Edited to say brugs no longer available.
Thanks
This message was edited Feb 6, 2004 8:11 AM
Fed up!
SO Sorry...drown the little suckers
I have roses, strawberry and rasberry plants, have been told this is where spidermites come from. Every summer just as brugs are full of buds, the mites(all kinds) move in. This year, I am going to be way ahead of them. I have Avid and it is good, will start spraying before the buds appear and I'd better NOT have them again, or I'm going to do what you are planning, pitch them all.
Crested, too funny. You have no idea the things I have thought of to do to them. LOL
I have been working outside today & they are next to the garbage can away from all other plant life, & I have been SOOOO tempted to just toss those stinkers in there! The only thing that stopped me was remembering Badseed telling me in chat last year to not toss em, give em a chance! LOL
Hibiscus,
I don't have ANY of those plants! I originally thought they came on a mail order plant, but I now have my doubts. I managed to get rid of them on everything that got infected, but not these brugs.
I think if I don't hear something by next week I am just gonna fold the things small enough to fit into my trash barrel & not wait for clipping pickup. Play it safe since we are having sunny days.
Personally I cannot imagine anyone wanting my problem, but I have been told otherwise! LOL
Now Now, .....take a breath and calm down....you can deal with this....
I use Pyrethian , I spray plant, dirt and all.....in a couple of days I spray again, even if I don't see any. I do this every couple or three days for about 2-3 weeks and so far no spider mites.
When I have had a bad problem and some years seem to be worse than others,I check everyday for quite a while before get a little lax but if you have a bad problem you have to check everyday ......make sure to check under leaves and anywhere they can hide long enough to increase there numbers...
You have to be really diligent about the spraying or they will just come back and suck your leaves dry......
Spider Mites, aphids and such ctitters are just part of growing things and you can get them under control...but you will never totally eliminate them from your plants....
To help the benificial insects and if your plant is not in direct sun, I cover them with a white sheet and that helps keep the butterflys and bees away for awhile....
Dee
http://www.schultz.com/news17.htm
I used this last summer on all my garden plants and really like it...
Gretchen: I bought that year before last, never even slowed them down. I put it in the dirt also. Think it is best to start spraying before they are on your plants, that will keep them off. Once they are on and laying eggs, it's terribly hard to get rid of them. I have all kinds of mites.
PudgyMudpies, It's OK. When any plant starts to be more hassle than fun, it is time to rethink the process. Afterall, gardening is supposed to be fun!
So sorry that you have had this bad experience. Maybe sometime in the future, you could start over with one or two cuttings. I have found that the hassle factor does seem to be directly proportional to the number of brugs you have. I suppose that the more you have, the greater the odds are that you can experience some of the more serious problems.
I guess I am lucky that I live in an area with high humidity that I have never had a severe spider mite problem. I see them occasionally, and have used Avid a couple of times, but have never had an infestation. I put all the brugs in the greenhouse in the winter and the humidity is especially high in there, so usually don't even have them in there, either. One of the ONLY pluses of living in the hot/humid coastal south.
I guess I never thought about it. We usually don't have alot of trouble with spider mites. But they can and do show up.... Never thought about it being the humidity just thought I was taking good care of the plants.....Ha, learn something everyday....LOL
Dee
I had a horrible time with all kinds of mites, sprayed them with raid, killed them in about 3 minutes lol have not had a problem sense :)
It is amazing what just spraying your plants with water will do. It doesn't get rid of them, but it slows them down. I have to tell you all that the worst problem I ever had was when I had my pots sitting on hot cement. Those mites came in and took over. Once if figured out that mites like it hot and dry, I moved the pots to the grass, sprayed the grass around the pots every day when I watered, and never had a problem again.
I am sure that our dry heat is what keeps them around. Our average summer days top 100 and there is NO humidity. I did use the water sprayer at first, then went to soapy water, then went to the fungicide spray that listed spider mites, then went to the summer oil, and on & on & on. I tell you, a week did not go by that I was not doing SOMETHING to these things. And all the leaves kept falling off because it was so hot and I could not keep them cool enough and the things I was putting on the leaves would cause them to burn. I even kept transplanting them to fresh potting soil. One of the things I tried was a soil drench, I completely flushed it through the soil in case there were any that got in there. So I am at my wits end. I mean really, if I had even seen ONE bloom it might have kept me going, but nothing could ever set because the plants were so stressed by everything I was using to try to get rid of these red beasts!
I know brugs are very popular, but I just cannot keep up another round on these. And honestly, I don't even want to try.
Donna
I'm so sorry. I hope you will still come visit us in the brug forum. Maybe you can enjoy the pictures of some of the other member's brugs anyway. Wish I could help you out. I know what it is like to feel like you just can't win with them.
You poor soul Donna! I would dump them also! Maybe try totally different ones in spring. Some seem more susceptible to spider mites than others.
I get them on occasion too. As soon as I see them I put on gloves and spray the infected ones carefully with Neem oil. I then put a small amount of rose food and insecticide systemic granules in all my pots. Be careful it will burn your brugs if you put in a lot. I find that prevents them from spreading. I do not think they like the taste!
Donna, I was out of commision for awhile and I killed off numerous brugs and a few plumerias this year. Those were in the house. My James brug has leaves on it and it's outside in the ground. Go figure. I'm not giving up! I still have hope. I'll reorder from gone2seed and Cala later.
our yard is plagued by various different mites and other annoying pests
i pretty much just live with them, because we opt to not put poisons and other toxic things in our garden.. we dont like the idea of affecting the wildlife, and also the beneficial bugs too, so we just kind of let them be
the mites seem to be more attracted to the hibiscus and the "tropical" plant stand than anything else, so i guess you could say the problem is pretty isolated, lol
they dont seem to affect the plants enough to cause much damage, if they start dropping dead because of the bugs, i think i'll probably have to find some organic way of destroying the little beasts
but until that happens, they're just kind of there..
when i trade cuttings and live plant material i am careful to not have any nasty buggy things hitch hiking..
all of the cuttings grow inside the house, in water for the most part.. and prior to being shipped i wash them really good and havent had anyone complain about bugs yet :)
Kim
Brugs are not a "low maintenance" plant. You have to really pay them attention. Water, food, insects etc - but when I had my first bloom it was worth it all. I may have too many and now I understand when someone says "compost it" (at first I thought "how could you? don't throw it away, send it to me!!) This summer I should have blooms earlier than I did last year. I may decide that some must go, but then I'm sure I'll see the blooms being posted and start begging for a cutting again.
Kell, my Rosamond cuttings are doing nicely and I am most anxious to see them bloom. Calla, I have some interesting cross seedlings from you that are doing well too. I'm growing Everlasting x Bert and something that I can't remember now (but I have records at home) x Rosamond. I have been fighting mites inside this winter. I guess they like it warm and dry. The ones in the gh are fine, but about once a week I give everything in there a good spray of water. I put my hose on the finest mist and wash everything down from top to bottom.
PudgyMudpie, I feel your frustration. Gardening is supposed to be fun. It keeps me going, if I didn't have my plants and seeds I would go nuts. I refer to my inside plant room as the "therapy room" and figure that the money spent in there is less than I would spend on a shrink. If it's causing you grief, best try something else.
I'm back again Ms Pudgy!! I'm still crossing my fingers for your poor plants. Do you have them in sun or shade? By the garbage cans here, means out in full blasting sun. Maybe they ail because of the bugs but the bugs keep coming because they ail?? In your zone, I am thinking if you could see just ONE bloom, you would be forever addicted. Do you have one that has a nice Y or one that even looks a little better than the others? I'd take that ONE and see if it can be fixed. I'd dump it, rinse all the dirt off, spray all the undersides of the leaves or maybe even cut off all but the top ones. Maybe you could go over it with a cotton ball and alcohol and kill the critters. Then take that one and plant it in the ground in a shady or semi-shady position that is easy to get to and spritz and make sure it gets plenty of water and food. Gee, I know I am asking a lot but I know you would love these if they bloomed for you. :) Feel guilty yet? LOL
All good ideas. If you do see just one bloom, it is well worth it. Maybe only keep a couple of the best plants and take care of bugs on just a small number. Mites/eggs are mostly in the soil and underneath leaves, clean out webs in between the center of a section of leaves. Hope you will give this a try.
You all are so nice & understanding and then along comes BADSEED with the guilt that has kept these stinkers here THIS long! LOLOL
Yes dear, they are by the garbage can, but that means that they get sun until noon and then shade here. Actually, they have been tried in numerous locations. And I did the rubbing alcohol and q-tips already. I even tried filling a garbage can with soapy water & turning these beasts upside down & dipping every 2 days. And the soil drench systemic was a failure too. Apparently the mites here LIKE the taste. I think I will chop these up small enough to fit into the can and toss them. No one seems to be interested in picking them up, they all want me to mail them & I won't. So it is FAREWELL on Tuesday, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA (that is hysterical laughter of relief! :) And no guilt BAD! hehehe
If I need to look at brugs I will walk around the corner & stare at the house that has them as trees in their front porch. LOL
(I even tried to ask them questions about theirs but they don't speak english & their son was getting annoyed at me. Probably thought I was a nut..... :) go figure. LOL
They were probably afraid you were bringing the mite brigade over to their house!
Yeah, in their own language, they probably refer to you as the brug killer! LOL I'll behave-no guilt pushing. If you are sure that you tried as hard as you can and there is just no hope and no will to live in them, I'll let you be. ;)
I doubt that no one is interested. You probaby just live too darned far away! LOL
I've often thought, when they are giant trees, there is enough for mites to chomp on and still get some blooms. Like in Texas, they grow them big enough so there is enough for everybody, don't even spray for bugs!
This reminds me of roses----I love to hate roses lolol you know if something is stressing you in your garden of all places---well it HAS to go,----but stick your toe in here once in awhile cuz, we have forum ADD sometimes, and have a problem staying on task. cheryl