Quote:
Originally Posted by Sun City Linda
Bill your spray has been helpful to me this year. I typically see mites or their damage during my long dry growing season here in SoCal and I can tell it really makes a difference. Thanks!
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Linda I wasn't the one to come up with spraying DE as a poison in a solution with water. I can't remember who first mentioned it on this site but I tried it and loved it; but found the 1/4 cup mentioned was not nearly enough to be really effective when the mites were bad. I upped the amount until I started having trouble with my sprayer clogging and then backed off a bit to come up with 2/3 cup to 3/4 cup to a gallon.
Before I would switch back and forth between two or three different poisons and other things every three days trying to stop spider mites. Too much neem oil was a problem and so was using a lot of soap every three days. Permethrin had shown it was effective against the adults for a very short time if enough soap was added but it didn't stop them long because of the mites eggs hatching out continuously. I was surprised how well adding the DE to the mix increased the killing of mites and more importantly the length of time it kept killing them. I also found that using this mix was the perfect solution to thinning out other pests like stink bugs, leaf footed bugs, aphids, flea beetles and whiteflies and the real bonus was how few times it had to be used. I found it even helped with those pesky little foliage worms that can decimate tomato and pepper plants.
The downside of the mix is it kills pretty much everything good and bad in the insect world. I do try not to start using it before the ladybugs abandon my garden which they do every year as soon as it gets hot. I did not see any drop in my honey bees but I always sprayed it late in the evening and didn't use it on squash which is where most of them are found in my garden.
Bill