Spider Mite/Scale??? devastation

In my opinion spider mites here in the austin area are pretty imune to orthene it will make them breed in numbers you wont believe some sort of defense mechanism.I recommend discontinuing all chemical fertilizer use medina,ladybug, or any other organic fertilizer you can find resonably priced. sprinkle horticulture grade cornmeal around the base of your plants and begin a regiment of seaweed spray. about once a week until the little buggers are thinned down,then about every 3 wks. Also garlic sprays help with fungus and bugs (that is what the cornmeal does also). Dirt doctor .com has a lot of information and there is a radio show from san antonio http://www.ktsa.com/ktsastaff_webster.php here is a is a link it aires on weekends early morning the host is bob webster you can call in and he will give great advise on how to organically controll your problem you can get through pretty quick if you call early in the morning. worked for me I spent untold hundreds of dollars on orthene,pentac,bayer products etc etc etc trying to control mites ,scale and fungus I happened to catch the radio show one morning and presto most of my disease and bug problems are solved and contrary to popular belief if you shop around organic methods are at least as affordable as chemical methods and a whole lot less work. But these are just my opinions I only know what worked for me. also the natural gardener here in austin has a plethora of information on theyre website and most organic supplies (I just think they are a little pricy)

Why yes, I definitely tend to prefer biological controls for many reasons. In this particular situation, we couldn't positively identify her foe and if I am not mistaken... the plant she was trying to save had once belonged to a friend of hers who died from breast cancer. At this time of year not a good idea to try ordering most of the biological controls anyway unless they ship with heat packs or your money will be out the door with little wings.

Well guys - I must be going crazy! I would have sworn there was no asterisk when I checked!! Could it have been added later? Nah - even I can't believe that! So sorry for the bad info. Now, what else have I goofed up on....?

They're small dear, very small. Easily missed I might add. Here's what I do, take an envelope and hold it up to the monitor. This provides a straight edge so you can follow it across to see those lousy little red asterics.

This is not called being crazy by the way.... it's called old age. Ha ha ha! Welcome to our world!

OK. I'm blaming it on my trifocals!

Omigosh. I Just looked again, and the star is gone! What's going on?

Never mind. I just figured it out! Stoopid!

Senility??? Just kidding. You made me go and look and I'm seeing it there but that doesn't mean much. I've seen those asterisk do disappearing and reappearing acts before myself and it wasn't just my mind playing tricks on me either because my girlfriend went and looked too. Use some sort of a straight edge and hold it up to your monitor and look again and see what you see this time but it could be that the asterisk really wasn't there. Computer hiccups and burps and all.

It's the green star that does the disappearing act--it'll only be there if there are new posts in the forum since you last visited. Lots of people get that mixed up with the subscribers only asterisk (probably since it's 10 times bigger than the asterisk and much more noticeable!) I've never seen the asterisk disappear, but the green star comes and goes a lot depending on how recently you visited the forum.

Uh oh, are you insinuating that I am mixing up disappearing and reappearing asterisks with disappearing and reappearing green stars? No, say it ain't so :)

I wasn't insinuating anything! LOL :-)

I've gotten temporarily mixed up myself with the green stars--I wish the asterisk was a little bigger and easier to see!

I wish everything was a little bigger and easier to see ;)

Pretty soon, we'll all need magnifying glasses,,,lol

Either that or longer arms.

Both might work

I had outstanding luck this year using regular foliar spraying with liquid seaweed extract every two weeks, for those who have the fortitude of a regular schedule of such stuff.

I have detailed a diary over the summer, and have links to other articles and products.
http://davesgarden.com/community/blogs/t/rjuddharrison/1923/

Good luck,
Rj

I Love the Eden Project!

Seaweed has it's place.

I do to,
now if only I can keep to the every two week schedule...hmmm

That's the hard part. Keeping to a schedule!

What's a schedule?

I haven't quite figured it out yet. It's a big word though and I like the way big words sound so I sort of tossed it out. Was sort of hoping nobody would call me on it but then here you are asking me what a schedule is.

Sheesh, I have a hard enough time with heart worm chewables and those are only once a month! Didjahave to ask what a schedule was?

In Gardenese
it's defined as - A resolve to do something at regular intervals, but seldom succeeding, renewing resolve at the site of pests, only after soaking the plants, house, garage, driveway, windows and yes..yourself in a variety of liquids that seem to feed only fungus and slugs.

Ohhh, I like your definition. Resolve is included. Doesn't mean you actually do something you schedule you just think about doing it.

Yes, and someday..I resolve to keep to the schedule...haaaa.
I bought myself a chalk board, and am putting a "resovdule" on there to keep my intention to actual ratio a bit closer together.

Hey ceejay, think a chalkboard might help us out? We could call it a "resolve to" list.

Hey Kelly, you still reading this thread? This rjuddharrison has got our number! Intention to actual ratios- ha ha ha!

LOL....
Yes I've been intending all week to spary some seaweed on the garden...and it was a wonderful day to do so, mid 70's.. and did I? Let me check my chalk board...mmm...nope...
Instead, I hung up dozens of bromeliads on the trunk of my oak tree...now that was satisfying...still have bugs in the garden..darnit...tomorrow..yes..tomorrow I relsoveintend to spray....tomorrow...for sure...

Rj

Take samples with you. Your extension agent can forward them to the lab where they may be able to tell you exactly what you're dealing with. My heart goes out to you it is so hard to lose so many plants and ones you've had such a long time.

Hey doccat5, she's long gone. Didn't renew her subscription and so she can't read anything in this thread any longer but... the party continued without her!

What you got on your schedule doccat5?

That's to bad, I'm busy check on Larry the peacock. I did a google search on peacock's mating habits and got way more info than I wanted, LOL First worms,now peacock's sex lives..........is DG a class site, oh what:?

Er uh, have you ever had the pleasure of hearing peacocks get all whipped up? Me thinks if you be planning on adding a few to your property for aesthetics that you maybe want to hang out for a while and listen to a few of them in action. Let's just say they put roosters to shame. Like the sounds of the Jungle... consider renting a tape and playing it in your backyard because at least you can press stop and the racket goes away. Oh, forgot to mention they don't go off only at sunrise.

Oh yeah, I know. My parents had friends that kept them when I was a kid. Almost as interesting a noise as guinea hens. I'd love to have some "livestock", but we have zoning issues.

Inquiring minds need to know... why were you reseaching their mating habits then? This has got to be good! I can feel it in my bones.

Please read on:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/794388/

Ah ha ha, Jeri! My toilet bowl scrubbing buddy. I should have known!

Ah, that sound intriging. does that have something to do with schedules? what ever those are.........LOL

Why indeed it does! Schedules often have a flushing sound to them

Ah yes, I have on my schedule to go tommorrow and purchase new innards for ours. It's being to make ugly gurggling noises......LOL

LOL,
I need to work on my facility too. The handle tip broke. In my opinion it works just fine, but others lament at the slight of leverage. I'll probably get to it after I spray seaweed, fertilze, re-landscape front and back gardens, oh wait..let me check my Chalk Board...hmmm ..yes..July 17th, fix toilet handle...

LOL, no, it'll keep till tommorrow, I need to play on the computer and talk............LOL