"Jake" Nospam@invalid wrote in message
...
On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:28:37 +0000, Jeff Layman
wrote:

On 27/01/2012 11:12, Martin Brown wrote:
wrote:
I trimmed back a miniature rose in a pot yesterday, and noticed it had
tiny
little creepy things, about 0.5mm long, and webbing. Are they spider
mites?
They're very pale/white, I thought spider mite were red.

Red spider mite are at most pale orange and often so small you cannot
even determine the colour without a magnifying glass. Misting with water
and/or a systemic insecticide will probably see them off. They are only
a serious problem indoors and under glass. Outside is too harsh for
them. You are a bit up against it effective controls have been banned.

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/...D=190#section3

Plant pins or Provado to kill rsm

IME both the above are unfortunately useless against RSM. The only
effective product I have found available to the amateur is Westland
Plant Rescue Bug Killer Ornamental Plants Ready To Use. Note that this
contains Thiamethoxam & Abamectin. It is the latter which is active
against RSM. Do not be tempted to buy the concentrate, as this contains
only Thiamethoxam. You may have to spray several times at weekly
intervals as it is not effective against RSM eggs, only the mites
themselves.

I came across this advertised as something that will eat RSM (among
other things):

http://www.dragonfli.co.uk/product/bio-01-6

Thinking of trying it out to see if .....

It looks as if this is Amblysieus californicus. I tried this last year from
www.ladybirdplantcare.co.uk as I had previously tried Phytoseilus, and up
here in the far north, the temperature is too low for Pytoseilus to be
effective. It takes a little time to get going but worked very well on my
peaches and apricots under glass. I spoke to Ladybird Plant Care and they
told me that there is evidence that Amblysieus can overwinter. Because of
this, I have not sprayed with 'tar oil winter wash' this year so will wait
to see what happens. It is a bit pricey at £49 per tub but this will last
all summer in a 16x12 greenhouse. The 'dragonfli' mites are cheaper, but
there is no indication as to how many you get or the coverage - in fact very
little information at all. One major advantage with Amblysieus is that it
will feed on other food sources (even pollen) if it eats all the red spider
mite.

HTH

Phil