Mandy, I wish I could help you - any pictures of the varmints? I came to this thread because I do have spider mites on many houseplants I bought in early winter from big box stores during distressed sales, and I've been fighting spider mites for the past few months. I'll be honest - they're all in a room where sometimes they are forgotten for a week or more at a time so they get dry and stressed, and the mites don't get noticed sometimes until they've gotten down and dirty. But when I have found them and use the spray I bought (can't recall the name, got it at WalMart, in a green bottle) really well and wipe the leaves down, it keeps them off for a while. Then they show up on another plant. I'm just tired of fighting the spider mites - already have enough on my plate (2 toddlers, I work, I'm not the best organized, and we got a bit flooded in the recent rains, so I'm in "purge" mode) and want to know your thoughts on my choices: First off, is there such a thing as a total cure, as in they're not coming back? Or will this be a constant battle now that they're here? I don't remember my mom ever having spider mites with her plants, but she didn't have a lot of plants either (maybe this is why). Can I give them a good treatment with the spray and offer them on freecycle to anybody who would want to try to rehab them (with full disclosure of what they might be taking in), or is that just giving the mites the opportunity to infect somebody else's stuff... and therefore I should just toss what I have in the trash and save everybody the trouble? I know I will be giving the heave-ho to some fancy ivies (two kinds of "King's Choice" and "Gold Baby" which I thought were pretty but look a little bit ratty now), two earth star plants (just had pups), a Janet Craig dracaena that is in very good shape, a Pilea (Moon Valley) that looks awful but not because of mites (I just don't know what to do with it - I think it needs pinching and re-rooting but I'm never good at that so it's got legs a mile long and a few leaves at the top), a couple of diffenbachia (no mites), and maybe some more if I can make myself let go of them (corn plant that has a lot of mites on it (getting treated tomorrow), couple of little dracaena marginata, another spotted dracaena I brought back from near death, and my three red sister ti's in a pot but I don't think I can give them up... yet. Thanks in advance for your input. Terri

I agree 100% with the comment above (i.e., San Antonio)! I am hoping to help anyone who has had an on-going problem with red thread. Believe me that I have tried it all. I struggled with an outbreak for over ten years on an acre of land. There is no way to explain how this took over my life at times considering the amount of lawn I had and the length of time I struggled with it. I have spent untold thousands of dollars. I even became friends with a research scientist for a company that produced a natural microbe product, in addition to the president of a company that produced a nitrogen product with beneficial microbes. I did a lot of legwork and made many professional connections over the years. While some of the more natural remedies might be helpful (rather than using commercial fungicides which sterilize the soil and seem to perpetuate disease because the population of beneficial microbes is disturbed), I eventually felt that only correcting the true crux of the problem would lead to a solution. In other words, to try and approach red thread with the mindset that you have to overcome, annihilate, kill ... will never work, or at least in my experience. You can try to do everything you want to kill it, but the only way to get to a true solution is to boost the health of everything involved (i.e., soil, plant, microbes, etc.)! It is no different than the immune system of a human being! You have to boost the entire system with nutrients and not just one or two or three. And shouldn't minerals and beneficial microbe diversity be the first line of defense for plant life, just as it is for us? For us, 80% +/- of our immune system is in our guts, and if we don't have the correct amount of good bacteria and the proper bacterial diversity, disease takes over and autoimmune diseases develop. I used this knowledge and applied it to my lawn. Yes, it is true that lawns low on nutrients will be more prone to red thread and other diseases. We all know that the general solution is said to be nitrogen. Well, I tried the highest nitrogen I could get for a couple of years. Still had red thread. I have spoken with university extensions who said that when it developed, one application of nitrogen should eliminate it and they had witnessed this. Still waiting on that. So, it may be true for some, but not for me. I think this could be because commercial nitrogen itself can possibly compromise the soil microbiome? That may be up for debate? Since I knew the soil itself was the problem, I started researching the basis of all life ... minerals. I came upon an article on the Net entitled, "Turfgrass Diseases: The Relationship of Potassium." Now I had already gotten a soil analysis which said my potassium was high. But I couldn't help feeling that perhaps this was a potassium problem? Perhaps there was potassium in the soil, but to get it into the plant is a different matter altogether? Could it be that getting it into the cells of the plant was the issue? Soil compaction problem? Root issues? So many possibilities, who could say. But again, it's the same for humans. You can take all the vitamins and minerals you want, but if your gut isn't able to assimilate them, you are going to develop a deficiency. Keep in mind I had tried milk, corn meal (both corn gluten meal and regular), natural fungicides with clove or beneficial microbes (which sometimes did help short-term, but the red thread always came back), chicken manure, compost tea (which I eventually realized could make the problem worse because tea has to be brewed and immediately applied or it may end up feeding the bad bacteria, or so I was told and seemed to experience myself), etc. Name something and I have tried it. In any event, I decided to take a shot and get some liquid kelp on the off-chance my soil had a compaction issue (which I knew it did) and had trouble getting potassium into the plant itself -- and would probably provide overall anything and everything I was missing ... like covering all the possible bases because kelp does so much. More than I could explain in a post. Well, here it is almost nearly November when I normally have a huge outbreak that takes out at least 1/3 of my acre -- and no red thread. In fact, I had no red thread from the time I first applied kelp throughout the rest of the summer. Any further nitrogen? No. Any other natural fungicides? No. I admit I did apply a bit of beneficial microbes one time made by Morgan Composting, Inc. (it is called Plant Protector and it has a picture of a cow on the container) which is an excellent product in itself. But the kelp I applied is made by Fertrell's. I did also apply granular chicken manure earlier in the season, but it never seemed to eliminate the problem permanently and it can also lead to a build-up of calcium in the soil if over-used for too long or too many years (so use in moderation within the realm of a rotational program)? Don't know if that's true, but just what I heard? I loved the chicken manure product made by Groganic and it helped tremendously, but let's face it, if your soil isn't right, nothing will help permanently for the long haul or lead to a permanent solution. The kelp is cost efficient and my lawn looks fantastically green, even approaching November. I do believe this is the end of my problem. Synopsis: if you want to get rid of red thread, at least try liquid kelp. If you want to do all you can to make your lawn look like a golf course, get kelp, granular chicken manure, beneficial microbes in the form of liquid like the one by Morgan, maybe a little bit of corn meal thrown in (some say corn gluten meal is better, some say regular is better ... it's still up in the air to me which one helps to grow the beneficial fungus more efficiently) ... Rotate these for a little while and I am confident you will be on your way to a permanent solution. I hope this helps!

Make sure your bananas are good and ripe if you reduce sugar in your recipe in order to compensate for the loss of sweetness from the sugar. I basically agree with the suggestions give by cloudy christine. I would have looked at your recipe and would have judged it as too sweet, too much liquid and not enough leavening... Banana bread science... Baking soda is commonly the chemical leavening in banana bread, and the banana the acid ingredient that activates it. As bananas ripen, their acidity decreases, so their reaction in partnership with the baking soda is a weak one. A good banana bread recipe ensures adequate leavening by using BOTH baking powder and baking soda. This will assure the banana bread doesn't get too heavy. Here's a tried and true recipe with even less sugar than you are wanting in your recipe, but more than enough sweetness. It's also wholegrain, low-fat and low-sodium for a nutritional plus. -Grainlady Banana-Poppy Seed Bread 1 c. mashed banana 1/2 c. sugar (I use 1/4-1/3 c. agave nectar - a low-glycemic sweetener.) 1/2 c. skim milk 3 T. vegetable oil 1 egg, lightly beaten 1 c. all-purpose flour (I use freshly-milled spelt flour) 1 c. whole wheat flour 2 T. poppy seeds (or whole amaranth seeds works well, too - you can leave the seeds out all together, if desired) 2 t. baking powder 1/2 t. baking soda 1/2 t. salt 1/2 t. cinnamon vegetable cooking spray Combine the bananas and sugar in a small bowl; stir well. Let stand 10-minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in milk, oil, and egg; set the mixture aside. Combine all-purpose flour and next 6 ingredients in a large bowl and stir well. Make a well in center of mixture; add banana mixture to dry ingredients, stirring until moistened (with a spoon, NOT an electric mixer - do not over-mix). Spoon into an 8-1/2x4-1/2x3-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray (a 9x5-inch pan is TOO large for this recipe). Bake in a 350°F pre-heated oven for 1 hour, or until a pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes before removing - finish cooling on a wire rack. Yield: 1 loaf, 16 slices (about 125 calories per 1/2-inch slice). (Note: if you don't want a wholegrain version, use 2 cups all-purpose flour. I also add 2 T. flaxmeal to the recipe to increase the fiber. I often add walnuts (1/2 to 3/4 c.) to this recipe, but will omit the poppy seeds or amaranth seeds when I do.)

I occasionally had that problem with my mother's old Hobart and wished for something like the shield. I have the 5 qt. myself. The bowl is taller and in some ways harder to get into, but while it came with the shield, I never use it. I do add flour at low speed, however, though I don't always break it up. Sometimes I just dump it all in. Another way to handle it if you prefer to dump and run is to fold the wet over the top of the flour a few times with your scraper before you start the mixer. And you can always get a new shield since yours is broken...