you plants will pull through Marian.. just a little mite or white fly killer will do the trick and they will grow new leaves...

There is a thread on mites you might want to check, or wait, some of the better insect controllers will chime in :)

Oh I hope so Barry. I'm already sick just looking at my little babies.

Of course that baseball bat or log I got from you is doing WONDERFUL...but I better not brag too soon. That sucker is huge. Oh and I'm so proud of that variegated brug you have going. Please be sure and remember me when you start taking cuttings. It will not bother me to be moved up in the line just a little (grin). I know the others would understand.
LOL.

I'm heading out the door to get me some epson salt, ammonia, tea tree oil, liquid seaweed, and some unsulphered molasses to make that concoction for my brugs and see if it will help them any. At this point I'll do whatever it take s to save them. Oh and I thought I was doing so good with my 3 in one spray. Gee when those little suckers (bugs) get ahold they are a pain to get rid of. (frown)

Needless to say I'm worried to death about my precious babies. Thanks for the words of encouragement. I just need to know what to spray them with. I've also noticed that something is eatting on my brugs in the greenhouse.=, but I don't know what it is. (frown) I do have a purple dat blooming in there today tho. So that cheered me up a little bit.

Marian

Hello Marian, I have several links on insects & control.
As I only research what I need/want to know I can only point out the links and let you have them for future reference. This link should be sufficient for you to find something for the more difficult white fly problem.

In brief they advise permethrin-based insecticides or malathion for white flies.

http://www.garden-centre.org/gardenpestsanddiseases.htm
-Sandra

Do you have any fungus gnats? I notice the plants that I have seen a couple of those around went into rapid decline. Going to repot them all this weekend in different soil.

Marian

I was going to bring this up on one of the cutting threads, but I can't find it one......yours is handy! ;-)

Take them leaves off! I can't believe the difference in how easy it is to spray now, with no leaves and the ones that are growing back are just a cinch to drench with poison. And you can expect some browning at the top, die-back. You can even get new growth from underground, little new sprouts coming up from the stem that is buried.

Listen to Barry! Most will be okey. we have all lost a few but not many. By now, the ones that made it are going to see Spring!

B

Marian, I can replace anything you got from me if it doesn't make it.
Keep spraying, they should be fine.

Linda

Marian, I am sorry to hear you & your babies are sad. Think postive, it'll get better. Hopefully they will be just fine and bloom beutifully for you this year. Spray spray spray! Good luck!

Hanging my head here, this is just the process of growing brugmansia cuttings, no leaves means less critters!! I can't not say this to loud can I during the winter months this is an open invite. Winter is a time for roots. I would take these to the sink, hot water them with a sprayer, allow to drain, then put sand on the top of the soil. Allow to dry out and do this again. Yellow sticky paper or whatever you can find to yes. There is also that Blue can of Raid if you think you have a serious problem that can be reversed. Keeping my toes crossed for you and know some of us will have rooted ones in the spring?

Marian As a stop gap, at least pull of the curled distorted young leaves, if not all the leaves.

If you defoliate, I believe someone mentioned using hydrogen peroxide or alcohol in some proportion to wipe the stems down and kill all insects.
Can I get some feedback on this, as I may have to defoliate as well?
So far I have been keeping the serious problem at bay, but still have mites.

Karma I just posted the above at the same time as your post, so my question is can I use hot water instead of the above aforementioned solution, to kill mites on defoliated stems? How hot? and would you drench the soil as well with hot water?

I am wanting to give mine a bath as well and still can't figure out how to wash the plant and soil without stopping up my sink. I need an outdoor one! How are your babies Marian? My husband suggested setting off a bug fogger in the garage but I won't do it. I'm afraid it will kill the plants. I'll just keep spraying.

oxmyx, hot as you can get out of the tap should work but you will have to do this a couple times to make sure.
Put a coffee filter or a paper towel that will allow drainage. Fool4flowers, just a mist of the blue can in the garage should do ya just fine. Hold the can at least 16" away and just mist. Then leave the door shut for a couple hours.

Ok, I will take a poke at this. I used this in my sprayer outside 5 lbs of flour to 1 quart of buttermilk it made 25 gallons of spray. It did work now for a break down to gallons. Take 1/25 and make proportions accordingly. Premix the flour real well. Close proportions 2 oz buttermilk and whatever flour you can easily make go into solution. This is a remedy from the 30's. spray top and bottom of leaves.

Now it is questionable if you want to spray inside. I believe it works by sticking them. My plants liked it. Now Karma has dealt with inside bugs. I raise no house plants. The blue can is more of my style for inside. I have never used or seen it but need to. Now I am the person who wanted to go natural and just bought some Forbid for the summer. I know I copped out but it is a backup. I will have so many Brugs in the spring that I may not be able to deal with it without a big gun.

flour and buttermilk will work better than methoxychlor?? Now I am really confused. What are the active ingredients in this that kill mites?

Barry

Jeep said it sticks them to death .............................they get smothered, sounds like!

B

Is this also your buttermilk pancake mix, Jim? :)

I have only used flour. I am not a cook so I would not know. I do not know how it kills them but it does work. All of these things just control them. There is no eradication.. The more you can throw at them the better. Mine is a year round battle. Your outside mites should be knocked down real good. Mine are taking a rest preparing for battle.

Barry deadly pesticides do not work on mites. They brush their choppers in it and laugh it is a aphrodisiac for them.

The more leaves you have the more Bug Condo's you provide!!! Have them do a Striptease... clean them up and you should be fine!Sorry to hear you are having a hard time.. It is so wonderful to have all that beautiful lush green foilage..BUT you will without proper circulation and humidity have bugs!

so Marian, just so you know, I finally gave up and stripped all the leaves, on most of them, and then isolated them from the rest. (those bugger don't fly, they rely on the wind.. right, Jim?

Well I'm going to take all the leaves off in the morning and do as ya'll say. Wipe, spray, sand, and anything else I can think of to get these suckers under control.

Please someone tell me that the bugs will not be this bad once we plant them outside. If you tell me they are going to be worse I may have to re-think having droves of brugs. I'd have to buy one of those power sprayers to spray everything. Oh geez, some of the situations I get myself into.

Hot water from the sink sprayer will not HURT my babies? If you tell me it will not, I'm going to give them a good hot bath tomorrow too. (frowning)

My poor little babies are going to look like plucked chickens when I get all the leafs off. (sticking out bottom lip) They were looking so nice with all their leaves before they started getting SICK.

Thanks for the advise and comments everyone. At this point I up to trying ANYTHING!

Happy Gardening, Marian

Oh and Karma, isn't it kind of difficult to cross your toes?
I think I forgot to tell you here awhile back how cute your little purple toes with all the toe rings on were....
(smile)

I've used the flour/milk mix on eggplants and other veggies. I used it to kill those tiny black beetles that always infest my eggplant. It does work on them and I assume it will work on other sucking insects. It suffocates them and dehydrates them as it dries.
Karyn

I'm curious about the flour and buttermilk mixture. Does it have to be buttermilk? Can it be water or plain milk? I never buy buttermilk, but have made it for a recipe that calls for it by adding an acid to milk like lemon juice/vinegar(?); do you think that might work? FYI, aside from a few gnats, I don't have the mites but if anyone has answers, it might help someone else.

I have buttermilk powder from the baking aisle at the market. It is supposed to be the real stuff, just dry. I've used it in cooking but it should work in the spray (just add water) & would be easy to keep on hand in the fridge for when you need it.

Linda