Bugs vs. Fungus - to hose, or not to hose?
 

Last year, my biggest problems were spider mites and aphids. I've been told the best way to keep both away is to spray the plants with the hose. The aphids lose hold of the leaves, and the spider mites don't like the increased humidity.

But then, I've also been told to not get tomato leaves wet when watering.

In order to keep the bugs at bay, I needed to spray the plants down every time I watered.

What time of day is best to do this? I'm in New Orleans, and my plants are in pots on my covered balcony, which sees about 7-8 hours of sun early in the day.

Will ladybugs eat spidermites?
Or should I just give up and spray with insecticide?

Thanks...

I spray my plants with a jet of water to get rid of aphids and control mites. The biggest thing to me is to make sure that the leaves do not stay wet. So, I spray early in the day and make sure to choose days where wind and sun will dry the foliage quickly.

I do not like to use chemical sprays, especially for spider mites as any chemical I consider safe does not seem to do a good job on spider mites, in fact, the infestation often gets worse after spraying

Joz
I wouldn’t spray the plants with water; in this hot humid climate we live in I think it is a no no.
I don’t like using insecticides
Every time I have tried it the plants pay for it in a bad way.
The best thing you can do is to get an insecticidal soap and spray the plants, the aphids live on the bottom of the leaves so you should spray accordingly.

I think it is ok to have a few bugs I just don’t like to get over run with them.
You have a lot of these bugs over there, they are a good bug don’t kill them.
Or you can do what bob says make sure the plants dry.

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Worth

Joz, Not sure what kind of spidermites you have, but the Red Spidermites we have here are not afraid of water sprays at all.
In this thread,
[url]http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=2522&highlight=pyganic[/url]

Suze recommended an organic product, Pyganic, which I'd like to try, but haven't yet. I tried spraying with insecticidal soap, neem, ultrafine oil, other oil-soap combos, and was never successful in getting rid of them. I don't know, but it's also possible that these products did work, but more mites blew back in from neighboring plants, as I live in a very windy place, and red spidermites are widespread here. Because I prefer to stick with low toxicity things, I haven't tried Kelthane, but a successful commercial tomato grower here recommended it.