Spider webs everywhere, losing battle
gr8daygw
11 years ago
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Comments (23)
tempusflits
11 years agogr8daygw
11 years agoRelated Discussions
Please help-spider mites?
Comments (11)Spider mites can kill plants. If you doubt it, just come and look at all my neighbors and our tomato plants (this year and last). All are almost totally defoliated now by the little @#(&!!. Spraying plants with forceful jets of water every day for days/weeks may work for a minor infestation (and I've used it for that myself), but if they have arrived en masse and have attacked several plants you will need to do more then spritz them with water (where they can fall to the ground and climb right back up again). And unlike our cooler cousins up north, in our looong hot summer climate spider mites have time to reproduce like rabbits, hatching every 3 days until a freeze. They are a force of nature, and whether you spray insecticides or not (and I normally never do), spider mites arrive every year in my garden in spring. A Godsend to me was the introduction of AVID in the 80's. It's active ingredient, Abamectin is a naturally occuring soil microorganism, and as such it's effectivness is limited to only certain " bad bugs", such as mites. There are 5 things that you need to be aware of when using AVID. (1) It works, (2)It is translaminar, which means that it penetrates the leaf surface and is inside the leaf was well as on the outside, (3)You are to use it only when you have an infestation, never as a preventative. Mites will build up a tolerance to it if over used making it useless. That btw, is a guarantee. (If you get past #4 here, then you should ask about the spray schedule)(4)It is expensive but (5) It works....See Morebattleing blackspot
Comments (46)Moril: I appreciate your raising question about how much nitrogen tree bark robs compared to others. There's this government website http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplrn/fplrn091.pdf which makes a big issue out of tree bark and nitrogen deficiency by suggesting addition of 25 ammonia, or 80 lb. of urea, or 100 lbs. of ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulfate. On the other hand, there's this Colorado University Extension that says tree bark doesn't rob the soil that much nitrogen, since it's a very slow decomposition. Then there's another University Extension that recommends stable owners to add nitrogen to their horse manure mixed with hay, so that they can get rid of their manure easier to the farmers. My take: Horse manure on hay breaks down faster that big chunk of tree bark, so nitrogen deficiency is more of an urgent issue with aged horse manure. My main concern with tree bark is NOT the nitrogen issue (I have to supplement NO MATTER what with my poor-nitrogen alkaline clay). My concern is the fungus issue. Check out this website from Pen. State University: http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/d/d/ddd2/ The above links is about artillery fungus on decayed wood bark that gets on white cars parked nearby. That's the same concern that the British paper wrote about tree bark mulch contributing to blackspot in roses. I take www.greenharvest.com recommendations of using number choice 1) oat straw and 2) pine park with a grain of salt: I used pine bark in the past with my 15 roses and had the worst blackspot, despite chemical spray. This website makes a good point about potassium deficiency as making the rose more prone to blackspot....See MorePreventing/Controlling Spider Mites
Comments (24)Shamae, How big are the bugs? I know you posted a photo, but without something whose size is known (like, for example a dime or a penny or something) placed beside them to provide context, it is hard for us to understand what size your pests are. Spider mites are roughly the size of the dot over the letter "i". They are very hard to see with the naked eye and hard to view in a photo, though once you're used to seeing them, you can flip over a leaf and look at the underside of it and see the tiny mites on the plants then. Sometimes, folks new to spider mites aren't sure if they are seeing spider mites and we tell them to hold a clean white sheet of paper underneath a plant leaf and thump it. Tiny insects the size of a period will fall onto the paper and begin moving, and if that happens, they likely have spider mites. It actually is easier to identify mites on plants by the damage they do than by seeing the mites themselves. If you can tell us more about your pests, perhaps we can help you with an ID. If, by chance, they are the same size as spider mites, I'd suspect chiggers, but the pests in your photo look larger....more like the size of aphids? Not that I'm saying they are aphids, but rather that's just the size they are. Are you here in OK? Was your compost wet or was it dry? The more info you share, the better we might be able to help you figure out what it is that you're seeing. Or at least what it isn't. Dawn...See MoreThe battle with spider mites has begun...ugh!!
Comments (74)Im lucky to have avoided spider mites, just a few thrips that I seem to have got rid of. And some fungus gnats. But, I discovered a LOT of little bastards in the soil of mine Ficus elastica. I did some research and diagnosed them as some sort of soil mites. Fast moving buggers. What Ive red they eat organic matter and are sort of predators(actually I saw couple of those catch springtails after 30min of watching their behaviour), but Im still worried. Do they eat roots?...See Morejannie
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