FYI- and I have them bad on some of my outside plants- this from the Dirt Doctor site.
Natural control: Predatory spider mites, ladybugs, minute pirate bugs, thrips and lacewings, and lady beetles. Address the cause of the plant stress. Mites attack only sick plants.
Organic control: Spraying just about anything every three days for nine days will get rid of them. Garlic-pepper tea and seaweed mix is one of the best sprays. Citrus oil sprays are also effective.
Insight: Organic gardeners rarely have spider mite problems because of healthy soil, mulch, and adapted plants that have been planted properly. They are a problem only when soil is too wet or too dry.
Q: What can I use to rid my shrubs of "spider-mites" ?. The shrubs are covered with light (and unsightly) spider webs. I prefer not to use pesticides. C.S, Dallas.
A: Spider mite infestation is a clear sign that water is not effectively moving into the plant. The problem can be caused by too much or too little water, chemically imbalanced soil, compacted soil or other environmental issues. Liquid seaweed spray is highly effective to rid plants of spider mites, in fact it works as well or better than any of the toxic chemicals that are commonly recommended. However, the mites will re-infest unless the major problem that invited them in the first place is not corrected.
Spider mites- no not on my AVs
Very interesting information...
I think our Keyring likes or uses the orange spray for pests???
It's gotta smell better thatn some of this stuff.
I should have a whole host of those lil buggers.. everything here is either over watered or badly under watered..lol
I can't ever catch up. :)
MsC
MsC I feel your pain. We just had 5 straight days of rain, which, as you know, will be followed by weeks in the sauna!
I am going to try both the orange oil and the seaweed- agree the orange smells better than most stuff out there!
This message was edited Jul 28, 2006 9:18 AM
The question.....where the heck does one get 'seaweed spray'?? LOL!!
That is very interesting. So the idea is to keep your plants healthy so the mites don't come around. Goes right back to the basics.
Yes and didn't Key post something about spraying her AVs et al w/ dilute seaweed every morining? Probably why her plants look so dang good!
Nan I am lazy and go to HD or Lowes (think Lowes has it more often than HD) and buy a bottle of Liquid seaweed- comes in a green plastic bottle and they have it next to all their more organic fert. It's not very expensive, like 6.00 give or take for an 8 oz bottle though I am sure it may be available for less elsewhere. It also comes in a large 1 gal bottle- forget how much that one goes for because I have only been buying the little ones lately. The bottle has directions for diluting it. Hope that helps.