One of my first years gardening I found my string beans had many moth like bugs fluttering around so I went to HD and bought some pest control concentrate and a pump sprayer. Never having done this I mixed up a batch and sprayed vigorously but there was a lot left over so I spayed some more. A few hours later hundreds of worms came wiggling out of the ground in broad daylight and died, I had sprayed too much contaminating the soil. I'm fortunate I've never had to use that type of pest control again by trying to garden as organically as possible and tossing plants that are infested rather that treating with harmful chemicals as in above Bayer product, Imidacloprid. To members of the genus Apis, the honey bees, imidacloprid is one of the most toxic chemicals ever created as an insecticide. The acute oral LD50 ranges from 5 to 70 picograms of active ingredient per bee, making it more toxic to bees than the organophosphate dimethoate (oral LD50 0.152 µg/bee) or the pyrethroid cypermethrin (oral LD50 0.160 µg/bee).[28] (For comparison, the weight of just the DNA of a human cell is about 7 picograms.[29]) The toxicity of imidacloprid to bees differs from most insecticides in that it is more toxic orally than by contact. The contact acute LD50 is 0.024 µg active ingredient per bee.

Hi GreenDreamhome: I applaud your experimenting, and would love to hear the results. Years ago we had a drought, with temp. over 100, my Eglantyne rose had spider-mites from the nursery. Spraying with water didn't help. It was planted near a brick border, which reflected the heat onto the rose. I kept pruning, that didn't help. Finally I moved it away from the brick border, to a partial shade location, with a wet manure mulch. After spraying with water, I used 70% rubbing alcohol with paper towel to rub off the affected branches. That rose was freed of spider mite, and sprouted healthy leaves. I checked all the sites on spider-mites, and could not find garlic as effective. From U. of Colorado Extension: "Spider mites: Symptoms of injury include flecking, discoloration (bronzing) and scorching of leaves. Natural enemies include small lady beetles, predatory mites, minute pirate bugs, big-eyed bugs and predatory thrips. One reason that spider mites become a problem is insecticides that kill their natural predators." **** From Straw: Ever since I rubbed off all the branches with alcohol & pruned off the tip ... zero spider-mite in my garden for the past 3 years. I planted lots of Calendula which host green lacewings. Best wishes in combating spider-mites, they are hard to get rid off. From eHow: "Spider Mite Predators - Three main predators are: phytoseiulus persimilis, neoseiulus californicus and mesoseiulus longipes. All three are effective in temperature levels from 55 to 100 degrees and in humidity as low as 45 percent. Beneficial Insects - Green lacewings can be introduced to a garden as larvae and will consume spider mite populations. Ladybugs & Praying mantis and spined soldier bugs have been used to combat mites." Some info. from below link: "Washing away the mites' webs will interrupt their natural life cycle and prevent them from multiplying. Use a strong blast of water to wash. Do this in the morning for three days in a row. You can use a hand-held vacuum to remove the mites and webs from your plants. After vacuuming the plants, place the contents of the canister in a plastic bag and put the bag in the freezer for several hours to kill the mites." *** From Straw: the spider-mite infestation of my Eglantyne was so bad that if I had pruned more, it would had been too short. That's why I rubbed the branches & some leaves with paper towel doused with rubbing alcohol. When I wiped the kitchen floor with 70% alcohol, even ants got killed. The advantage of alcohol is it evaporates quickly, easily washed off, and won't harm beneficial insects introduced later on to the garden. Calendula seeds are sold cheap & the flowers are pretty & edible & used for medicinal purpose. I also use calendula petals in cooking to give rice-casserole a yellow color. Calendula thrives in hot & dry conditions, and host green lacewings which devour both aphids and spider mites. See picture of yellow Calendula flower that I used in my bouquet, along with red Firefighter rose: Here is a link that might be useful: Organic ways to stop spider mites This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Wed, Apr 2, 14 at 18:16

Oh my goodness aruzinsky, apparently I've offended you - you're so upset you published your objections twice. Seriously, though, "people like me?" I'm not presuming to "speak" for anyone - simply using the word we in a general sense, like "we take care of plants," or "we work hard;" like a chemist might say of him/her self and others in the same profession, "we do experiments to learn about the effects of chemical substances." In that sense, "we" aren't likely to talk about eradicating insects, because eradicating is defined as "to get rid of completely," and "we" know that is impossible, and control is the best "we" can do. As in the article you site, where the researchers repeatedly use the word "control." However, to be more precise, "we," be we growers, plantcare companies, or even retail stores, generally just talk about "killing" mites, and what products and processes kill them best. If people want to use chemical controls, fine by me. I thought all the discussions of chemicals might be a little off-putting for some people, so I merely wanted to throw in my experience of success using a simple, inexpensive, easy to acquire, and safe treatment. I don't think it's a "fault in my thinking" to say I never observed damage to a plant. The point with interior landscaping is not to grow plants as big as they can be, but to keep them looking beautiful. Spots, discolorations, stunted leaves, and so on, would not be beautiful, and these things I did not see. Some of these plants were in my care for several years, and did not show any negative effects. Informal observation has value, too. After all, I don't need to conduct detailed astronomical observations to be able to say with reasonable certainty that the sun will come up tomorrow. Spider mites, as well as other pests commonly found on indoor plants, are a fact of life. (Of course, if you live in an area where the winter temperatures are regularly below freezing, you're not going to be seeing bugs floating in from outside. Thanks for clarifying that.) That doesn't change the fact that they do float around when temps are warm, and they can infect anyone's plants at any time. Some people might appreciate knowing they have alternatives other than chemical insecticides for dealing with them, call it what you will - eradicate, exterminate, eliminate, extirpate - the point is to get the little buggers off your plants.

Bti works on fungus gnats, but IIRC, on larvae, not on flying adults. Different strains of Bt works on different insects - there are about 1000 different strains of Bt. For FG, Bti is the strain used. (I was surprised to find out that until 1977, only 13 Bt strains were described. Other subspecies of Bt has been discovered since then.) ..."Bt has to be eaten to cause mortality. The Bt toxin dissolve in the high pH insect gut and become active. The toxins then attack the gut cells of the insect, punching holes in the lining. The Bt spores spills out of the gut and germinate in the insect causing death within a couple days"... Some other ways to control larvae: diatomaceous earth; potato slice; layer of grit or sand on surface of soil; cinnamon powder; hydrogen peroxide; beneficial nematodes. IMO, best way is to make sure there is no water sitting around, plants are not over-watered (moist soil is heaven for FG), and as little organic matter as possible. To get rid of flies (adults), I have used vinegar (actually, I use it on fruit flies, since I do not have problem with FG): not to spray, just put some in a dish or cup. Take small plastic bag, cut one corner off to create tiny hole - only big enough for fly to get in. Put this over the container with vinegar creating a small 'crater', secure with a rubber band. Flies are very attracted by vinegar, will fly inside -can't escape back out- and will drown. Or use yellow sticky traps.