Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Got a bit of a spider issue guys in one of my grow beds. I noticed some webbing through the media and they have seemed to attacked the marigolds.

Out of interest I flooded the infected bed and millions and millions of these little tiny spiders came running out of the media.

Not really sure what I should do, has anyone had this problem before? They dont seem to be doing too much other than killing the marigolds.

and the spiders....

Hey Charlie,

From what I can see in the photo's, I think the webs on your plants are a seperate issue from the black spiders you've shown in the photo's.

The "millions" of tiny spiders and the webs on the plants looks like a fairly advanced infestation of spider mites = Bad.

The larger black spiders in the photo's won't be doing any harm, they'll be eating insects = Good

You could get in some predatory mites from Manchill's in Wanneroo. I got some predatory mites in for my veg garden about three years ago because my beans were getting hammered, I haven't had any mite outbreaks since. They establish themselves in your yard if the conditions are suitable, ie: enough hiding places and food.

You could also try some of the homemade organic sprays that have been mentioned here on the forum, Chilli and Garlic etc.

Cheers.

http://www.byapmagazine.com/twelveissue.html
The latest magazine has an article all about this subject charlie Just in case you are interested.

Mortein

Nah, its the usual thing out here, you get a year of pests, followed by a year of no pests, then repeat.

Its such a foreign environment for most of these pests that they dont survive the extremes of our weather. Unfortunately, most of the predators dont survive either.

After a couple of years, everything seems to balance out. I have not pest sprayed, not even dipel, since the start of winter.

I think this could safely be referred to as an "Extreme" spider mite infestation!...

Thanks peeps, Ive never heard of spider mites.

Thanks Faye, that post of your just inspired me to subscribe. Cheers.

I SPOKE TOO SOON!!!



That comment above, made only a few days ago, obviously caught Murphy's attention!... I was having a wander through my veg garden this morning and noticed the two oldest plantings of beans have Red bean mite. The younger plantings aren't affected yet, but they are some distance from the older plants and I think they are also too healthy at this stage for the mites to affect them.

From late winter onwards I plant a new batch of beans every few weeks for progressive harvesting. The two oldest plantings of beans are now well past their use-by-date, but I left them in because I’d left some bean pods on them to fully develop for collection of next year’s seed.

I'm going to have a more thorough look when I get home this arvo, if the mites have progressed across to the newer plants then I'll be getting some more predators in the next few days.

Is white oil spray safe to use in AP?

I could be wrong, but I dont think oil and fish go well together - unless they are both in a frying pan.

the msds should state if it is ok. I know my favorite product for them is azamax and it is not Ok for fish but in my buckets that where fed with fish poop water in an ebb and flow I used it anyway. I wrapped the top of the busket with plastic to keep drips out of the hydroton and sprayed. I love that stuff and would use that in regular hydro when needed.

Whatever you do use make sure you read the directions and reuse the product as stated. With some products they will kill only bugs in one state and not kill eggs so you have to reuse them after the eggs hatch and try to get them before the new bugs lay more eggs. I say this as many people kill off the first wave and it looks great then are overrun a few weeks later again.

It was probably wishful thinking that the mites wouldn't find their way across my veggie patch to the newer plantings of beans... they have!

Spreading the love around!... Anyone else need some predator mites?...

I'm going to order some predator mites today, the 3000 minimum order, for $40 delivered. As the mites are only on my bean plants I don't really need that many predators, so if anyone else has a mite issue and wants to go halvies then let me know in the next couple of days. If I order them today I don't think they'll send them out until Monday, I should get them Tuesday. I will use all of them if no takers, but if someone wants to go halvies then they could be picked up from Belmont during business hours, or NE suburbs early evening.

For those that don't know what to look for, this is what the baddies look like!... the photo below is of the Red Bean Mites on my older bean plants... the new plants only have the odd one here and there, but you can see the older plants are infested.

Cheers.

I had this once in my greenhouse with dirt media before aquaponics... I had to clean out my whole greenhouse and fog it roooar i hate those spiders