just read that diazanon and malathion should clear up any mites one would have....isolate plants...that either spray or dip plant in the solution....should clear in couple of weeks they're saying....what do you experts with mites think?....what about a miticide.?
diazanon and malathion for mites?
I learned the only way to get rid of them is treat them with Avid. Or throw them away.
But Isolate everyone the most healthy blooming plants you can onw them for 3 months, 6 months and still not know they have mites or mealies...until the damage becomes bad enough to notice.
thanks allison...i suspect that is the thing to do...both time and money wise
Oh yes sorry to let you all know but leaves can transfer bugs and eggs also :((
At my local group they sold like 2 oz. of avid for about
$18.00 if I remeber ? Some where between 18.00 and 25.00 I forget.
Sometimes group go in on it and split cost. My understanding 2 oz. go a long way.
avid is 99.00 for 8 ounces....the directions say 1/4 tsp to a gallon of water
Are you kidding...99 for 8 ozs??!! Sounds like liquid gold.
WOW Bob where did you find it ? Only place I fount to buy you had to buy over $300.00 worth.
I guess it has gold the only thing that kills yucky mites :((
allison i googled it...think i saw violet barn...or something like that had it for sale....now i can't find what i looked at..lol...i'll try again
Good grief. $99? Wow! I won't be doin that any time soon!!!
It's called isolate your plants and pray you don't get mites
My gardening store would not sell avid to me. Said it was only for commercial use only.
I think Rob's and few other places sell it. And out group sold it to memebers.
well i did some reading on this...dahlia growers have some things they use...forget other names beside avid....nanna..not sure they can do that...did they ask if you have a license?...jsome suggest hot water method...100 degrees...dipping entire pot...avid when one thinks 1/4 tsp to a gallon is NOT expensive...the upside is that you have to buy the 8 ounces for 99.00....i think if one figures it..it's cheaper than miracle grow spray...that kind of thing...if several went together...it would be easier as Allison said her group did...and may i suggest not to fortget Neem as a help...though not a cure...
I understand that it (avid) is the best. I will try Rob's. Thanks V_T
rosemania.com carries a number of products specifically formulated for mites. They are also expensive.
Products formulated for most plant pests like mealies and scale will not work on mites, so you do need a product specifically designed to be a miticide. Beware of the ones sold for home use in nuseries because the active ingredients are often rather hazardous (nerve damage etc. - no joking here)
Horticultural or neem oil sprays will work to some extent. This is the route that I'm taking. It requires regular spraying and you pretty much cannot expect to eliminate the problem - you might think you have, but it'll re-surface months later......
Another option I've heard is to close the room and set off one of those bug bombs. (Check your smoke detector first.) They are formulated to kill spiders and such, and I guess mites are the same general family or category or something... (My bug knowledge is intentionally kept to a bare minimum...)
Here is some information on the product suggested by the owner of the garden shop I go to.
Name: BONIDE Sysemic HOUSEPLANT Insect Control contains 2% di-syston. To control: aphids, plant lice, lace bug, leafhoppers, mealy bugs, scale, spider mites, thrips, whiteflies.
amount is 1 teaspoon per 6 inch pot. Apply to the surface and scratch into the soil. Then top water. Knowing that AVs pest controls, I used only 1/2 the recommended amount
I isolated the suspect plants but treated my entire collection. The suspect plants are now beginning to produce new leaves. The tight centers are disappearing. After about two weeks I noticed a halo effect on some of the leaves--a result of the systemic. The yellowing leaves of the suspect plants are beginning to green-up.
Before beginning the process, I cut off all blooms and beginning buds---everything, took all the plants from the stands, and cleaned with a mild chlorox bath.
One week later I sprayed everything with Bon-Neem Insecticidal Soap, also by BLONIDE. It comes in a spray bottle ready to use. The AV "expert" at the store said as long as the spray was at the temperature of the room where the violets were direct spraying would not damage the plants. She was right. The neem gave a luster to the leaves.
It was suggested to test on one plant first. If the plant wilted the formula was too strong for AVs. It didn't, so I sprayed my entire collection.
The plants are beginning to bloom again. I inspect every day two or three time a day checking for any sign of bugs. So far so good.
The systemic is meant to be used at 6 week intervals to prevent any reinfestations.
Hope this helps someone. It was sure a pain to go through all of the plants, leaves, and plantlets. So far, so good.
nanna..that's great news and really appreciative your experience with it...thanks for hte helpful info
You're welcome JB
I thought it might also be helpful to share the symptoms.
yellowing or pale leaves
tight centers and also unusually small centers for the plant
excessive plant hairs on the new center leaves
elongation of the leaves
Addition information:
The bugs not only come from new plants (of any kind) but also fruit from the grocery store, pets if the are in and out, and open windows. The litter BUGgers are everywhere!
here is the link to EPA's data on various chemicals. http://cfpub.epa.gov/oppref/rereg/status.cfm?show=op
A non-gov database for pesticides is http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Search_Chemicals.jsp
A lot of university extensions also have info on pesticides - just google for pesticide rating etc.
Di-syston is the same thing (the trade name for) disulfoton, so look for disulfoton.
I've got several suspect plants in isolation now in case of mites... nothing shows up with magnification, and I'm still hoping it's cultural... One plant did have some tiny bugs in the reservoir of the pot, but they didn't look like any photos of mites or mealies, more like tiny fungus gnats, which I know I have.
BUT I'm thinking it might be best to treat my collection anyway for mites, especially before sending any plants out. If Nanna thinks she had mites, I may have them too, as my latest AVs were those I bought from our trip to the Violet Gallery.
Di-syston is said to be ineffective against cyclamen mites... I wonder if Nanna may have had broad mites, which are supposed to cause similar symptoms, although I haven't been able to find much information on them.
Is there any downside to treating with AVID other than the cost? Any reason not to preventatively treat all my plants? Has anybody figured out the best place to order AVID from?
I think I will bite the bullet & order a bottle. I have put too much into my AVs to have anything threaten them! If I'm willing to spend $100 on a big AV order or to spend $200 on shelves and lights, I can see spending $100 on something that could treat or prevent total disaster. It might not be a bad thing to treat new plants with it when I get them also.
Avid is the best, only killer . If you can see bug in water..naked eye it's not mites their so tiny hard to see them under 3x power.
It takes a good 3-4 months of continuous treatment of avid to kill mites. First may kill adults then there are eggs ..Smae with mealies and everything else. I don't think Nanna had Mites ?
Do you have a place there you can bring them to get checked ?
What are the syptoms your having ? Do you have pictures of sick plants. If some plants have them you will have to treat all.
What ever I had it responded to a combination of the systemic, neem, and lysol and murphy's soap. They were wacked from every direction. I check every plant 4 or 5 times a day. There is one plant that is still brittle, but I am suspecting that is chlorine in the water or cold water. Each plant is different some respond to one thing and another doesn't. Like people I guess.
symptoms included:
tight centers
pale leaves
blooms not lasting long
hairy centers
brittle leaves
leaves turned down on edge
Centers are now relaxing
leaves are greening
blooms are just coming after 6 weeks of debudding
hairs in center are back to normal
leaves on all but one plant are relaxing. I repotted that plant this morning. The soil was very heavy so that might be the proplem.
some leaves are still turning down
I'm am changing to spring water with the next watering. We have tons of chlorine in our county water system. Sometime you can smell it when you turn on the water.
Does that help, Allison?
with regards to the Avid - If I did my math right that works out to be ~$2 per gallon. Right?
Thanks Nanna really wanted Jills she thinks she has mites and if you both got them from Violet Gallery.
But chances are she does not have them. I was wondering if she had other syptoms and pictures.
I know mites can not be killed with combination of the systemic, neem, and lysol and murphy's soap.
So I am thinking your problem was something else.
If they can't, why did the systemic include spider mites on the label. That would be false advertising. And the house plant "expert" at the nursery recommended it specifically for mites and thrips.
I really think we are dealing with a lot of unknowns. I'm just glad my plants have survived and are "healthy" again.
Nana, how often I should spray as a prevention? I have Neem with pyrethrins.
I am no expert, believe me. I would follow the directions on the spray bottle. And make sure that avs are on the list of plants that can handle it.
I sprayed every 5 days, three times and used the systemic. First, before I sprayed, I debudding every plant; right down to the tiniest beginning bud. That was just in case thrips was in my collection. I did actually see thrips on two plants. The other thing I did was take all the plants from the shelves and clean with a strong chlorox and water solution. Not only the trays but the plant frame and the table the stand was on. My hands were shriviled. So use gloves!!!!
Well Nanna there are a lot more mites than Spider Mites. When you go to your Local group ask them what to use to kill mites. Our group sold Avid as they bought it in gallons and sold small amounts. I was taught that Avid was the only thing to kill them. This group has been around sense 1955 with long time growers.
I guess if Jill has mites she can use the same treatment sense it worked so good for your mites ?
One other thing to mention was the spray was not plain neem oil. It also contained insecticidal Soap. "Specially formulate spray that kills aphids, mites, whiteflies, mealy bugs, and many other listed insects." African Violets was not listed with the plants. So, I tried it on only two plants first. That was Jill's suggestion. After two days there were no bad effects so I bit the bullet and treated the entire collection.
Avid was the prodeuct that I asked for because it was suggested on the AVSA site. But when the nursery person would not sell it to me I decided to follow his suggestions.
I think the mites that plague AV's are Cyclamen Mites. Much more resitant mite to miticides and harder to treat than spider mites. They say, that cyclamen mites have become 'immune' to many miticides and that Avid is currently one they are not immune to.
There is a link in the sticky (steverd?) that shows some good photos of damage from Cyclamen mites (should be renamed AV & Cyclamen mites)
These are the ones that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Must use a loupe.
It's quite possible that you didn't have cyclamen mites and had some other environmental issue and thats why it cleared up by using the items you used.
just some thoughts, i am certainly not an expert. but just repeating what I read elsewhere.
BetsyJ thought she had mites too, perhaps ask her what symptoms she saw.
Where do you guys buy Avid? So far I have not had mites that I know of..but always good to be prepared
Laurie your right and Cyclamen Mites are the worst type.
The damage caused by Mites is compounded by the fact that many Mites carry Botrytis ; Spider Mites for one carry Botrytis.
All Spider Mites feed on the underside of the leaves and produce webs which cover the leaves and stems.
Spider Mites also produce ~ webs ~ which cover the leaves and stems.
Red Spider Mites, as the name suggests, are very often red, but many also be brown or black
Their also very tiny 1/100 inch in length
Two-Spotted Spider Mites (Tetranychus urticae) are normally light green with dark spots just behind the head
Honey if you can see the dark spot behind the head of a spider might, you have bionic eyes!
LOL.
just kidding, i know you are just giving info. -just had to tease a bit!
From the links in our sticky, it seems like other sorts of mites, such as broad mites, may well be eliminated by the treatment Nanna used. Clearly, it worked for her! I just figured that if I were going to treat my collection with something, I might just as well treat with Avid, which should kill any & all mites -- broad, cyclamen, etc. I can see spider mites with my naked eye, so I'm pretty sure I should be able to spot other mites also, although I realize that they like to hide.
BTW, I wasn't trying to suggest that my pests or Nanna's came from the Violet Gallery... just that those were the last AVs I'd added to my collection, and I thought it was long enough ago that problems should've shown up before now. But who knows where things come from, sometimes. I have a vine in my upstairs bathroom (very isolated) which suddenly has spider mites... what the??
Do anyone know any reason that I should not treat with Avid, other than the cost?
Oh, and Lorry.... once the Avid arrives, I'll be happy to share with you! We can swap for some of the VF-11 if that works out.
Anyone else who is interested, please Dmail me. Especially if we're already trading, it'll be easy enough to work something out to share this stuff around. I can't imagine any of us needing more than an ounce or two (1 ounce makes 24 gallons of solution at 1/4 tsp per gallon).
I haven't heard any negatives re: avid, other than the usual - that it is a strong chemical and you should use with caution. Anyone with plants in their living space should be ultra careful.
That said, the last time I checked, the health hazards of avid's ingredients were easier on humans than disyston (nerve damage? I'm sorry - not using it in my living room, dining room and office).
Some strains of mites have developed resistance to Avid, so it is not fool-proof - don't forget to keep checking the plants afterwards.
Thanks Keyring
I have always tried to be so careful I could never use Avid in my home with my health. Even Neem oil makes me sick lol.
If I have a plant not growing right I throw it away or give to hubby to grow outside . lol
Yes Keyring is so right is your using Avid please be careful.