it. I kept having to spray and respray over and over. I also got some leaf damage from the overuse of it. I found alternating the types of sprays helped more. I would use soapy water one time, then neem oil, then an essential oil spray. If I kept the spraying routine going I had some fair success with keeping them from coming back in high numbers but as soon as I let up back they would come.

Yes plants can recover nicely but most of the leaves that they were heavily feeding on will never recover.

Bill

peebee · June 24, 2014

Bill, will removing the most infested, damaged leaves help somewhat? I just removed 2 leaves from an eggplant. They were so riddled with flea-beetle holes, plus had all the damage from the mites, that I thought the leaves were serving no purpose except to harbor more mites. I also firmly rubbed all the leaves on this eggplants while watering them, physically removing most of the mites, and will reapply the neem later this week.

June 22, 2014	#1
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	I didn't wanna do it I was forced into doing something I hate doing and haven't had to do in years. I had a sudden and massive outbreak of both spider mites and aphids along with increasing numbers of stinkbugs. Last weekend I noticed them on a few plants but by yesterday afternoon the damage was becoming too much and I have been having to remove fruit damaged by stinkbugs for several weeks now. For some reason this year I have had hardly any predator bugs. I had a huge population of Assassin bugs, lots of lacewings,spiders, and a goodly number of ladybugs last year but this year I have only seen one lacewing and a few ladybugs in late spring and nothing since then. The attack by the aphids and spider mites was not confined to just a few struggling plants like it usually is this early in the season but damage was becoming noticeable on many of my largest and healthiest plants. I could hardly see the new growth on some of my pepper plants for the aphids and the spider mites were causing a lot of leaves to start dying from the damage. I finally gave in after trying several soapy water sprays and high pressure water sprays and used the Permithrin, soapy water and IGR solution on my tomatoes and peppers just before dark yesterday evening. I tried removing some of the worst damaged leaf stems on some of the more pitiful looking plants but found I was leaving too much fruit just hanging in the open even when only removing the really badly damaged leaves. I realized at the rate the damage was increasing and spreading I would have massive loses of plants soon if I didn't do something very quickly to stem the outbreak and temperatures in the high 90s weren't helping. I have been picking off stinkbugs everyday since two weeks after setting my plants out and only seeing more each day. I had so few pests last year it was like a vacation so I guess I'm paying for the nearly pest free year last year with a double whammy this year. I have never had to resort to spraying everything this early in the summer that I can remember. This is bringing back memories of a few years ago during the drought when I had the last massive spider mite outbreak but that didn't start til late in July or early August. I sure hope I'm not going to have one of those summers when I have to battle pests constantly. I will be in the garden at daylight rinsing the tops of the plants off with fresh water in hopes of not exposing the new growing bee population to the poison and to get the worst of the soap off the leaves to lessen sun damage. I used a fairly high concentration of soap in order to penetrate the mite webbing so I don't want to leave it on the tops of the leaves too long. I will probably hit the whole mess with a bleach spray to lessen the chance of a massive disease outbreak from all the insect damage and follow up with Daconil in the afternoon as a preventative. So far my disease problems have been very mild with the drier than normal weather the last couple of weeks but I have noticed over the years that large aphid and spider mite outbreaks can be shortly followed by some serious disease problems which I would like to prevent if possible. Keeping my fingers crossed that this one treatment will be enough at least for a long while but I have a bad feeling about this happening so early and to such healthy plants. Bill

June 22, 2014	#2
madddawg Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: Missouri Posts: 407	If it aint one thing its another. Ya gotta wonder, Why does a garden have to be so troublesome. Blight, bugs, droughts. I guess if it was easy everyone would do it. __________________ I grow a garden not just for the food I harvest, but for the creation of life itself. Johnny Cash

June 22, 2014	#11
efisakov Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: NJ, zone 7 Posts: 3,162	I had a huge spider mites infestation at the end of the season last year. I did not think they would spread that fast but they did. My marigolds were looking like they were dressed for halloween. I have some in few locations this year but am trying to control them by spraying just soapy water. Goog luck, Bill. __________________ Ella God comes along and says, "I think I'm going to create THE tomato!”

June 22, 2014	#4
Dewayne mater Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2008 Location: DFW, Texas Posts: 1,212	Bill what IGR do you use? I noticed a great influx of spider mites this week too. The wife has ornamental pots with potato vine in them and they are absolutely eaten up and I'm not sure they are acting as an attracting plant or a trap or both. Either way, I applied permethrin last night about 8:30 for the first time this year. I got lucky. About 4 this morning it started raining. I'm hoping that was enough time to knock back the red devils' population and when it stops raining, I'll go back out with azamax IGR this evening. Dewayne mater

June 22, 2014	#5
creister Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Abilene, TX zone 7 Posts: 1,478	Bill, I hope your spray knocked them back for a while. Spider Mites are my number one problem, and if we have a dry hot spell, I have had them show up in May. I usually try all the natural/organic stuff so as not to harm beneficials. A few times I use my nuclear option of Kelthane. It works well, but is nasty and it is no longer available. Some of the triple action mite/fungus work well, but also contain pyrethrums or their synthetic equivalent. Spider mites are a real drag. Good luck.

June 22, 2014	#6
Salsacharley Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2013 Location: New Mexico Posts: 2,052	I watched a movie on Netflix about marajuana growers in California. One farmer used a shop vac to suck up the spider mites on his weed. I guess he has to do it regularly.

June 22, 2014	#7
saltmarsh Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: 2 miles south of Yoknapatawpha Zone 7b Posts: 662	Bill, have you tried this for your Spider Mites? http://spiderwipe.com/sliders/whatisit It's a natural miticide. It appears to be made from Rosemary. You might try making a tea from Rosemary. Try 1/2 cup of Rosemary with 3 gallons of water, boil for fifteen minutes, allow to cool, strain and spray full strength with a teaspoon of molasses per gallon as a sticker to the point of runoff. I don't have Spider Mites but if they show up I'm going to try the tea. If you try it, let us know if it works. Claud I buy my herbs from a restaurant supply store in bulk.

June 22, 2014	#8
JoParrott Guest Posts: n/a	The info on Spiderwipe sounds interesting but the website is not much help- whatever you click it doesn't go anywhere. Fir the first year that I can remember I don't have a spidermite problem(yet)- Hoping our very cold long winter wiped some of them out. Aphids are not here either -just one case on some petunias. Not complaining- very happy!

June 23, 2014	#12
peebee Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Southern CA Posts: 1,714	For the first time ever I have a bad infestation of spider mites at my office garden, so I bought neem oil as I read that it works on them. Has anyone tried that? I sprayed last Thursday so the verdict isn't out yet, but nearly all the plants look pretty bad. Should've treated earlier but I'd never seen them before and thought it was a virus or disease at first. Then the webs appeared for my first clue. Do plants ever recover and start producing?

June 24, 2014	#14
peebee Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Southern CA Posts: 1,714	Bill, will removing the most infested, damaged leaves help somewhat? I just removed 2 leaves from an eggplant. They were so riddled with flea-beetle holes, plus had all the damage from the mites, that I thought the leaves were serving no purpose except to harbor more mites. I also firmly rubbed all the leaves on this eggplants while watering them, physically removing most of the mites, and will reapply the neem later this week.