systemic control for spider mites?

[MMJcali]

Hey all!

My entire yard is COVERED with spider mites... It seriously looks like Halloween came to my house early (LA area).

I'm afraid these guys are gonna cling to my clothes and hitchhike into my hobby room in the house. I don't eat these plants, theyre all decorative (ferns and stuff).

I just sprayed them all down with Azamax but I know that is a temporary thing.

Is there a no-nonsense systemic mite control that will go into the plant and prevent those suckers from coming back?

 

[MMJcali]

addendum: prevent those suckers from coming back *without harming bees and the like*

 

[Guest]

I use Neem/Karanja meal in my medium when I grow. I believe it to be successful. Many others will drench with neem oil. I've been known to bubble neem/karanja in water for 24-48 hours and then drench my plants.
For a whole yard? I'd see how cheap neem meal is in bulk. Possibly more thrifty to spray the oil, I'm not sure.
Another route would be to strengthen the health of the yard. Broadcasting Azomite and watering in would be good nutrition for a deficient patch of land.

 

[panick503]

Kontos is a systemic miticide

 

[F. Dupp]

Floramite works incredibly well. If you use it in combination with Forbid, the mites will disappear overnight, guaranteed. Floramite is systemic and Forbid is trans-laminar.

 

[MoPho]

Floramite ONLY kills on contact...NOT systemic or translaminar.


"https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=240469"


Kontos (not listed) is a true systemic, it travels all through the plant. Can be used as a root drench or foliar.

Translaminar is not the same as systemic.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] “Translaminar” is a term that refers to insecticides or miticides that can penetrate the leaf tissue and form a reservoir of active ingredients within the leaf, such as the spongy mesophyll and palisade parenchyma cells." [/FONT]

 

[Chimera]

MoPho is right, Florimite is a contact spray it is not translaminar in action; you have to hit the bug or egg with the spray for it to have any effect.

I am having great luck with Amblyseius fallacis. It is a predator mite that over winters and establishes itself in many areas indoors or out, in fact most predator farms don't sell it because it works too well.... establishing itself means less repeat sales to customers.

If you establish colonies in your long day rooms, you will have control over the two-spotted mite until you enter flowering. I've been releasing in the veg room every 2 weeks and haven't seen any hot-spots pop up in the flower rooms since. I suspect if you released a colony out front in your yard you would see the mites disappear within a couple of weeks.

The best way too introduce predator mites is using established colonies on bean leaf, most often shipped with two-spotted mites as a food source. You can get the predators without food, but what you get is a concentration of mostly male mites which are hungry, but do not establish well because the ratio of males:females is wrong to get a colony established. Buying colonies with food allow the introduced predators to establish breeding colonies that will multiply quickly and eliminate all mites. Cost is about $100 cdn for 2500 fallacis, depending on where you source from. They suggest a release rate of 5 per m^2.

It's also not a bad idea to grow some wildflower mix from seed because fallacis will also eat pollen when food sources are low, so it helps keeps your colonies strong when the bad mites' population is being driven into the ground.

Preventative predators FTW!

-Chimera

 

[Lester Beans]

Excellent information Chimera! Thank you

 

[Mikell]

Ensure you have the proper conditions (temperature/RH) to implement predators. Many people fail to realize this, especially with microbial control methods.

S. punctilum is also a good vegetation warrior.

Hearing good things on Kontos, though some expect immediate knockdown.

 

[MoPho]

Credit to "joe fresh" for finding this:

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=240469

 

[MoPho]

If I had to, I would go this route.

Floramite to kill as much as I can. Followed by Tetrasan for an stragglers. Kontos as a follow up and preventative. Then repeat the entire routine at least one more time.

Though I've heard good things regarding Avid....I came across this:

Although both abamectin and chlorfenapyr have translaminar activity, these miticides failed to provide control of either TSM nymphs or adults. It is possible that the TSM population in our colony may have evolved resistance to abamectin. In fact, TSM populations throughout the United States are less susceptible to abamectin because it was introduced in the 1980s.

http://www.gpnmag.com/article/effect-translaminar-miticides-twospotted-spider-mites/

 

[MoPho]

Just a FYI, I've gone with Forbid 4f, then Floramite, and finally Avid looooong time ago with great results. But armed with new info I would go with the routine listed above.

Forbid 4f similar to Kontos, but I believe Kontos to have the upper hand since it is systemic while Forbid is translaminar. Tetrasan over Avid because of the finding listed in previous post and Tetrasan comes in a powder form which has a longer shelf life.

A little bit goes a long way in all these products. There are people selling them in small quantities on eBay. But remember to use the higher recommended dosage on the label. IMO these supermites are becoming more common because people are using the lighter dosage, repeating the same miticide or miticides with similar MOA and giving them a chance to survive and build up resistance.

 

[corky1968]

Anyone use live lady bugs or lacewings lately to control pests like aphids or mites?

They sell them all over the Web.

Here's just one online add for 1,500 of them at a reasonable price.

1500 Live Ladybugs - Good Bugs - Ladybugs - Guaranteed Live Delivery!

Lacewing Eggs for sale

Green Lacewing (Chrysoperla rufilabris) feed on a large number of soft bodied pests, mites and insect eggs.
A voracious predator, they can consume as many as 60 aphids an hour. Shipped as eggs packed in a carrier
(rice hulls), larvae soon hatch out and will feed for 2-3 weeks before becoming adults.

 

[Chimera]

Lady bugs are inefficient at killing mites, so are lacewings, compared to fallacis.

A combination of Ablyseus fallacis and Phytoseiulus persimilis is most effective and does't add poisons to MEDICINAL crops. Avid and Florimite are both contact sprays, which is not a good way to spray a lawn considering you will miss most of the mites, and the mites will simply repopulate from your neighboring areas.

What Mikell says is partially correct, some mites have ideal ranges of use- but don't let that jive sway your interest in beneficials. It's a given that persimillis do not like hot climates and low humidity, but fallacis are relatively more tolerant of temperature and humidity swings (being found in native soils along the west coast naturally), and the population or "strain' of fallacis most often sold by predator farms have been selected from the wild for their ability to resist insecticides and miticides. It is not uncommon for farmers that have used fallacis to find that the fallacis have colonized the area where introduced, and rarely need re-introductions the following year in vineyards and other agricultural zones.

In this case, the miticides are going to be less effective that introducing predators because the mites will continue to be introduced from adjacent properties that are not spraying, and thus act as a reservoir of pests which will surely re-invade. If you had chosen the fallacis, at leas you would be mounting a battle force that would fight any two-spotted mites that are trying to recolonize your property.

Reliance on poor techniques and spraying poisons is really a way of the past, and one day people will realize that introducing beneficials correctly will actually save them in terms of cost, exposure to nasty chemicals, and the beneficials actually work better in most situations if used correctly.

-Chimera

 

[mojave green]

Lady bugs are inefficient at killing mites, so are lacewings, compared to fallacis.

A combination of Ablyseus fallacis and Phytoseiulus persimilis is most effective and does't add poisons to MEDICINAL crops. Avid and Florimite are both contact sprays, which is not a good way to spray a kawb considering you will miss most of the mites, and the mites will simply repopulate from your neighboring areas.

What Mikell says is partially correct, some mites have ideal ranges of use- but don;t let that kive sway your interest in beneficials. It's a given that persimillis do not like hot climates and low humidity, but fallacis are relatively more tolerant of temperature and humidity swings (being found in native soils along the west coast naturally), and the population or "strain' of fallacis most often sold by predator farms have been selected from the wild for their ability to resist insecticides and miticides. It is not uncommon for farmers that have used fallacis to find that the fallacis have colonized the area where introduced, and rarely need re-introductions the following year in vineyards and other agricultural zones.

In this case, the miticides are going to be less effective that introducing predators because the mites will continue to be introduced from adjacent properties that are not spraying, and thus act as a reservoir of pests which will surely re-invade. If you had chosen the fallacis, at leas you would be mounting a battle force that would fight any two-spotted mites that are trying to recolonize your property.

Reliance on poor techniques and spraying poisons is really a way of the past, and one day people will realize that introducing beneficials correctly will actually save them in terms of cost, exposure to nasty chemicals, and the beneficials actually work better in most situations if used correctly.

-Chimera

Thank you!

 

[corky1968]

Lady bugs are inefficient at killing mites, so are lacewings, compared to fallacis.

A combination of Ablyseus fallacis and Phytoseiulus persimilis is most effective and does't add poisons to MEDICINAL crops. Avid and Florimite are both contact sprays, which is not a good way to spray a kawb considering you will miss most of the mites, and the mites will simply repopulate from your neighboring areas.

Didn't see these buggers before.

Phytoseiulus vs Spider Mite


Amblyseius Neoseiulus fallacis

 

[Chimera]

Applied Bio-nomics is probably the leader in the Canadian predator game, but they also supply firms in the american PNW.

Great videos Corky, I get great satisfaction watching the TSM (two-spotted mite) get eaten alive

One should note- the recommended application rates are 2 per sq/ft on the low end, to 2 per sq/m on the high end.

That's 10,000 per acre.

Considering the 2500 fallacis colony on bean leaf costs about $90 - $100, that's a serious amount of control in an indoor veg room. I've re-applied 3 times in my germplasm maintenance room since stopping rotational spraying Forbid 4F and Floramite (without eradication success), and I haven't seen any TSM or TSM damage since the first introduction.

Since these mites do less well under short day length, I plan to introduce a colony to every flowering room as soon as the clones are plugged in place, that way they have 2-3 weeks of veg time in each room to colonize the area, and I hope that this treatment will be enough to keep the TSM at bay throughout the entire flowering cycle. It seems so far at least, that the fallacis have absolutely decimated the TSM population, which is what we are after - complete eradication.

 

[corky1968]

This place is in Ontario and has a wide selection of natural pest controls.

This is their Spider Mite Controls page.

Natural Insect Control

I always look at the Praying Mantis cases and tell myself one day I'm getting some to see what they look like in person.

PRAYING MANTIS (General Predator)

Well if they are so effective at controlling spider mites. Maybe releasing
some outdoors around your grow house or greenhouse would a 1st line
of defence as well as using them inside.

 

[Mikell]

All mites have optimum conditions for rearing, though some species are more tolerant to greater variation.

I'm not big on hand holding, I merely wanted to raise the issue. Improper selection of beneficials, uneducated consumers and suboptimal conditions account for the majority of failed introductions.

Many have success controlling TSSM with contact sprays to eradication, with conventional or organic. It takes a thorough type though. Regular pruning during treatment, rotating plants 360 while applying, and spraying bottom to top, top to bottom are a few tips.

Over packed rooms and uncontrolled growth are typical factors. Improper rotation of MOA, community reliance on the same small selection of products, improper mixing/intentionally undermeasuring and lack of wetting agents come next.


NIC is good, fast shipping. It almost goes without saying to check all orders for viability. I have had one NIC and one BioBest order show up dead in the water.

Or bran carrier, as it were. Sachets are so much cleaner. And now I'm hand holding and spending more time here than one would have thought necessary.

 

[Limeygreen]

Forbid works well and knocking down, but not eradicating mites, it has some affect on the eggs as well as whitefly larvae. Since it should only be applied to vegging plants as spraying on flowers would be terrible, I would avoid it other than in mother rooms. The other problem is that it can have a 3 week residual effect on biologicals (depending what you're using). If floramite and shuttle don't clean it up enough to rely on bios, you're not using enough bios.
Chimera, did you have any luck with Californicus? I like it for small spots then persimilis on hot spots, sachets are great for continued release without carrier all over the place, never used falacis, but I am growing different crops.