As I posted a while back, I am battling red spider mite. I have sprayed them a few times with Murphy's oil soap, but spray just cannot penetrate all the nooks and crannies that they hide in. I plan to re-pot all my cactus this year. Upon uprooting my plants, can I dip my whole plants, roots and all, in this solution to inundate all the hiding spots.

Bill in SC

Hey Bill. I had the same problem a while back but tried EVERYTHING! I tried Murphys Oil soap, Neem Oil, Sevin, Malathion, etc. etc. and Nothing worked!

I finally heard from someone of a REALLY potent miticide and tried to find it.. but no luck.
But I did find a pretty goo done. It was quite expensive and was only sold in quite large quantities. But I found ti is also sold on eBay in much smaller quantities... Still expensive, but affordable now.
It was called Forbid.
I bought a small pump spraybottle and used like 2 drops for half a gallon and it was MORE than enough to spray all my plants and I have not had a problem since! I used the excess I mixed on my neighbors plants... ALL my neighbors

Check it out
http://cgi.ebay.com/FORBID-4F-MITICIDE-5ml-SHIPS-SAMEDAY-FIRST-CLASS-MAIL_W0QQitemZ170444329262QQihZ007QQcategoryZ75582QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Old miticide "Kelthane" ... new? miticide (Bayer) "Masai" .. search the EXTOXNET site for commercial names in your country and active compounds ... I had to use a combined "oldie" to get rid of spider mites on my Hatiora ("funginex" contains 2 insecticides + 1 fungicide & also malathion) because the local garden center sold "Masai" in an 100 gram package aka 2x 50 grams to make up a 100 liters spraying liquid each .. heck I had to treat a little Hatiora in a 3" pot ...
HTH

edit:
PS: to some extend and for only one plant repeated treatment with "lice shampoo" seems to work well, at leat it may be an intermitent treatment (pyrethrines) to keep everything under control until one is forced to use the big guns!
FWIW

edit2:

Look who is making your life miserable (on a leaf of my Hatiora) picture #2 & #3 seem to indicate how they shed coats ...

http://the-parodia.net/mijten/

Forbid is Spiromesifen, which I hadn't heard of before. I think it is still only a contact miticide, but at least is new enough that there is no reported resistance. I've had best results with Methiocarb which might be easier to get hold of (Provado aerosol in the UK).

The lack of any systemic miticides left on the market (in Europe at least) makes it very difficult to eliminate them completely and of course they are so widespread in the environment that they'll be back sooner or later anyway. If you can find something simple like a soap spray that doesn't affect your plants then spraying it every few days at the risky times of year should at least keep the mites down. Rubbing alcohol has been mentioned but is surprisingly difficult to get hold of in the UK.

Hi Regulus,

i have quite some Kelthane in house but never used it because
I forgot what it was good for.
Is it only against spider mites or also usefull against other invaders?

greetings,

Hans

Whatever I go with, I intend to dip the whole plants, roots and all. I appreciate all the tips. I will try the Forbid.
BB

Hans, if memory serves me right it is a miticide "only" but Ian may want to chime in and set the record straight

Kelthane (dicofol) is listed against a wide variety of mites including most common spider mites. Most likely it is toxic to all arachnids. It is specifically listed as not harmful to bees and other insects.

Ian .. you are kind of confusing me with that "Methiocarb" and the "Provado" connection or am I misreading things here?
Methiocarb seems to be that stuff that is (also) used in snail bait together with methaldehyde and that is very toxic while Provado is another trade name for our well known imidacloprid .. what am I missing/misreading ?

cheers

Methiocarb is used in slug killer, but it is also a miticide. It is in only one Provado product so far as I can tell, the Bug Killer Aerosol. It also contains Imidacloprid which I personally find to be a stupid combination, but I haven't been able to find Methiocarb alone in a product that I can buy legally.

Thanks Ian, that was info I did not have nor spot ...

So is this red spider mite visible to the naked eye? I see some red 'spiders' on my cactus, but I'm not sure if they are the mites mentioned here...

Alex

See my "mijten" link above they are not really visible to the naked eye, well not to mine anyway The "red spiders" we see here in collections are "real" tiny spiders ... I think (any entomologist in the room?)
cheers

Every spring I get swarms of red spider mites in my greenhouse, but they are not the plant pests. They are bright red, scarlet even, and nearly always running about. They are larger than the pests spider mites and have longer legs. They are quite clear to the naked eye and there are several different types that I've seen although I don't have names for them. They appear to be general feeders on things like soil detritus but probably also take other small invertebrates such as immature mites and eggs. Some spider mites are specific predators of the pest spider mites, but mine don't seem to be these species.

The pest spider mites, sometimes called two-spotted spider mites or red spider mites, are not red They are often described as being "red" only during their hibernation phase but I commonly find red individuals right through summer. It isn't clear whether they are even the same species as the major pest mites but they look much the same apart from the colour.

The problem red spider mites are dull red-orange at best but more commonly a dull yellow-brown colour when they swarm on my plants. Adults are not really visible as anything except a speck, but under a lens they have two dark spots on the back and only very tiny legs hardly sticking out from the body. Immature ones will be smaller and without the dark spots but otherwise similar. They move slowly when they move at all and are rarely found anywhere except the most tasty parts of your plants. You will usually spot the mottled damage patterns before you spot the mites. Eventually a major infestation will develop masses of fine webbing which is part of their breeding process.

That's what prompted my question, these spider are easily visible, always at the apex of the plants, so I figured is not the same thing as Bill's RSM, or maybe I have RSM and the red spiders are eating them?? I do see damage on some of my cactus so I used Orthonex (now sold as Rose Pride) wish me luck....


Saludos
Alex

Alex .. the pictures may be misleading as they come in fact from one of the dropped lids of an Hatiora ... I had two young heathy plants that suddenly started to drop their lids "en masse" Pieter suggested I take a magnifying glass and inspect the plant for spider mites. The place was infested ! I had to take a fast action but still lost one plant!
I tried to take the pictures with the focus plane method, that I use for my seeds pictures, to gain more depth of field but that did just not work .. I had to constantly rotate that lid as under the magnifcations used the mites seem to move like high speed trains and in no tick they are out of the viewing frame. So it is quick framing, fast focussing and hit the shutter, hoping for a good result and mostly the exposure/light_metering is near to disaster
HTH

Still Great Photos Regulus.

I use a 10x jewelers loupe to check my plants! I've lost several to these dreaded little creatures! And on seedlings or small plants, by the time I've noticed them, it's too late!

I had two G. bruchii offsets sent to me that were both hollow balls of spines by the time I realized it! I've got a few larer plants that are permanently and horribly scarred by them!
I'm much more diligent now!

How about some things that aren't pest spider mites.

is the provado aerosol safe to use all year round and is it ok on succulents aswell? sorry if this is a stupid question im know nothing about insectasides . ...