Trish
i keep sending her real estate ads for acreage :-)
& she says Tom doesn't want to move
Dick
I am new to Plumerias and to this forum!
I am nuts; it's true, but the elephant ears had to go because they are a nuisance, and they multiply like crazy, and since they don't have a fragrance, I don't have room for them in my garden. Yes, I have broad mites on my brugs and a recent new discovery, red spider mites. Yuck! Yes, that's the stuff, but they took the word "Rose" off the bottle now. I don't know why I don't have mites on my plumies, but I have received some recent purchases with mites underneath the leaves so I know people get them on their plumies. That is why I always defoliate cuttings and plants before I ship them somewhere. I think I don't have them on my plumies because they are attracted to my roses and my brugs more and maybe because I regularly hose the leaves of the plumies. In any case, try the Bayer stuff and see if that helps. The leaves will be coming off naturally in a couple months so I wouldn't worry about them too much. It is cold enough there for the plumies to go dormant. Just don't let them experience freezing temps or below. They'll start to drop leaves at around 40-45 and below. Who wants to be in control anyway is what I say:-) Life is much more fun this way:-)
Hey Clare,
I use a blast of needle spray from the hose first, Then pepper spray and soap to kill the mites off. I laughed when you said that certain plants get the bugs while others dont so much.. I started brugs a while ago and discovered the bugs like them more than any other plant I have. So I put at least 1 brug in every area that I do plumies in LOL!! The poor brugs get infested with mealy bugs and the plumies are left alone!! I will take them aside and clean them with a sharp needle spray and then spray the growth tips with poison every now n then to give tehm a break from the assault. I find that my B.Insignus Hybrid attracts the most bugs. At the end of the season Ill spray the soil with a bug poison, defoliate to a trash can and after I bring them inside I scrub the tree down with a soapy water and allow it to dry on the plant. = Bug Diarhea.. heh They always seem to reinfest 2 or 3 times inside as well.
Thanks for the info about what you do to get rid of them, Michael. They are just awful, aren't they? I have a row of roses, and those are supposed to be host plants for mites. They say that you are supposed to alternate miticides because they can build an immunity if you use the same one all the time. I alternate between Avid, Bayer, Safer's Insecticidal Soap, and Neem Oil or Horticultural Oil, and I end up pulling off a lot of leaves of my roses. My B. insignis hybrid got mites bad too, and when I pulled out my Solid Gold, Isabella, and Temple Goddess the other day, they too were covered in them. I don't think that I used enough Bayer for these big trees. I've never seen the red Spider Mites before, but I have them now. They are supposed to be the worse kind of mites and impossible to get rid of. My whole cutting table where I am rooting cuttings is covered in them also. I am tempted to throw all of them out. I've heard Murphy's Oil Soap is good on them also.
My plan is to move in with you Dick when you are not looking. I LOVE your place!!!!
Micheal, LOL LOL. I never heard of anyone growing brugs just so they attract the bugs. Too funny.
I mostly only use Neem oil, Clare. You can use it all the time, the bugs never get resistent to it. Dick showed me a new super Neem product on the market now. When I did a search for neem on line, there are quite a few super neems out there. I will get some soon. Clare, broad mites I find are much worse than spider mites. I have never noticed mites on my roses. I have lots of roses. What does it make the leaves look like? If I were to get mites on my roses also, I would give up.
This message was edited Aug 29, 2006 11:29 PM
Clare, no need to pull them up! ;)
defloiate them completely then if you dont mind spray with sevin.
They will grow new leaves fast.
sorry they are so bad for you.
Im actually having a mediocre year this year, some bugs not too many though.
Too dang hot for them lol!!
Thanks, Kell. You are welcome here anytime. Thanks for the info about the Neem and Di-Syston Systemic Insecticide Granules. I've recently discovered the burn that you are talking about with the Bayer, but I didn't put it together until now. Thanks! I have some Neem left over that I got from Logee's a while ago, and I'll start using that more frequently. Maybe I am mistaken about the broad mites. I'll have to do some research to see which ones I have. I probably have all of them! The rose damage looks like this below. It's funny though because I used the Bayer on them recently, and now all the new leaves are showing no damage at all so the Bayer is definitely working -- at least for now.
Michael, I actually pulled them up to make room for my plumies:-) They were too big for the spot that they were in anyway. I took cuttings and will grow them in containers now. Thanks for the Sevin tip. I do have some of that too. The cucumber beetle is also being a pest and eating large chunks of the leaves and laying eggs. And then there are the many, many catepillars! Sigh...
More rose damage for Kell to see:
Here's another one. Admittedly, I don't care about my roses all that much so I wasn't as diligent as I should have been about re-applying the Bayer's. I'm actually contemplating taking them out to put plumies there:-)
I forgot about the beetles and caterpillers lol!!
I have major mealy bug trouble.
Once I spray with sevin they can only go to the new tips, then I hose them off.
Now I have seen some white flies too oh my!!
Caterpillers, beetles and flies OH MY!!! (best Dorothy) ;)
LOL, Michael! I have mealy bugs too, but they seem to like my other things like my geraniums. I have decided to redo the back yard since my plumies are so crowded that I can't even get to the flowers to smell them. I'm digging up all the roses today and putting my container plant plumies there instead. I still have some nice roses in front. I just cut down a huge Moonvine yesterday. I still have the trunk, which is huge, and it will grow back if I can find somewhere else to move it to. I'll take pictures when I'm done:-) And I've got to check to see if I have Sevin. Thanks, Mike!