red spider mite predator update

[moonbells]

It's been about 7 weeks since I emptied a large tube of phytoseiulus mites onto just about all the plants in the conservatory as they were going down with quite bad red spider mite.

It got worse. By the start of July, the cucumbers were losing leaves, the aubergine was covered in webbing and mites were crawling everywhere and this despite upping the humidity to 80-100% by misting everything daily.  I figured I just had too bad an infestation for even the biggest load of predators to win.

Last weekend I realised there were a load of new leaves on the aubergine.  And they have not been touched. Closer examination of the webbing on the rest of the plant showed nothing obviously moving. ^;D _;D

So given enough time and the right conditions, the predators have won through!
;D ;D ;D ;D
moonbells

[moonbells]

[tim]

Fingers crossed!
But be sure to look at the junction of stem & leaf on the cus. The usual nesting place.

[tim]

Really thought I'd got away with it this year. Even though I know that they always start with the top leaves, I thought that the discolouration was physiological.

So - panic stations!! Whip off all the affected leaves & hope.

I should have pointed out the web & 'mites'?

[moonbells]

Oh dear - my sympathies!

My poor cues are looking fairly bedraggled with a lot of brown leaves, but they are now holding their own (I hope). After the initial cue glut I've now got a few more growing more sedately.

moonbells

[tim]

Sunday - £10 to save them?

Yes - tomorrow I've got to do it! Can't risk them.