Anna, Every fall somebody (maybe a federal agency, I can't remember) does a grass hopper count and forecasts grasshooper population numbers for the following year. This helps farmers and ranchers plan ahead for spring, and schedule orders of pesticides and ramp up for serious spraying or whatever. In the western states like Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Nebraska and a few others, the forecast for this year is for a massive grasshopper outbreak. Most of Oklahoma did not have a large outbreak forecast, but I'm seeing a lot of them nevertheless, although the main hatch seemed to hit very late...about late May instead of late March. The problem with grasshoppers is that if I see a lot of small ones and put out Nolo Bait or Semaspore to control them, it is likely to work just fine and will wipe out most of what I'm seeing. But, with hoppers being migratory, more move in from elsewhere all summer long and often they are in the later instars, so that Nolo Bait and Semaspore are not very effective with them. I put out Semaspore and within a week was seeing significantly fewer. This week, though, I bet we have more than 2 dozen per square yard, so I need to do something else and do it quick. They are destroying the leaves on my beans, catnip, lemon balm and now have started in on the peppers. I guess I'll make some canning jar traps with alfalfa tea and see how many I catch that way. J, You're welcome and congrats on the harvest! Spider mites are perplexing critters. For me, a trap crop of marigolds has proven to be very effective. It is interesting to note that the marigolds in the big garden were simply covered with spider mites but there's not a single one in Maddies' Peter Rabbit Garden about 100 feet away. Her garden is new this year, so maybe the mites haven't found it yet. I also get lots and lots of mites on an ornamental plant--tall verbena (Verbena bonariensis) that I grow to attract beneficial insects. This year, I've moved a lot of the verbena just outside the garden itself instead of having it in the flower border that surrounds the garden. Since the tall verbenas are so appealing to spider mites, maybe they'll lure them away from the garden. The mites generally don't kill the tall verbena, but once the foliage has that whitish stippling all over, I just cut the plant back almost to the ground and it resprouts and puts out new growth like mad. Sometimes the mites find it again and sometimes they don't, but as long as they're on the tall verbena, they're not bothering garden plants as much. Last week I saw mite damage on a few bean leaves, and just picked off those leaves and disposed of them much as I do when I have bean leaves with bean rust. I've also been able to reduce the level of spider mites I see by being careful not to put too much nitrogen into my garden in the form of organic matter in the soil or in the form of fertilizer. Nitrogen is good (and necessary) but too much nitrogen turns veggies plants into lures for bugs. And I never use broad-spectrum pesticides although all the old farmers and old ranchers here insist I 'cannot' garden organically in the midst of our post oak savannah ecosystem. (I ignore them and garden organically anyway!) If I had spider mites and couldn't get enough beneficials to come here and eat them or couldn't repel them from the plants with massive blasts of water to the undersides of plant foliage, I'd probably use neem on the undersides of leaves, or one of the other solutions found at Planet Natural. I don't necessarily order a lot from Planet Natural (why pay for shipping if you don't have to?), although I will order from them if I cannot find an equivalent item locally. However, I use their website all the time. Their pages on the various pests are so informative and they always offer several options to either repel or control pests. I love marigolds and am not crazy about losing them to spider mites, but one flat of marigolds planted from 6-packs in early April serves as a great trap crop for mites and probably helps my garden avoid more severe damage further down the road. I've never had a huge infestation of spider mites like my dad did, but if that ever happens here, I'll just order the very costly predator mites. They're so expensive, I cannot imagine using them routinely, but for one of those "worst spider mite years ever", they could save the entire garden from damage or plant death. All my tomatoes are ripening now (but I'm way down south and plant pretty early) so it is about to be salsa time and that's one of my favorite times of the year. With any luck at all, I'll be making salsa once every couple of weeks from now through October. Today I worked in the garden very early but had to keep coming back inside periodically to cool off. The humidity and heat index are just awful. I guess this afternoon I'll start working on processing the 27 lbs. of plums I picked yesterday. By the time I'm dehydrated and jellied/jammed all the plums, it will be time to pick more plums or tomatoes. The squash crop is in about its 3rd or 4th week of 'heavy' harvest time, and I've now lost two plants (one zucchini, one yellow crookneck) to squash bugs or borers. I just yank them out and toss them on the compost pile and start seeds of new ones. Cucumber beetles are a constant problem here. You don't even have to grow cukes to have them because they like practically every other plant a person grows. This is the worst bug year I've seen here, but I have faith that the beneficials and a few carefully selected organic pesticides will help me keep their levels under control. Dawn

Red Spider Mites have been the nemesis of my tomato plants for over 20 years and for all those years I controlled them with Kelthane, until now... I have enough Kelthane for one more good spray but this year I opted to try other measures first. When the spider mites showed up at the end of May just as they usually do, I decided to try blasting them off with a spray from the garden hose. I'll admit that I was sceptical of the water blast treatment and my first attempt was rather wimpy as I was afraid of damaging my plants with too much force. I did notice some improvement though, but within a week or so they were making a strong comeback. I was this close to using the Kelthane or even concocting a homemade solution with Canola Oil and Dawn detergent with Zylene(an ingredient of Kelthane). I decided to try the water blast again. This time I blasted with a spray nozzle and used more pressure, blasting all of the underneath from several angles then coming back across the tops from above. This time showed more improvement and with new grow on top staying happy and green. I noticed that for the most part the heirloom plants didn't have near the problem with spider mites as the hybrids with the exception of my Black Cherry plants. Celebrity had the least problem of the hybrids with big problems on the Superfantastic's and Betterboy's. 4th of July's had some problem and they are planted next to the Black Cherry's which had the worst problem of all. I blasted 4 times so far with the last time about a month ago. On the final blast, I opened up the hose full force and blasted with Hurricane force so much so that there was some small damage to the plants from whipping about so violently. I have still had some sign of spider mites, but not infestations that will suck a plant dry and burn it up by the middle of July. I suspect the good mites that Dawn talks about are helping to keep the bad ones in check along with the Marigold plants I planted down one row when the mites first showed up in May. I expected the Marigold's to be a trap crop, but so far they have grown lush with no spider mites at all. Perhaps just the smell they give off is a deterrent to the spider mites. Most of all those years that I used Kelthane, one good drink when the mites showed up would control them all year with sometimes another application in July being necessary. Usually by September they would be showing up but not enough to be concerned with. Every year the old woman across the fence would plant her tomatoes not 30 feet from mine and every year they would be burnt up with mites by the middle of July. Next year I plan on planting the row of Marigold's much thicker at the same time I set out my tomato transplants and not be such a sissy about blasting with full force when the spider mites first show up. While I'm glad that I've found an organic method of treatment, I would still use Kelthane if it was still available. I do recommend the water blast treatment, it has to be started soon after mites show up. If you wait until you have a severe infestation, I doubt the blast treatment will have any effect at all and your plants will soon be deader than Bin Laden.... Keith

Hi, I'm far from being a pro at this but I live in the Bay Area and have the same temp drops sometimes. I was told to pull the plants in when temps drop to the low 40s but the nursery in Hawaii where I shipped one home from said to pull them in below the 50s! So far they have withstood a few low 40s nights but I don't have any flowers yet. Three of mine are rooted and 5 are cuttings I started in late June. I do have buds on one of the rooted plants, but because of the fog layer in the morning and not a whole lot of heat this summer (I'm assuming here) they are yet to bloom. And the two I bought at a local nursery here have spider mites too. Wrinkled leaves and little webs, etc. I have sprayed them once and will spray them again a week later with a mild insecticidal soap (made for all kinds of plants including veggies). I have also been spraying them with water under the leaves, but it's no jet spray, just set on shower. Hope this helps, someone more knowledgeable may come along and say something completely opposite, but this seems to be working so far anyway. Good luck, Leslie

It actually one of my favorite spiders, mostly because it makes and remakes its big web in the same place, usually in the garden, rather than somewhere that I walk through and end up with the web all over my face. I also would capture a live stink bug in my house and rather than smash it and have it release its stink, I would sometimes toss it into the web of one of these garden spiders. Usually the spider is on it, wrapping it up in webs completely within seconds, as in this second photo. I had never heard the superstition about "If a signature spider wrote your name, doom was imminent for you!" but given that my name has 'B's and 'O's and 'S'es, I think I'm safe considering the spiders seem to be only able to write 'W's, 'V's, 'M's, 'N's, 'A',s, and 'I's The first spider seems to have it in for VIVIAN perhaps, the second one has poor penmanship, and I cannot make out the first name but the last name seems to start with "MAWN" I am much more bothered and perturbed by this type of spider I've found on and around our property several times.For one of them, (perhaps this one) since it was in a location I might be likely to put my hand, I captured it in a jar put the lid on and threw it in the trash. About an hour later my wife came home and remarked "This jar should be put in the recycling bin" and before I could say anything I heard her scream in fright.