posted
Hey Will , It has been sometime since I have been active in greenhouses and interior landscape .. Spider mites are quite tenacious and I used to treat plants with a miticide that I can't seem to recall , I think it started with a T .. Anyway it was proported to not only eliminate adults , but render them sterile and also have a risidual rate of a weeks time . the other benefit was that it was very low toxicity ..
When it comes to my ivy's and I get this critter on them , depending on the severity , If it is abundant or I seem to be loosing the battle I just cutback the ivy to practically nothing and start the plant over watching carefully ..
I have yet to check my palm thourouly , But if it does have mites , do you know of anything that is really effective for this ?
Like I said I am not up on the latest chems .. Thanks
Plants: 19 | From: PA | Registered: Oct 2003
| Seeded: 65.73.166.100
Will Creed
guest
posted
Hi Serendip,
The interiorscape industry has moved away from pesticide use in recent years for several reasons. Few new products have come on the market and plant pests have developed resistance to a lot of the older ones. State environmental regulations have tightened and taken many pesticides off the market. Lawsuits often accompany pesticide use in commercial office spaces.
I stopped using pesticides and miticides years ago after I found that the safer alternatives are just as effective if applied properly. For mites I use a solution of soap and horticultural oil or hot pepper wax. The key is to give the entire plant a thorough drenching or dunking (in the case of table-sized plants). The soap, oil, and wax treatments work only by direct contact, so it is the few that you miss that come back to haunt you. So thoroughness of coverage is more important than what you use. Early detection and treatment also helps a lot.
For those interiorscapers who still use miticides, Floramite seems to be the most popular.
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