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 This is a continuously updated archive of the Aroid-L mailing list in a forum format - not an actual Forum. If you want to post, you will still need to register for the Aroid-L mailing list and send your postings by e-mail for moderation in the normal way.

  Spider Mites
From: newton at coiinc.com on 1999.04.26 at 14:36:04(3307)
Folks,

Sorry for the Homer Simpson on this, but what was the consensus on
treatment for BAD spider mite infestation a few weeks ago?

I was away for a while and arriving back, find my plants under full
assault and unable to defend themselves. What a frightful scene!

Withered, puny, aged before their time. Enough to make a grown man cry,
almost.

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From: Don Martinson <llmen at execpc.com> on 1999.04.29 at 21:07:47(3313)
>Folks,
>
>Sorry for the Homer Simpson on this, but what was the consensus on
>treatment for BAD spider mite infestation a few weeks ago?
>
>I was away for a while and arriving back, find my plants under full
>assault and unable to defend themselves. What a frightful scene!
>
>Withered, puny, aged before their time. Enough to make a grown man cry,
>almost.
>
>Tim McNinch

The first thing to do is to give the plants a good shower. Bath shower or
even kitchen sink sprayer with cold water will do (be sure to try to bet
beneath the leaves, too). Not a permanent solution - I'm not sure what the
preferred chemical method is these days. I have used Kelthane, but can't
say that it's been that effective for me.

Don Martinson

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From: Kevin & Ali <tautau at earthlink.net> on 1999.05.02 at 21:13:50(3319)
Hi!
Ya know, I've battled with spider mites for many years too. A lot of
respectable people kept telling me to use Avid but I preferred not to use
any chemical spray in the house. These people know their stuff, though, so
if you have to use chemicals I think this is the cat's meow. For the
longest time I would take the plants outside or into the shower and spray
them with water. This does work but is kind of a pain, especially with
larger plants. Its also a pain for plants with delicate foliage. Which
leads us to my revelation...a fluffy OSTRICH feather duster (Not to be
confused with those cheaper, stiff, spotted owl jobbies). Geez! Come on,
its just a joke! Anyway, you can almost get aggressive with the thing and
not hurt even delicate plants. It knocks 'em right off, eggs and all! Of
course, it doesn't eradicate them right away, but repeated dusting might.
It REALLY does a good job, and its very quick and very easy. Brace the back
of the leaf with your palm and dust briskly. Shake the duster hard outside
every now and then to knock out webs and eggs. Sorry about the novel just
to say,"Use a feather duster" but I've had two Coca-colas today.
YYeEEEEEHaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!

Kevin

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From: "D. Christopher Rogers" <crogers at ecoanalysts.com> on 2007.04.25 at 19:08:48(15584)
Howdy,

Anyone have a good method for dealing with spider mites? The keep
popping up in my friend’s greenhouse. They really seem to like Amorphophallus,
Xanthosoma, Alocasia, and Colocasia, ignoring everything else. He has been
using neem oil, but it seems to kill off leaves. He went to a weaker
concentration, which knocks down the mites immediately and saves the leaves,
but even after spraying twice a day for two weeks, they just pop right back up.
They appear to be the two-spotted spider mite.

Thank you in advance,

Christopher

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From: "Michael Marcotrigiano" <mmarcotr at email.smith.edu> on 2007.04.25 at 20:00:53(15585)
They like low humidity. That is one of the main reasons they build up.
There are chemical miticides if he is not the "organic" type.

_______________________________

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From: "D. Christopher Rogers" <crogers at ecoanalysts.com> on 2007.04.25 at 20:30:17(15586)
Hello, Michael!

Thanks for the input. Can you define "low humidity"? His greenhouse runs between 30% during the day and 80% at night.

Christopher

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From: "Michael Mahan" <agavestar at covad.net> on 2007.04.25 at 20:57:41(15587)
Yeah twice a day misting with soapy water kills the off quick

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 1:01 PM

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From: Sheldon Hatheway <sfhatheway at yahoo.com> on 2007.04.25 at 21:08:53(15588)
I have a very simple recipe I use for just about EVERY pest. It kills spider mites, aphids, earwigs, sow bugs, and fungus gnats (adults and larvae).

Fill a sprayer with lukewarm water.
Add a SMALL squirt of Blue Dawn dishwashing detergent
Mix together
Spray to your heart's content!

The small amount of soap acts as a surfactant to break the surface tension of the water, which is then able to completely coat the bugs' waxy little bodies and drown them. The soap does not harm the leaves (unless you use too much, or use it outside on tender leaves in the sun and forget to wash it off after 15-30 minutes), and is actually a mild foliar feeding. It is effective against sow bugs and fungus gnat larvae when used as a soil drench. I try to use the soap in my fertilizer sprayer whenever I'm fertilizing.

And it's inexpensive!

I just love the stuff!!!

Sheldon Hatheway

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From: "Alistair Hay" <ajmhay at hotmail.com> on 2007.04.25 at 21:09:23(15589)
Predatiory mites known as 'persimilis' are extremely effective. I had the worst outbreak of spider mites I have ever seen in my shadehouse, nursery stock and garden last (Aust) summer and they cleared up the lot in a few weeks. I still haven't seen a single spider mite after 5 months.
In terms of safety, effort, result and cost they are far more effective than any spray!

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From: "SNOW" <snowsexotics at cox.net> on 2007.04.25 at 22:24:42(15590)
What's funny is I just
saw this on Dateline NBC last night. Farmer's use these preditory mites
and Disneyland uses them exclusively! Where do you purchase
them?

Snow

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From: Ken Mosher <ken at spatulacity.com> on 2007.04.25 at 22:47:07(15591)
Michael is right, they supposedly don't do well if you raise the
humidity. I had little luck with that approach, however. If your friend
thinks they like Amorphs then he should get a Typhonium venosum and
stick it in the corner. They will all go to that corner!

Common wisdom with the two-spotted spider mite is to spray with 2 or 3
different miticides according to the label directions but *rotate* the
chemicals used. Spider mites develop immunity quickly because of their
short breeding cycle. I had reasonably good results on my Ty. venosums
last year when I rotated Kelthane and an Ortho product called "Systemic
Insect Killer" with active ingredients Acephate and Fenbutin-oxide (the
label says "Formerly Isotox" but I don't think Isotox had the same
ingredients). The Ortho product is VERY smelly! Ugh.

He might also try spraying those infested plants with Messenger a couple
of days after the miticide. At the very least it won't hurt them and it
may give them a boost.

-Ken

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From: ALLAN TETZLAFF <atetzlaff at rogers.com> on 2007.04.26 at 01:02:47(15592)
I'm from Canada, so I don't know about the product names in the USA. There are few products that really do work with mites. Insecticides don't work as they're not insects, they are separate.... I have not found anything to work in the natural cure realm... like soaps, oils... I've grown orchids for years and two spotted spider mites are a real bane and can quickly destroy a collection. You need a specific miticide. Some you (in Canada at least) need a license to buy. First on my list is AVID (very expensive, but most effective). Next would be Pentac - slower, but also effective. Last would be an old product called kelthane. This is a nasty one and mites may have built up resistance. I say nasty as it does not break down quickly in the environment. The AVID may be expensive but a very little bit goes a very, very long way. One litre would last several people with greenhouses a lifetime I would
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From: ALLAN TETZLAFF <atetzlaff at rogers.com> on 2007.04.26 at 01:04:38(15593)
I left out this in my comments - only referring to chemical solutions. If you can get the predatory mites, that's a far safer solution both for your plants, yourself, and the environment.....Alistair Hay wrote: Predatiory mites known as 'persimilis' are extremely effective. I had the worst outbreak of spider mites I have ever seen in my shadehouse, nursery stock and garden last (Aust) summer and they cleared up the lot in a few weeks. I still haven't seen a single spider mite after 5 months. In terms of safety, effort, result and cost they are far more effective than any spray! From: "Michael Marcotrigiano" Reply-To: Discussion of aroids To: "Aroid-L" Subject: Re: [Aroid-l] Spider MitesDate: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 16:00:53 -0400>They like low humidity. That is one of the main reasons they build up.>There are chemical miticides if
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From: "Michael Marcotrigiano" <mmarcotr at email.smith.edu> on 2007.04.26 at 01:46:20(15594)
30% is low in full sun. Can he put a mister on the plants? Wetting the
mites down interupts them too so hosing down foliage may help. We rarely
see mites in our conservatory but it runs about 60% humidity all the
time and in summer it can go to 80%.
Mealybugs on the other hand are not so fussy so we get them on old
plants.

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From: "Alistair Hay" <ajmhay at hotmail.com> on 2007.04.26 at 05:07:10(15596)
There is a list of North American suppliers of beneficial insects here: http://www.cdpr.ca.gov/docs/ipminov/ben_supp/ben_sup2.htm

What's funny is I just saw this on Dateline NBC last night. Farmer's use these preditory mites and Disneyland uses them exclusively! Where do you purchase them?

Snow

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From: Ken Mosher <ken at spatulacity.com> on 2007.04.26 at 05:07:32(15597)
Gardeners in USA can get Phytoseiulus persimilis and other predatory
mite controls at Buglogical.com. I have bought beneficial nematodes from
them twice before with no problems.

See specifically
(http://www.buglogical.com/gardenCatalog.asp?action=control&typeNumber=spiderMites).

-Ken Mosher

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From: Susan B <honeybunny442 at yahoo.com> on 2007.04.26 at 13:07:40(15598)
I've used Isotox too, it works great. Very smelly, though.I've always heard bright light and higher humidity. Foliage plants in the house get mites but as soon as they are moved outside they disappear (could be predatory bugs, I guess)Susan

Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell? Check out
new cars at Yahoo! Autos.

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From: "Denis Rotolante" <denis at skg.com> on 2007.04.26 at 13:52:51(15599)
The predator mites are definitly one way to go...we have been using them
to controll the mites in our Calathea house for many years. For years we
could hardly controll mites in the Calathea House without spraying every
one to two weeks. Now the mites are not a problem.
We spread new cultures of predator mites them every two weeks just in
case they can not reproduce in our hot summer temperatures or they run
out of mites to eat. The one problem is that when you spray for other
insect pests you must use pesticides that have little or no residual
(ie. Cygon) as the long term chemicals (ie. Talstar) can effect the
predators ability to survive.

Denis

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From: "D. Christopher Rogers" <crogers at ecoanalysts.com> on 2007.04.26 at 17:27:03(15600)
Thank you
very much to all who responded to my mite query. My buddy is now looking for vendors
of the predatory mites. I am thinking about getting some predatory mites as a “just
in case”.

Happy
days,

Christopher

+More
From: "Leo A. Martin" <leo at possi.org> on 2007.05.08 at 00:05:34(15659)
I just found this message; I know you've beaten it to death. I like to use
water spray and keep the humidity up. That works just fine to control
mites. They only cause trouble for my plants when I'm lazy.

Spraying isopropyl alcohol also works fine. I suppose vodka would do but I
like to save it for guests.

But, I know some people just have to use poison when critters damage their
plants or they don't feel like they're really gardeners. For those of you,
keep reading.

2-spot spider mites are 8-legged beasties, not insects. Their relatives
include spiders, lice and ticks on land, and crabs and lobster in the
ocean. Several mite relatives cause annoyance to humans when, during
"extremely close contact" with the wrong sort of people, they jump to the
new host and cause intense itching in certain normally-unseen places.

The treatment is to apply a shampoo containing a miticide. In the USA one
such product is called Kwell [trademark.] I think it contains lindane as
the active miticide. You poisoners out there might go to your pharmacist
and tell him/her you have crabs. Then, take the shampoo, dilute it, and
spray on your plants. Nobody has to know you don't really have crabs.

That reminds me of a really funny pharmacist joke but I certainly can't
write it here. Write me privately if you want to read it.

Leo Martin

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