Pests

Let me begin by saying that I like insects, and arachnids, and all kinds of creepy crawlies. When I was little, I was happy if you put a butterfly net in my hand and told me to go run amok. Lately though it seems like the smallest critters are the biggest problems. First, it was white flies that were annoying, but they were rather easy to wipe out with a conventional pesticide. Next the fungus gnats drove me crazy. The tree stumps which had to be left because of their locations, and rotting tree stumps combined with shady areas and moisture equal fungus. I did a number on them with the yellow sticky traps, and the cool weather lately hasn't produced any, but I fear when the spring gets here I'll be back to square one with those. The mealy bugs were next to make gardening rough. I think I killed those off for the most part now. They were on my golden shrimp plant (Pachystachys lutea) and threatening to bring it down. Last and most difficult were the spider mites.

I think I had a few different species, and I was at a loss for what to do. I did my share of research, and found out that they are notoriously difficult to eliminate. The first thing I tried was Neem oil. I sprayed, caused some plants to drop their leaves, and gave up on that. I searched for predator mites online and couldn't come up with a single distributor of the species that seemed to be most appropriate for me. Everyone says, "natural predators - not chemicals". Well, in my experience, lady bugs, praying mantises, and green lacewings fly the coop as soon as their released. So, I turned to something a little more toxic (i.e. functional) - abamectin. After the first couple of sprayings (following the directions), I started to notice that the red dots on the under sides of leaves were now black. Victory is mine! I've kept up the weekly sprayings to kill the hatchlings which are unaffected in the eggs. Since then, I've noticed that some of the plants have regained their vigor. New buds are emerging, and the general chlorosis seems to be stagnant. In December and early January it has been extremely foggy (aka humid), so that assists me as well in fighting off any stragglers. I've read that spider mites can become resistant to miticides and that one is supposed to switch chemicals, so I'm really hoping that this won't happen. A mite free Spring is all I want for 2012.