pagrdnr, when we clean the spayer we use 1/4 cup of bleach to the gallon of water and while that mix is in there we will do the cement as to not waste it. Ya know where the pots sit and you get that green mossy stuff or on the brick retaining walls where the black moss grows due to the shadey area. That way I know it's cleaned out and then rise with water. I did the whole yard as DH said he is fighting webbing from the neighbor's nut tree every morning going to his truck. We will see if this works on the mite webbing from the evergreens in the back also. I believe the package that this was sent in said 20 drops per 1/8 teaspoon, as that is what we used. I got up at 5 am to do this while the morning air was so still.

AS works great for SM. Its the broad mites now that I am after. Leaf curl and stem die back. When it is sprayed the leaves start to go normal but will go back to a curl on new leaves. Grrrrrrrrrr. I get tired of spraying. If I do nothing I can track their progression across the yard. They also are wind riders. I am going to try some horticultural oils mixed in between AS and spray everything including the neighbors yard. That is where they are coming from. I am a miteaphobe and have 0 tolerance for them. "- No highly effective miticides appear to be available, with horticultural oil the primary material present. Some combination products with acephate contain fenbutatin-oxide and can be used on outdoor ornamentals. A bit of dicofol/Kelthane remains on shelves. However, overall there remains a paucity of effective materials to control mites" "- A new systemic insecticide, dinotefuran, was found for the first time in two products. This is only the second neonicotinoid insecticide sold in this market, following imidacloprid" Imidacloprid will wack everything else but mites and good. Neonicotinoid, we banned nicotine but now make synthetic. Go figure. It is very good even on mealy bugs,and white flies so I hear. Now we are down to Oils or coatings AS and the new family of mectins the mother of the current $300.00 a pint miticides. Now that is way too expensive for commercial ventures and farming. The item designed as a wormer is the current hope on the horizon. The mectin patent has expired and now is generic. The Avids and Forbids are patented. Be so very careful if you use them. They have the capability to wipe out entire colonies of bee's and such. It is not a contact killer. Anything that touches can transmit enough of a dosage to kill an entire colony by casual contact over time. My vote is with the mechanical barriers and small amounts of oil. The oils are supposed to work on the soft body insects like mealy bugs and white flies. I have never used oil but it is already purchased. Any of you with oil experience fill me in. I am going by pure research. I would like to try some oil with AS in our winter months to see if it will combined work on broad mites.

The link did work but I didn't read it. It was about 1 am here when you posted. I was awake but not awake enough for that much reading. lol I was surprised when you first said they remain in water 24/7 but then remembered something that I did this past summer. I have a baby pool that I use to water plants from the bottom. I had a couple passies and brugs that I'd set in there and left them for at least 3 weeks just because I was too lazy to move them. lol. They both did beautifully and were in a few inches of water the entire time. These plants all happened to be quite root bound so there was more roots then soil in the pots. I thought that maybe they didn't rot because there wasn't much soil to retain moisture but maybe not?????

I live in NW Harris County (I consider our broad area "gulf coast" which is why I'm interested in this forum, but I actually live on the brink of the Texas prairie) and there are at least 3 neighbors in my subdivision who grow outstanding (looking) orange trees!! They are very tall, though. I have noticed that the fruits at the tops of their trees have not been harvested (you can see them over 10 foot privacy walls). I'm pretty surprised that those trees are thriving here because we do have cooler weather than Houston downtown or areas closer to the coast. However, I'm guessing these individuals did their research and got very hardy, appropriate orange species for this part of Texas!