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Urgent--Need Safe Spider Mite Control Recommendations

Hello all--Spider mites have broken out like wildfire (in just 2 days!!) and I have many different types of windowsill plants that are now in trouble. What would be the best control for mites preying upon:

D. capensis/spatulata/capillaris/intermedia/binata/aliciae
Lithops seedlings
Myrmecodia tuberosa

The urgency is because most of the plants are seedlings and I really do not want to lose anybody. Because of the lithops, I can't submerge the plants and need a systemic insecticide, hopefully one that is safe for the plants and me. Thanks for all responses!
 
For most I suggest dunking...leave the plants submerged in water for 2-3 days, and repeat a week later to kill any eggs that might have survived.you could also try a systemic pesticide such as merit or orthene.
 
For most I suggest dunking...leave the plants submerged in water for 2-3 days, and repeat a week later to kill any eggs that might have survived.you could also try a systemic pesticide such as merit or orthene.

submerged the plant in water to get rip of those annoying pests, thats a awesome idea. thanks for sharing


agentrdy u can try neem oil i have read about this product its perfectly safe for ur plants and kill bad insects in few days, even destory unhatch eggs.
 
Hello all--Spider mites have broken out like wildfire (in just 2 days!!) and I have many different types of windowsill plants that are now in trouble. What would be the best control for mites preying upon:

D. capensis/spatulata/capillaris/intermedia/binata/aliciae
Lithops seedlings
Myrmecodia tuberosa

The urgency is because most of the plants are seedlings and I really do not want to lose anybody. Because of the lithops, I can't submerge the plants and need a systemic insecticide, hopefully one that is safe for the plants and me. Thanks for all responses!

For most I suggest dunking...leave the plants submerged in water for 2-3 days, and repeat a week later to kill any eggs that might have survived.you could also try a systemic pesticide such as merit or orthene.

:D

What is a good pesticide that is CP safe?
 
:D

What is a good pesticide that is CP safe?
IMHO, with pesticides, all CP are not created equal. Sarrs can handle many types w/ few issues. OTOH, Drosera are greatly impacted by most (aka - they die). Sometimes it's not the active that does the killing but some of the 'other' stuff - like surfactants. I seem to remember that Imidacloprid pesticides are one of the least damaging to sundews - however:
- I vaguely remember a post from Barry that states that this is not effective against mites (poked around & located the thread)
- this compound is implicated in honeybee issues

Whatever you use - post the results so we can learn ....
 
Neem oil!!!
i have no prob w/ any dew i've used it on. Works well on stuff like Cephs too.
 
I'd total go with neem oil as Indigo and CPlantaholic suggested. I've used it on cephs and utrics even.
 
They sell friendly mites that eat spider mites. If you look you can find them through Google pretty easily.
~Joe
 
Get some dry ice and put 'em in a RubberMaid storage container with lid. Put a chunk of dry ice in there and close the lid. Leave it for a couple of hours and the fumigate the suckers with CO2. You might be able to baking soda and vinegar as a source of CO2 if you're careful about splatter and overflow.

The CO2 won't hurt the plants and will kill the eggs too.
 
  • #10
Oooh, that's a good one, NaN. I'll have to try that next time I get an isolated infestation.
~Joe
 
  • #11
Get some dry ice and put 'em in a RubberMaid storage container with lid. Put a chunk of dry ice in there and close the lid. Leave it for a couple of hours and the fumigate the suckers with CO2. You might be able to baking soda and vinegar as a source of CO2 if you're careful about splatter and overflow.

The CO2 won't hurt the plants and will kill the eggs too.

Wow NaN!

That's so brilliant you should patent it! :) I trust you've tried this method with success?
That's just so awesome for terrarium plants I have to wonder why someone didn't suggest it earlier! Thanks for a fantastic idea!
 
  • #12
Well, taking all of the comments into account as well as some more research I did, I will post my course of action and also make some more notes so that this post can be searched and solutions found in the future.

-Generally, plants are at risk only from severe infestation (i.e. leaves turning yellow and falling off). Spider mites favor water-stressed plants in low humidity circumstances (i.e. the average sunny windowsill's humidity), so keeping your plants healthy is the first step to limit predation (they favor my lithops and myrmecodia over the water-laden CPs... I've also kept a "moat" in my CP container by filling them constantly to the soil surface and drowning anything I can't already kill above ground). Also, older plants fare better than younger plants. Mites can kill seedlings very fast however, which is why I worried.
-Rubbing alcohol on a Q-tip works very well to kill quickly.
-Press your fingers on the over- and undersides of the plant leaves, squish all bugs, and slide your fingers out to the leaf tips to smash anything on the plant. They nest under the leaves, so anything seeming like it has eggs should be clipped off and thrown outside.
-I used a combination of the above two techniques about 3-5x daily and the problem has been drastically reduced.
-Mite predators live outside. Putting plants outside should, at the very least, enable you to take some predatory mites back inside with you.
-Quarantine infected plants. I grow in empty grocery store yogurt/sour cream/ice cream containers with lids on them. The benefit works two ways: I can clamp the lids on infected plants to keep mites from spreading, and I can also lid the uninfected plants.

The process was labor-intensive, but it has seemed to work for the time being and in about a month or so the plants will be moved outside to enjoy the warm temperatures and the mites will no longer be a problem because their predators will keep them in check.

Hope nobody else gets these nasty buggers.

NaN--The CO2 trick seems great, fast, and cheap. More CO2 in the air even makes your plants grow faster (commerical GH owners use that trick on a larger scale). However, for tropical plants (when I get the time and spare plants I will experiment with it someday) wouldn't the dry ice lower the temps in the container beyond what they can stand? Also, you might just be building a big plastic bomb (I used to put dry ice in 2 liter coke bottles as a kid and they can be pretty potent). Like I said though, it's too intriguing an idea for me not to try it out later and I'd also like to know what your experience with using it is.
 
  • #13
Re: CO2

Leave the lid off for a time. CO2 is heavier than air and will displace the the oxygen. The lid and container should have plenty of flexibility to handle any expansion. If not, most likely the lid will just pop open. If there are no air currents around you may not need a lid at all.

Plants will not photosynthesize CO2 in the absence of light. Either get a dark colored container (such as a trash can) or do it in a dark room.

Temperature drops depends on the size of the chunk of dry ice and how well the container insulates (not very well if polypropylene or other commonly used resins).
 
  • #14
The ingenuity of growers always amazes me. DRY ICE! I love it! Where can one obtain the stuff?

For my part, I always relied on Orthene. I was very nervous about using it initially, but following the dilution instructions found zero impact to any of my cultivated Drosera species or seedlings. Not as cool as dry ice though.:hail:
 
  • #16
The ingenuity of growers always amazes me. DRY ICE! I love it! Where can one obtain the stuff?

Ice houses, meat packers, beverage/party supply stores. Markets and big liquor stores might carry it. You gotta ask for it because it is cold enough to "burn" if not handled carefully. If not they can tell you where to go ;)
 
  • #17
Get some dry ice and put 'em in a RubberMaid storage container with lid. Put a chunk of dry ice in there and close the lid. Leave it for a couple of hours and the fumigate the suckers with CO2. You might be able to baking soda and vinegar as a source of CO2 if you're careful about splatter and overflow.

The CO2 won't hurt the plants and will kill the eggs too.

this is the prefered method of pest control within the dart frog hobby as there are no chemicals that will hurt the frogs.......so long as you remove all frogs from the tank before hand you have no problems other than a fungal bloom that soon goes away......


the problem with killing mites is that they are an arachnid, not an insect.....you need to have a pesticide that specifically says it will kill mites.....alot of insecticides dont phase mites....
 
  • #18
I use pyganic brand pyrethrin. It is organic and very effective.
 
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