Is it possible to eliminate broad mites? i feel in my area it is impossible to eliminate spider mites they come every summer year after year after year attacking tomatoes mostly. most people here dont even try to grow indeterminate varieties. opting instead to plant determinates twice a year. But I feel my broad mite colonies were introduced (ebay). so far they have been very troublesome I have used kelthane,pentac,ortho,neem,several different oils,water blasting I would be more than willing to purchase avid or any other high priced miticide, including beneficial mites if this problem could be eliminated.I sprayed before I left on a trip two weeks ago and Im seeing broad mite damage begining in my greenhouse again mostly leaf wrinkling on the upper shoots. If anyone has any experience or knowlege they could share on this subject it would be greatly apreciated. I would feel guilty sharing cuttings,or listing them on ebay or even giving plants away untill I am confident I had done everything in my power to address this situation. Not to mention they are a hassle Thanks
broad mites
Ted,
Yes it is possible to totaly eliminate broad mites from a plant, but they will readily become re-infested if there are broad mites on nearby sources. The hot water treatment will totally take care of the broad mites, but this method is only feasible on small plants and cuttings. The only other way that I personally have been able to rid a large plant of broad mites is to spray with horticultural oil at greater than recommened rates. You risk defoliating the plant, but it will re-grow healthy, mite free leaves. Also, I am only talking about brugs here, not any other plant.
Something that you can do to kill off all the mites on brug cuttings is, to use the hort. oil spray and throughly soak the cuttings after they are taken. I would feel ok about sharing cuttings if they where treated this way. And hort. oil is the only "pesticide" that no insect has been able to develop immunity to.
Hope this helps.
thanks is hort oil called horticultural oil specificially or is there a brand name. I think I have seen it many times but assumed it was the same as volk etc etc etc also will it harm newly developing cuttings if so maybe I will allow them to get a little healthier (bigger) before I try this method thank you so much for the advise the problem is if I dont treat them all I havent done anything they just spread maybe in about a month and a half all my cuttings will be far enough along I can nuke them all with this treatment and if they live they live not much good to anyone if I cant eliminate the mites
also do you feel it necessary to spray or soak the soil? I think I will treat as you described as well as fog the green house when the time comes I,ll have to remove all my edibles though as I am a fanatic about organic gardening once these broad mites are gone I think I can resume my organic methods I have found spider mites much easier to deal with water and neem seem to keep them at bay
If you try all these and still have problems there's always Forbid. They haven't gotten immune to it yet. (Fairly new) Very expensive though! Rosemania sell it for around $300. People have gotten it cheaper on EBay. A little goes a long, long way so you could always go in with a few friends in your area.
Mary
Ted,
Volk horticultural oil is what is considered the "old" or heavy type of horticultural oil, this is mainly used when plants are dormant. Most of what we see on the market today is what is called "superior" or light grade horticultural oil, that can be used when plants are actively growing. I, myself, would consider Volk ok to use on freshly taken cuttings, since there are no leaves on the "plant". If you have cuttings that are growing ok and have a good root system, I would use one of the lighter oils. But I have to say, I still use these at greater than recommended rates, with no real harm to the plant. BUT, you have to make sure that the plants are not under any stress from lack of water at all. If you spray a water stressed plant it WILL lose its leaves. Believe me, I know from experience when I did this to one of my brugs. I did not pay any attention to the plant needing water the evening I sprayed. I came home from an errand the next evening to find a pitiful looking plant that ended up losing all of its leaves. But it did regrow it leaves with NO broad mites and went on to bloom later on that summer/fall.
Ted, I too, am a organic gardener. The oils are considered acceptable organic controls for pests. I just wish that there was an organic fertilizer that would meet the demanding needs of brugmansia.
Here is a link comparing the two different types of oil, and be sure to click on the small links on the page that tells about the uses of the oils. www.yardener.com/UsingHorticulturalOil.html
Elizabeth,
What is the ratio your friend uses with the Ivory Dish liquid? You know, how many teaspoons / Tablespoons per gallon of water? I'll try anything when it comes to broad mites.
Mary,
I have heard lots of good things about Forbid, except for the price. LOL I think you can only use it 3 times in a season correct? It would however, be a good product to use in rotation with other products to control the mites. I have to say, I HATE broad mites!! I would rather battle any other pest than have to deal with broad mites. And it seems that over the past few years that the broad mites have attacked almost everyone across the entire country.
This message was edited Jan 21, 2007 4:14 AM
That's right, David! The price is horrid and they recommend not using it as a preventative measure, or using it more than 3 times per season. This precaution is so that mites won't develop an immunity to it the way they have to other chemicals. We can have mites year round, here in dry Southern California.
Ted, I hate broad mites too. I never got mites before I grew brugs. They almost ruin the experience of growing them. I have had great luck with Neem Oil if the outbreak is light enough. I use it stronger than recommended though. But last summer after a record hot spell I had them all over. They were on so many different kinds of plants. No way I could cover the tops and bottoms completely with the Neem oil. With Forbid, you do not even have to spray under the leaves. It worked so great. I recall it has 6 week residual action too. I didn't get them back for the rest of the season.
I am sure tempted to try Alistair's method of mite control by buying predatory mites. I remember reading you can buy certain ones that are particular to what ever mite you are fighting. If you live in a warm climate you might want to look into them to see if one kind would do well where you are. No poison/no spraying sure is appealing.
Uak! broadmits. Mine came from Germany and the Netherlands, where I ordered Brugmansia in 2002-04. I used a dimetoad agent called 'Pherfektion'. It worked systemic and wiped most of the colonies away after several treatments. However, the broadmites occured again, so I cut the trees down and threw the crowns away and stem, rootball pot and all went into a large rainwater container with warm water.
From that time I made it a routine that all new cuttings get a hot water treatment. It kill most garden insects incl. eggs and larvas. I also use hot water treatment on cuttings that leaves the house.
Still, we have spidermites and aphids here plus caterpillars and slugs and you name it. The larva of the hoverfly eat a lot of insects like ie. aphids, so we plant a loot of 'bee-flowers', which also attracts the stribed flyes. The rest of the insects are splashed away with a waterhose with cold water.
We also plant green cabbage (green cale) to attract butterfly catapillars. It works surprisingly good.