jack hagenaars

careful with neem oil..it does do some cellular damage to some plants. I know someone who tried it on phalaenopsis orchids and did alot of damage. Certainly if you are going to try it...use one or two plants first to see if you get any damage,before applying it to all your plants...just a suggestion...

jeffreyp

Try Concern Brand Insecticidal soap spray, it's the best thing I have ever seen that wipes out spider mites.

lwabirds

I take rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball. I rub the leaves down (get them wet). It will kill the mites. You will have to monitor the plants for future mites. It works!

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john_ny

Scot - When you mentioned putting the D.E. in a coffee strainer, do you mean the metal thing with little holes, from a percolator? Surely, you don't mean a paper coffee filter.

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John

Chironex

Like a strainer you would use to strain orange juice pulp. It probably costs a buck or so at the Dollar stores.

Google Image Result for http://sadguruind.com/images/Various%20Tea%20and%20Coffee%20Strainer.jpg

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Scot

john_ny

Thanks, that's what I thought.

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John

Chironex

Absolutely, 100% correct. This works great on mites, scale and mealybugs, but if you have quite a few plants, the D.E. method is easier and leaves some residual protection for future outbreaks. The D.E. spray can also get into the harder-to-reach places more effectively. Each method is great, it is just dependent upon the scale of the project. Generally, if you have mites on one plant, they will soon be found on others in the vicinity.

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Scot

JCDerrick

I finally got some of the D.E. for x-mas, though my family bought me the powder-like dust instead of what you all suggested. So the other day my wife and I hauled all the bananas out of the garage while it was warm and started to dust them.

After 3-5 minutes of that I said it was pointless and decided to try and mix with water and use a sprayer. The dust mixed well enough and seemingly came out in the spray. So I'm curious if what was as effective as using the strainer?

I'm going to use the dust to mix with dirt in the spring; keep the little buggers at bay. I've already decided though that next year all my bananas (except a select few) are going in the ground. They just take up too much space in the garage and are a buffet for spider mites and aphids alike; and I need the room for my truer zone 10-14 tropicals.

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Malama 'Aina



Normal Jan. Low: 34°F, Normal Jul High: 92°F
Coldest: 16-20°F, Warmest: 98-103°F
Annual Precip: 48 inches

Chironex

Hi John,
Actually the water method works best as dusting gets on everything and is actually less effective.
I had to chuckle when I pictured you and your wife dusting the plants.
The fine slurry is what you want in your sprayer. Eventually it will clog, but just take off the tube, back-flush the strainer and nozzle and reassemble - you're good to go.
Trial and error has taught me the best way to do it. Definitely go with the NAPA stuff and you will find 100% effective results.
I am considering buying a big bag of this and re-packaging it into smaller amounts for everyone. This would be a lot easier for everyone to handle and would save having to buy the big bag that would last for about 5 years or more! Anyone having an interest in this, PM me and if enough people want it, I will go ahead with it. I would think it would cost about a $1.00 plus shipping for a sandwich bag sized lot.
I will also include a diagram of how to properly prepare it.

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Scot

JCDerrick

Thanks Scot. The dusting with a duster (also provided by them) was quite humorous, I think I got more on myself than the bananas.

I just tried the water method again indoors using a nice slurry, much much better than all those nasty soaps and chemical sprays. Only real issue is the white chalk look. I sprayed one of my pothos plants - came back a half hour later and the wall, the hardwood floor, and curtain were all chalky white. My wife about skinned me alive. Guess I better get a mop and use less powder in the mix next time. LOL

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Malama 'Aina



Normal Jan. Low: 34°F, Normal Jul High: 92°F
Coldest: 16-20°F, Warmest: 98-103°F
Annual Precip: 48 inches

Richard

Scot, the D.E. that is sold in ~20 lb bags for swimming pools -- is this the same granularity as the product you are recommending?

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Chironex

Although I haven't seen the stuff for swimming pools, I would imagine that it is much finer in granularity than the kitty litter sized granules in NAPA's "Super Absorbent". I would think too that the pool grade stuff is much more "washed" to prevent cloudiness in the water. We actually want the dusty stuff. It is the dust that goes into suspension in water that does the trick.

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Scot

Richard

O.K., I'm going to check it out. For a retail price, that seems appropriate for a 25 lb bag of D.E.

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Chironex

Here is what it looks like. Difficult to find on their online pages, so just call your local NAPA store and ask for part number 8822 -"Super Absorbent"

http://partimages2.genpt.com/partimages/214603.jpg

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Scot

mskitty38583

greetings on the spider mite issues....

being that i cant bend over and pick up my nanas and put them in the shower i found something that really does work. i put 2 drops of dawn dishsoap in a spray bottle, filled it up with warm water and them sprayed the !@#$ out of the mites. after a day they had all dried up. and the angles on high sing...... i will repeat this again in a week...i hope this helps you.

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Patty in Wisc

I use more Dawn. One big squirt into about 6 oz. HOT water works. Alcohol is also good.

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Patty in Wisc has sadly passed away 9/05/11. We will miss you Patty.

Lagniappe

I've read that much of the DE that's packaged for swimming pools is mined from marine sources and may have a high level of salinity. Most of the spill clean up types are mined in NV or UT (there are the great salt lakes there too....hmmm ....I had not considered this until now) and are used by some for hydroponics. Anyways, just some stuff I read ,worth checking into though.
I did look up the brand name on the ones I bought and went to their website to see where it was mined. Those are the two states I came up with. These could be ancient sea beds but, from what I read, I gathered that they were freshwater deposits.

Chironex

Good job, it's difficult to tell from where they came as the entire United States was once covered by a huge shallow sea.
The salinity aspect shouldn't really make any difference though when used for killing external pests.
I would guess that I can spray about 50 plants with one spray bottle, so very little would actually get into the soil.
The thing I like about this method is that it remains in place to keep killing until it rains, then washes right off.

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Scot

Lagniappe

The two brands that I have (I've thrown the packaging out so idk which) claim to be mined in NV from freshwater deposits. This is important to me because I've mulched my plants with it and have basil in cups of it in my hydroponics table. I'm hoping that it'll keep the blasted slugs/snails at bay this year.

JCDerrick

I've sprayed with it indoors using a 1/2 gallon sprayer - seems to be working very well and very little seems to get in the soil. Funny thing is how it sprays on clear - ten minutes later it looks like it snowed in the house.

Hasn't worked as well on the mealy bugs or spider mites yet - but I might just need to give it more time. They've gotta crawl over it sometime.

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Malama 'Aina



Normal Jan. Low: 34°F, Normal Jul High: 92°F
Coldest: 16-20°F, Warmest: 98-103°F
Annual Precip: 48 inches