I have had great success with spraying all my plants with diluted fish emulsion. I use 1 cup of FE to 1 gallon of water in a pump up spray bottle. I do know it kills red mites on contact and as far as I can tell does a good job of prevention. It does stink though.

Mike

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

Mike, thanks for the advice about fish emulsion. I remember reading about that somewhere else before, too. I am a little hesitant to use it because the plant is right by the front door & living room window. Any experience with the Spinosad?
Hi Laura, I have the Bayer 3 in 1 sitting in the garage. I always dilute it in a watering can and apply it to the roots. Is that what you did, too? And it still damaged the leaves? Also I think it would be too late to fertilize our babies in October...
Spinosad supposedly is more eco friendly - that's one of the reasons I am interested in it.
Laura, I'm with you - collecting snails by hand (with a flashlight). Gross but effective...

Hey guys, I filled out the questionaire after the San Diego plumeria sale and won a plant! 'Moonlight' - supposed to be a white with yellow center, citrus scent and a heavy bloomer. I am so excited! Is anybody growing it and can you give me some first hand feed back?
Iso

Hey Iso,
I bought a rare imported Kumquat plant from Malee at Upland Nursery a while ago and she had a Leaf Miner problem, the Kumquat tree leaves were all infected. But because Malee was the only source of this variety of Kumquat I bought the plant and several bottles of Spinosad. I had my gardener plant the tree and spray it with Spinosad every week for a month. Well the Spinosad and it did control the leaf minners, and is not harmful to beneficial insects (similar to Neem)and its used in the cosmetic industy.

Because the Spinosad does not really smell I decided to try it on my plumies. Well it did not do much for Spider mites, and I noticed that the Kumquat tree ended up with a horrible case of Mealybugs and aphids after the Spinosad application. I seem to have much better results with Bayer 3 in 1 for mites, was really, really well priced and worked and is systemic.

Good Luck

Hello EVeryone,

Hi Iso!!!

The Bayer 3 in 1 spray comes in a foliar spray and connects to the hose for a very easy application. I also have it in the regular spray bottle.

Great first hand informtion James!!!

Always interested to hear what works and why...

Take care,

Laura in VB