spider mites

[Dewayne mater]

As if often said in other spider mite posts, they typically only become problematic only when the plants have other stresses. For me, the key is to keep other issues in check. Keep the leaf diseases to a minimum with good soil, fertilizers and watering habits (i.e. not on the leaves) and preventative anti fungal,etc. spraying, use root and plant stimulation tools like actinovate, mycos, etc, spray regularly with kelp and/or fish based products, and spray horitcultural oils...not sure if it matters that it be neem when it is preventative. If these tools keep down your insects and leaf diseases, spider mites may not be a big problem. That has worked for me for 2 years now anyway. But, if I let early blight or other insects, etc. become problematic, spider mites jump in an take down the plants in a hurry.

I may try Ray's take down recommendation this year to see if I can consolidate some of the spraying into one item. I've generally tried not to use an all purpose insecticides since many insects are ok to beneficial for your plants like ladybugs, bees, etc. I always worry that general purpose sprays get all the good guys too.

Dewayne Mater

[Sun City Linda]

Thanks again Steve. I did not know there were two different names for natural and artificial Pyrethrins. I try to error on the side of caution when I dont know what I am doing, (which seems to be a common occurance!) Also, had read the thread from B54 about Insect Growth Regulator, just didnt recognize the abreviation. LInda

From my experience I have to disagree about spidermites only being a problem on stressed plants. I have had them on beautiful lush green Pole Beans which had no other issues at all. As for Kelthane, yes, that was banned years ago when I was a grower in a retail nursery. It had been our prime defense against spidermites until then.

[b54red]

Dewayne, I only partially agree with you about the plants having to be stressed from some other disease. I have found that plants hit by nematodes or fusarium are ripe picking for mites; but during very dry hot weather they will attack perfectly healthy plants. Last season during our long drought every plant in the garden got mites and after I finally got them under control many of the plants went on to produce tomatoes for 3 more months looking healthy as can be til they froze.

[tessa]

i have spinosad in a product down here called 'success'. mites are NOT named on the label. internet research, however, does indicate it's effective for mites...so i shall trot right out to the garden and begin trials now.

[brokenbar]

I spray at night or very early morning to cut down the slaughter of the innocent bystander bugs All the flying dudes usually are not present in the dark. We got the grasshopper plague the last two years I was in Wyoming and spraying once a week at night, eliminated the problem. I noticed I had just as many bees and ladybugs in the daylight hours (we needed cutter bees in Wyoming to pollinate the alfalfa.)

[DuckCreekFarms]

Tessa, Let us know how your trial works...

Due to the heat and drought we had grasshoppers in biblical proportions last summer.

late evening and night is a great time to spray for grasshopper since they go to the top of the plants and feed all night long. I found that Cyonara will knock the crap out of them, even the adults. I am not sure what it does to beneficial however, but when they start getting into the greenhouse and stripping everything in sight I got to do what I got to do

I am not sure if Cyonara will kill mites

[tessa]

okay...well it seems that spinosad does, indeed, kill mites.
2 days after application: not many mites to be seen, most of them just empty dead bodies, nothing moving around much.
however, today, the third day, there are some baby mites present...so it doesn't get the eggs. right. well, eggs don't nibble...so that makes sense.
too bad i didn't know this earlier...as it is too late for many of my plants now, being too far gone to endure the three days of heat we've just had...and they are going down FAST.
sad.
but hey...tomato season 2.0 starts now! out with the cripsy plants...in with the lush new babies!

[livinonfaith]

Okay, follow up on the "All Seasons Horticultural Spray Oil".

My problem was mainly fungus gnats, but I saw some damage and a couple of tiny web threads on one of my baby plants. Since it was in a container that had spider mites in the Fall, I'm pretty sure that's what it was. (And yes, I'm really dumb to have used the same soil and pot. Don't know what I was thinking.)

I sprayed all of my tomato plants when I transplanted them into new containers. Then I sprayed again the next day. I haven't seen any more gnats or threads, so I'm happy with it so far!

[gnol]

Hi everyone,
I have had great success using Persimilis to control spider mite.
I have used it for the last 2 years. Previous to that I had a lot of problems with my cucumbers being overrun by spider mites.
I have only released at the first indication of mites and not continuously. and it seems to work great. My cucumbers have turned into weeds fr the last 2 seasons and I am sick of eating them.

http://greenmethods.com/site/biocontrols/persimilis/

I have no affiliation with this site. It is there as an example.
I get my stuff from a grower down here.

[Tracydr]

Has anyone used ivermectin? Avid is avermectin. $250 a bottle. I see on many cannabis websites they use 1/2 ml per liter of liquid cattle wormer ivermectin. I happen to have an old, expired bottle that probably still has some activity. I also have plenty of ivermctin paste that isn't expired, for my horses.
I know it works fantastic for mites and lice on chickens. It's pretty safe for humans to ingest, too.

[desertlzbn]

Let me know if it works, the russet and spider mites are taking over.

[b54red]

I used the Permethrin and Insect Growth Regulator twice and it seems to have gotten rid of them; but in the last week we have had a lot of rain and some of it hard blowing rain so I fear the IGR may be washed off now. I will keep checking to see if they return anytime soon now that the weather is drying up. I have a lot of plants stressed by fusarium and a few by Gray Mold so they should be ripe for spider mites.

[Germinator]

Yes, I used AVID for a couple years (4 years ago). As I understand it, it is very toxic and I only use it on my dahlias (not tomatoes). I use protection on my body and face mask and eye mask when I spray it early morning. It is what the pros dahlia growers use. Expensive. I quit using it and now use a misting system in my dahlia garden and it works. Two-spotted spider mites wiped out my dahlia garden 3 years in a row (in 2 weeks) and in years since then, AVID worked. But I don't like the toxicity.

I am have been having tomato russet mite & other pest problems for 6 wks. on my TOMs and trying everything--Take Down, Aza-Max, currently analyzing the ingredient "imidadaprid" used in Bayer products but don't want to use it in fruit as I like growing organic (although these other products may not be totally organic). Hot weather here isn't helping.

Yes, AVID is effective but safe for food products?

[b54red]

The combination of Permithrin, soapy water and Insect Growth Regulator is not very toxic. It is in almost all the good flea sprays for dogs. So far it has been the only thing that I have found that works without having to apply it every three days. I usually apply it twice about a week apart and it has worked for me; but I haven't had to use it this year yet.

Bill