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Spider mites

A few days ago I recieved a Dionaea muscipula B52 plant division and saw tiny red dots but I disregarded them. Today I was observing them closely and saw a couple moving and long story short, they are spider mites. So far I have been removing them manually with a wet Q-tip. I also collected some ladybugs on the plant, but they didn't really do much.

Anyway, I read to use neem oil or Garden safe miticide. Unfortunetly Home depot did not carry and of the two, and everything else was 99% *Other Ingrediants. I came across this:

http://www.amazon.com/Organocide-Insecticide-Fungicide/dp/B001CJ6764

Organocide. Couldn't find any sure answers on if it's safe or not. Active ingredient by weight is 0.10% sesame oil. Inactive ingredients are 1.84% fish oil, 0.06% lecithin, and 98.00% water. To me it sounded like it will work. Before I go and test it out on some typical VFTs, does anyone know if this is safe?

Thanks,
elmnt
 
The store I work at had a broad mite problem on basil. Organocide didn't control them. Maybe just put the plant outside, the wind sun and rain does wonders.
 
They're indoor pests, and they usually piss the hell out of indoor Nep growers and Marajuana growers specifically. Reason I know that is because I looked to that forum for help with mine.

They drown quite easily and if you just hose your plant down with water and leave it outside in the cold night, they'll die off. It's the eggs you want to worry about really. Just grow your plant outdoors to kill them back.

I managed to get rid of my problem with Bayer 3-in-1. Killed my moss a bit, but it's actually harmless on CP's. Neem oil isn't 100 percent effective. It doesn't kill the eggs which have a wicked long gestation period. The shells on the eggs have evolved to combat common pesticides over the years and some of them can only be combated by long period strict regimens of miticides. Pesticides will not and have not even worked against the ones I had.
 
Should I leave my B52 outside tonight in the cold 50's F? I don't want to harm it anymore as I already burned it alittle with too much sun.
 
If it got burned from outdoor sun, that's his own fault. Trust me, if your B52 straight up dies from being outside, I'll buy you a new one. When a plant such as a Sarr or a Nep get's placed in it's ideal environment after being grown in less than ideal, it grows back twice as fast. I'll send you a picture of mine fresh out of dormancy tommorow.

Throw it outside, leave it outside. In the sunniest place you can find. The old foliage may burn, but the new foliage will be really tough. This is the season to acclimate anyways. Your B52 will die unless indoors in the long run unless you take extreme measure's to provide light.

Message me if you have any questions regarding outdoor growing. For the most part, everybody does it with VFT's, Sarrs, most Drosera.

PS. 50 degrees ain't **** for a VFT. Growers in Oregon leave em outside to freeze. As long as they're not actually frozen in ice, they come back even harder in the spring.
 
Spider mites can be a serious problem, especially in hot and dry weather, and putting them outside isn't necessarily going to get rid of them. I had them quite badly in Boulder, CO when I lived there and I grew all of my plants outside. Then when I moved to Ashland, OR (very hot and dry summers) I had a _severe_ mite problem and it set my plants back a lot.

Cold nights and spraying the plants with cold water will slow down the mites, but it won't get rid of them. I use Avid miticide now along with Ortho Orthenex to get rid of mites and protect my plants from other pests. Both products work very well and post no risk to your flytraps if you use them at the recommended concentrations.

Also, while VFTs can withstand freezing temperatures during the winter, they'll do much better if you keep them from freezing. I kept all of my plants out in my greenhouse this winter and kept it "lightly" heated (the low was around 40°F). My plants actually grew quite a bit through dormancy because they kept green leaves all winter and were able to photosynthesize. If you let them freeze, they'll lose all of their foliage and die back completely to the bulb, which will prevent them from growing much during dormancy.

For photos of how my plants looked a week ago in early spring see my photo threads here:
http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121797
and here:
http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=121798
 
I guess I was more concerned with his indoor growing than his mite problem. I'll go back to saying use a product like Bayer 3-in-1. Insecticide, fungicide, miticide. Pyrethrins make me nervous because they burn a plant if it accumulates on the leaves over time without being washed off. This applied towards the chemical pyrethrins. The organic type is derived from the chrysanthemum and worked very well in my experience.

Bayer is good for up to 30 *14 in most cases* days after application, meaning you don't have to apply it as frequently. Also, grow your plant outdoors. Also consider getting some sarracenia next since you'll need some more plants to go outside!

Here is my ailing plant in the process of recovery. Notice the mite damage, lessens as you move up to the newer growth. Killing mites has been a one week journey so far for this guy:

wSs5p.jpg


Still not gone, I catch the occasional bastard working my plant over, but in about a week they'll be gone.
 
Thanks for the help. I was able to remove all of the current mites manually as their colony was still small. I will look into these products for the hatching eggs. I know for sure Home Depot carries Bayer, but wasn't sure if it was safe. I also have tiny cupped trap seedlings in the pot that look free of mites, can I spray them to make sure or are they too young? And should I keep them out of direct sunlight after spraying or just treat them as if nothing were wrong?



Here is a picture I took of one under a microscope for no reason.
vftmitesz.png
 
Early stage infestations can often be eliminated by simply removing the mites with a water spray. Some people prefer swabbing on a diluted alcohol mixture. Moisture and humidity disrupts their life cycle in any case. Use insecticides (vs miticides) is generally frowned upon as killing off predatory insects can lead to increase mite populations.

Google "Spider Mite Control" for more information and options.

As for growing Dionaea under lights see this thread. Dormancy is a different matter. How to handle dormancy has been discussed many times before and is outside the scope of this thread.

Yes, you can insult some species with dramatic changes of culture and they may come back stronger than before...after many weeks, months or even a year or two. It depends on species and severity of the insult.
 
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