Here are some places I have ordered from: 7 Springs Farm - good organic grower supplies for very good prices. Peaceful Valley Farm Supply - more organic grower stuff than 7 Springs but more expensive. Great Lakes IPM - great collection of phermones for traps and mating disruption. I am going to be experimenting with codling moth and OFM mating disruption this coming year and just ordered stuff from them. Bioscape - another good organic supply place Agriculture solutions - ditto. I have not ordered from them yet but their selection looks very good; some of the prices are high. I don't buy many non-organic things but here is one place with many chemicals: JR Johnson I bought Agrimycin from them a few weeks ago. Also type the chemical name into the eBay search box and you will find eBay suppliers of quite a few things. I have ordered from several of them with no problems so far. Do make sure they have good feedback. Some chemicals go by many names so search the actual chemical name in both title and description and you will find these. Spinosad comes in either small amounts via a Monterey Garden Insect Spray product or Entrust which costs a ton since each package treats a huge area. Its too bad there is no middle ground there. 7 Springs sells the Monterey product by the case so maybe thats the best middle ground. Scott

Loopers, probably because of the number of generations each year (2 or 3 each year in the north and even more further south) so they are able to develop immunities to these things. However, two control methods work quite well and these are Bacillus thuringiensis - Kurstaki and Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus. I've not seen anything yet about Spinosad beig effective, but that may because my sources have not had a chance to use it yet. To make the NPV take several of the target insects (this is species specific) and whiz them in a blender with some water, to make a liquid. Allow this to steep for at least 24 hours, then strain and spray. The theory is that all insects carry the diseases that will kill them and this simply releases those pathogens.

lzrddr.... You hit the nail right on the head! You have no idea how I would love to do just as you suggest. Distance, and climate always seem to separate me from the plants I want to grow, and I'm afraid that if I do visit such places - where the climate is so conducive to growing these types of plants so easily,- I may just stay there for the rest of my life...to live in peace. I've had it with New York, the lousy climate, traffic, noise, everything. I need some BIG changes, and fast...but, I'm stuck here for now...and it's beyond my control. Incredible to read that you can so easily find this plant! Thanks.... Frank, ... still freezing in NYC

Hello Everyone, Hi Iso!! I have heard of others using the Fish Emulsion on the Spider mites.. But i have liked the Bayer 3 and 1 for my trees. I did use it during the summer (early am) but the sun came out and it was a unusualy hot sunny day and i dameged my leaves. Needless to say, i was bummed. The mites were taken care of, but i had to wait to let the damage from the direct sun finally settle in with the spotted leaves. I now know that i should have waited for a day that was cloudy to spray in the early morning an let it soak in. All of the damaged leaves have finally fallen off and i have trees that have healthy leaves. I also like to spray the leaves in the am with the medium strenght spray to take care of anything that may want to settle into the trees. My biggest problem this summer was slugs and crickets... I would have to do slug patrol at night and watch those crickets as i plucked them with my fingers to get them off of my trees. Hope you find something to take care of the spider mites. This is the reason that i will limit the amount of trees that i keep growing under lights this winter. They love the Plumeria and leave all of my C & S, palms etc alone... Go figure? Take care, Let us know what does best for you!!! Laura in VB