I have a very small back yard, which is closely attached to my neighbor's yards.
Last year I sprayed with Neem Oil regularly; but, eventually got tired of it. Some plants are sensitive, and it seems more like spider mite repellent than killer. I think the spider mites just move to my neighbors' yards until the pesticide wears off.
Most systemic insecticides are not sold in California.
This year I am thinking of trying predatory mites or beetles.
I am still researching them. Has anyone ever tried them?
Erik
do you ever get rid of spider mites
JLD
Praying mantis...my next purchase! Yes, indeed! I so miss them!
Forgot to mention that I do have many tree frogs here, and usually can hear them after a rain, but for whatever reason, haven't heard them recently, and we've had our share of rain.
One of the tree frogs made its home on the potted Maya inside my lanai last year, and that was fine with me! He was very happy, and I did not want to spray the brug for fear I would kill the frog.
A lot of things have changed in the 3 years I've been here.....I can remember having wild turkey cross my lawn at least 3x a week, and now, none........so sad! Even the deer don't bother to come anymore! They used to come and feast on the oleander and hibuscus, and that never really bothered me too much, as I feel the deer were here first.
I will admit though, when the oleander was blooming profusely, I did put some blood meal around it, and that did keep them away.
JLD - my next door neighbor works at Costco and she says for some reason they are all over the place in there and that she'd try to remember to bring some home for us this Spring, when they appear. I will try to do any spraying I may need to do a couple of weeks before she does.
My knee surgery went well - it's very stiff right now, and I start Physical Therapy on it tomorrow. Russ was such a sweetheart yesterday - doting on me - and letting ME pick out everything I wanted on TV (geez, he falls asleep anyways!). I should be walking on my own by this weekend but I'm not going to push it. I do have alot of seeds I want to get started, though - and they are down in the basement and some need to soak a couple of days before I sow them - I'm not making it down there today! I have to go up and down the stairs to the bedroom on my butt because the stairs are too steep to do the crutches thing.
I'm having spring fever and last night dreamed about some kind of Brugmansia competition with three categories, that people traveled to either be a part of or see. Anyone else have these kinds of dreams? Brugs ARE addictive and sneak up on you in your sleep! :-)
Hope I didn't hijack a thread - a couple of people had mentioned my surgery so I wanted to check in and let them know it went well.
Karrie, hope you recover soon. I like your dream. When you find out where the Brug competition is, let us know, I'd like to go to it. LOL
well I have somethinmg attacking my Brugs, all of a sudden, and I sure cannot afford $50 for spray, just hope I find something localy that will work
Doris, what's attacking your Brugs? What do they look like or can you see them?
Ahelms, I sprayed them with Bug Stop and when I did the webbing showed up close to the stem of the leaves, I wiped all the leaves with a pwper towel soaked in the Bug stop, and cleaned them all off, so far this morning I don't see anything, but a lot of leaves have to be taken off.
Karrie ~ good news on the surgery! You definitely have brugs on the brain LOL
Doris ~ I have one plant in particular that I lovingly refer to as the Mite Hotel. I decided to wipe nooks, crannies & undersides carefully w/alcohol & water, soapy water, or with the occasional genuine pesticide, and I have been doing that on and off all winter. She's been holding her own, i.e. losing only the occasional small leaf, but no appreciable growth.
About a week ago, I decided to try and raise the moisture around her, and I found my old vaporizer (Hankscraft, circa 1964.) I 've been running that steam for 6-8 hours everyday, and low and behold, this morning when I checked her over, it seems like I can only see one small area with a tiny web. Plus, the leaves are twice as big as last week! (And they are uneven leaves, we all know what that means.....LOL) Maybe, if I pray really hard, I'll see a bloom before she goes back outside, that is if the mites can behave a little.
I hope that the Bug Stop works for you, please let me know how you make out!
Jackie
This message was edited Mar 3, 2005 10:00 AM
Good work, hellobebe, it's it fun when you persist and it finally pays off, continued good luck!!!
I overdid it yesterday and am back to 2 crutches (yuck). After P.T. this morning I'm going to be a couch potato with my leg elevated with ice - and movies. I'm so mad at myself right now. :-(
Karrie, hope you get to feeling better. I think most of us overdo at times in a situation like yours. We get overly anxious and think we can do it. LOL
LOL Jackie!! I remember when I used a humidifier when my boy was small. The things we will do for our plant babies. I wonder what would happen if you added a miticide to that machine. It would get to every part of the brug. Of course you would have to hold your breath if you went into the room!
Poor Doris, more bugs? Once you get outside I bet things are better!!
Karrrie, you better be good!
Well kell I made a trip to Columbus 40 miles away and found the Bayer Advanced spray, man at the garden center said it works wonders for all kinds of pests, said he had a large greenhouse and uses it all the time, so we will see what happens, this was $5:99 I could have gotten the bottle to mix yourself for $11:99 but decided to try this first.
Well so much for that spray it DOES NOT work on mites BUT my son found one that does, it is a spray bottle $5.99 He got it from TOPS hardware, it is Safer Brand. Killing Soap with seaweed extract, this is the list of just some of the bugs it kills.
Alphids, Mites, Whiteflies,Earwigs, Grasshoppers, Leafhoppers, Spider mites,
Suash bugs, Blossom thripe, mealy bugs, and more, now if I can just save my plants.
Doris
Forgot to add the picture,
Best wishes to you Doris...please let us know how it does!!!
Margie
One thing I dislike about so called "natural" pest control products, is that their manufacturers try to present them as somehow "safer" for humans to use.
Ricin, Anthrax and botulin are "natural" products; but, that makes them no less deadly to people or other creatures.
Whatever product you choose, be sure to cover skin, eyes and nose.
Poison made from plants is just as dangerous as any other poison.
Sorry, just a pet peeve of mine.
Erik
Doris, I've raved about the Safer Insect Killing Soap with Seaweed Extract and you are the first person on this forum that I know of that has used it. I have a case and also the concentrated. I think it's wonderful, but do not use it on tender, new growth - won't kill them but will defoliate. Let me know how it works for you, I hope it works as good for you as it has for me. I love it!!! Sherry
Kell, I bought the Bayer Tree and Shrub systemic to use on my brugs, but the directions are confusing. How much do you use in a gallon of water for a 5 gallon planted brug? Did you follow the directions for the tree or the shrub?
I bought the neem oil last fall that you recommended and it works great, before I brough any plants in the house they had 3 weeks of neem treatments, no bugs all winter. I still don't see any bugs yet but I want to be ready just in case they show up. And if the Bayer Tree and Shrub systemic works for 1 year, sounds like the right product for me. Thanks for any help you can give me.
Cathy
Doris, did you try the Safer spray on your brugs yet?? When you do, I'd love to know what your initial reaction was...you are the only person that I know of that has tried it...
I sprayed all brugs with this Safer Product, have not found one mite since, I think it is great.
Ther is another product that you can find at WalMart. It is made by Schultz and is the Garden Safe Brand. The Rose and Flower insect spray is the best. Kills everything and the eggs. Think it was about 6 bucks for the spray bottle about the size Kareoke posted.
What is great about this one is that it can be used for veggie and fruit trees too and does not harm the fruit. I went and bought me about 7 bottles of the stuff. Love it!
Hi Cathy. I first used the Bayer Tree and Shrub when I had Oleanders that were covered in hard scale. I just had tried for 3 years to get rid of them and they were just all over. It was gross. They actually managed to kill a large oleander standard on me. One application of that stuff and I have never seen a scale again on any of them. It was such a recurring problem to have disappeared like that..
The next time I used it was on a peppermint striped crape myrtle I found for $14 at HD. It was so covered in aphids. I wanted it but I wanted them to get rid of the aphids. So in front of the lady I went and got a bottle and poured it straight in the pot. When I got home I set it aside and watered it well which diluted the stuff. The aphids were gone!! Never to return.
I was sold!
If the brug is a tree shape, I go by the instructions. I add one ounce of Bayer per inch of the circumference of the trunk to 1 gallon of water. If the brug is bushy, I add 3 ounces for every foot the brug is tall. So the fatter the trunk or the taller the bush, the more you put in of Bayer in the 1 gallon of water.
The part that is my favorite, NO SPRAY!! I am always breathing in spray no matter how careful I am. I get it all over me. This you mix in 1 gallon of water and pour over the roots. The sad part, i t doesn't kill mites. Woe is me.
I just bought Orange Guard for 8.95 from Plant natural. Has anyone used it on their plants?
Doris, I have never used the Bayer Advanced spray, I do not even think I have seen it. Bayer is taking over the insecticide market it seems. I have never tried the Safer brand. It will be interesting to see long term if it still works well. Anything that kills mites is my friend. LOL
edited to prove that I can type in English
This message was edited Mar 6, 2005 10:28 PM
This message was edited Mar 7, 2005 10:48 AM
Thanks for your help Kell. I think I will start with my older brugs first and see how far the quart size bottle I bought goes.
Cathy
So Cathy, you are using the Schultz product? Did you try the Bayer that Kell is talking about? If so, which do you like the best? And does it get the mites plus the gnats and larvae?
Jeanette
I just bought the bayer and will probably use it on my larger brugs. For gnats I just use peroxide and water, I mix 1 tsp in a quart spray bottle and spray the top of my soil, didn't have a problem with gnats this year. I also use neem that Kell suggested last year for mites and it works wonderful. I put all my brugs back into the greenhouse this past weekend, they were starting to wake up in my dark basement. I did get some messenger from the coop in the fall, will try that on my brugs when they put on there leaves.
Cathy
I found the Bayer does nothing for the gnats, with a good reason, it does not list gnats LOL
So, for what reason do you use the Bayer if it does nothing for gnats or mites? I never have aphids. Did I miss something or misunderstand what Bayer is being used for?
Brugie it lists
Ants,Catapillars,beetles, Spiders,Aphids,Cover mites,Grasshoppers,Gypsy Moth Larvae,Adalt Japanees Beetles, and a few others.
I think we forgot about the mites when Doris found the one from Safer Brand on March 3, at 9:38 can't remember if am or pm. Since then all of these other things apparently do not get mites.
Mites are the hardest thing to get rid of , and I think if you get something that will get them, the rest of the things are autmatically cleaned up.
Jeanette
Regarding how much of the Bayer Tree and Shrub Insecticide:
It is not the "diameter" of the trunk that it is talking about. It is the distance if you take a tape measure and go "around" the bottom of the trunk - and is usually more than the diameter.
For my brugs inside, I used 2 ounces per gallon of water and watered them as I normally do. I used that amount because the Brugs are inside and I didn't want them to leak on the floor (there are liners underneath them).
It seems to have worked. We'll give it another 2 weeks to see if there are any hatches and if so, if they die.
I really get confused about what is being used for which pest. Is the Bayer Tree and Shrub for mites?? Is there a mite you can see, if so, which one?? I thought the 'diameter' thing was that you should put the insecticide on the circle around the tree, where limbs, growing on the tree, end. Shoot, I bet that didn't make a lick of sense, I not sure how to word it, and that is something that might related to fruit trees, and might not relate to all plants...
The Bayer did not kill the mites for me the Safer product did, Safer is the Brand name
Right Karrie, I misspoke. It is the circumference. Thanks!! I will go edit my post so no one does it wrong! Cathy, I hope you knew what I meant and not what I said! Sorry!!
I think what Doris has is different from reading her description than what Cathy, Karrie and I are talking about. She bought some kind of spray. I have no idea what it is. I have never used a Bayer spray. They have tons of different insecticides. We are talking about Bayer Tree and Shrub, a soil additive not a spray. I have used it on my brugs too. In fact I have suddenly an odd kind of aphid that is small and difficult to get rid off. So I just watered my seedlings with it. I am sick of messing around with them. Usually I just pray with palmolive.
Cathy, I must try your gnat solution!! Thanks
Shirley, Bayer Tree &, Schrub kills aphids, mealybugs, scale, thrips, whifeflies and some leaf beetles, borers and some other bugs. I noticed last year, I caught cucumber beetles eating the leaves of one of my big brugs, I used it on that and I never saw another hole in its leaves. I sure wish it killed mites, but I guess we can't have everything or we would get bored.
Yep, Doris, that was the case with me too, the Safer did the trick. Safer is the brand name and it is confusing because if you are not familiar with the brand, you think it is a safe environment product, and this particular would qualify, but they have a full line of products, even some with 'warnings'. The Safer Insect Killing Soap with Seaweed Extract is, to me, unusually nice because you kill the pests and feed and perk up the leaves at the same time...
I heard brugs just love seaweed. I even bought some to use last year but not the right kind evidently! LOL I will have to try this killing soap also!! I am beginning to look like an insecticide and additive store! I am glad I have no little ones around anymore to get into it all. SNIFF! SNIFF!
Well, I started this thread on February 13 and wow just how interesting it got, what great information and I need all the help I can get, been fighting the little critters all winter (mites). I think I will go out see if I can find this killing soap with seaweed and try it. It would be wonderful to get rid of these pests. It seems that they are centrally located on my Brugs, because I have 3 Jasmines and 4 Citrus trees all in the same area and nothing on them, so they must really like the Brugs must be the host plant .
I did the same thing, Kell. I like the seaweed extract so well in the Safer that I bought some - well, boo-hoo, apparently totally different than what is used in the Safer product. Well, that makes me wonder if it is the insect soap that the brugs like. Whatever, I've ordered 'real' seaweed extract to try to solve the mystery...if you use the Safer product, DO NOT get it on new growth, it will be on the floor the next day...
Thanks. My cucumber beetles don't eat the foliage, only the blooms. I have something that works on that now. Talstar. Guess I'll just use up some of the stuff I have around here rather than buy more to add to the shelf.
You said a mouthful Brugie, I promised myself to use up the stuff I've got, but it's a difficult promise to keep, whew!!!