Find and Kill Bugs
BE PROACTIVE
Well, I don't have a lot of experience with bugs on my African Violets and that's probably because I am a proactive sprayer of fungicide, miticide and insecticide. I don't wait until I see one before I spray or dust. They creep me out. I believe prevention is the key to growing healthy violets. What is that in the picture? I don't know but it wasn't moving. Looks dead to me.
NOT PREACHING
I even got a jeweler's loupe a while ago so I could find them but I haven't found anything crawling yet. It's fun to play with though if you get one with a clip that attaches to your phone camera! You can take pictures real close up of your violets. Gee, even the flowers are hairy!
I have a word of caution for violet growers and I want you to take it with a grain of salt because I don't mean to lecture but I'm really worried that some new violet people are buying commercial outdoor chemicals to kill bugs on a few indoor violets and not reading the instructions. A few to me means less than 300. Unless you have a greenhouse operation or have an outdoor nursery most people don't need anything that strong for home use. It's not meant to be sprayed in a house where people live. You can kill thrips and mites with a lot safer stuff. ooohhhh lookie... pretty pink flower petal...
READ THE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST
Most new violet people want to get the bestest, strongest thing that everyone else has and that's not necessarily a good thing. If you buy samples of a commercial product online that doesn't come with instructions, or you can't do the math, you probably shouldn't be using it. The instructions call for mixing 100 gallons at a time and you only want 1 gallon or less. If you have to ask somebody how to mix it, that tells me you are not reading the instructions because it's basic math to divide a liquid amount by 100. Please, read the instructions first!
These chemicals can damage you and your kids and pets if you don't take the precautions you should take before using them. I would rather lose all my violets than put my own, my kids or my pets health at risk. You have to read the labels and you have to take ALL the safety precautions. You practically have to cover up like a plastic ninja before you use them. They are not meant to be sprayed indoors.
Hmmm, the inside of the flower... is that a pistil?...
If you do decide to use them, please, please be careful. They are toxic substances. I understand the panic when you see a bug on your plants. I have a sample of Forbid 4F I bought a few months back and after reading the instructions, I decided not to use it. I was able to get rid of my bugs with a safer product so I have not opened it yet.
I'm not saying that I never will or that nobody ever should - I'm just saying you usually don't need to break out the big guns every time you see a bug. And please be careful with toxic chemicals.
SAFER PRODUCTS TO TRY
Here's what I use for safer bug killing (but you still have to read and follow the instructions):
Bonide Houseplant Insect Control granules with Imidacloprid and mix it into your potting mix or for plants that are already potted, mix it into the top soil of the pot.
Maggie's Farm 3 in 1 garden spray for organic gardening (fungicide, miticide, insecticide) OR
SaferGarden 3 in 1 fungicide, miticide and insecticide with neem - both of these products are good and one of them should be sprayed once a week on all your violets as a preventative even if you don't see a bug. They make your plants taste bad to a bug. I rotate them. Shake them up really well as you spray. Both of them.
If you see a bug - the following sprays will kill them at the .001% premix strength or the .007% strength diluted from concentrate: Spray initially, then every 5 days for 4 more times to kill thrips in all stages of their life cycle:
Capt Jack's dead bug brew w/spinosad concentrate at .5% dilutes per instructions to .007% OR
Monterey brand concentrate at .5% mixed with water as directed also dilutes to .007% spinosad too. Same strength.
The commercial brand of spinosad called Conserve may start out at 11.6% but if mixed as directed, it dilutes down to .5%, the same strength as what the other two concentrates come in. Personally, I wouldn't put .5% spinosad on my violets because it's too strong for the delicate tissues and will kill the flowers and buds. The others at .001% - .007% won't. Remember, these commercial products are for outdoor use.
I previously used Bayer Advanced Rose and Flower insect killer when it had .012% imidacloprid in it but they changed their formula and now it's hard to find. Some people dip their violets into a solution or hot water to kill mites. I don't even do that, I just spray and dust.
These are the ones I use to keep my plants bug free but there are other good ones out there over the counter that are just as effective. Of course I don't use them all at the same time. I rotate treatments so bugs don't build up a resistance to them. And, I use diatomaceous earth on all my violets, both in the soil and dusted on the leaves and flowers, especially the crown. If I suspect a rot issue from overwatering or a powdery mildew issue, sometimes I will dust sulphur on the crown or leaves. I do lose a violet occasionally no matter what I do. It happens to everyone.
I will tell you that I've been growing violets over a span of nearly 40 years off and on and I currently have about 300 plants, leaves and babies coming along. Even though I have had bugs in the past and probably will again, none of my violets has powdery mildew or thrips at the moment. I have four suspicious plants isolated until I can figure out what's wrong with them and one that I suspect has broad mites being treated. <knock wood>. I think it's low incident because of my pro-active stance on pest control. You usually don't need anything stronger than that for most small violet collections.
GOOD PRACTICES FOR BUG AND DISEASE PREVENTION
Always use good plant room hygiene. Wash your reusable pots and wells with 10% bleach water solution and keep your violets groomed by removing dead and dying plant material. Sterilize your blade and potting utensils with alcohol so you don't spread pathogens. All these little things help prevent and deter bugs and disease.
The best practice to prevent bugs is to isolate every new plant you bring into your house. Do not put it with your collection for at least a couple of months. Use preventatives. If it goes south on you, at least you won't infect the rest of your plants. Play it safe with the chemicals. JMHO
Seriously, get a jeweler's loupe, they are fun to play with even if you never find a bug. Just don't creep yourself out too much with it. Happy violeting!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 6, 2018 - I finally did break open that little bottle of Forbid 4F and mix up a small amount to use and I took all the precautions. One of my violets had all the symptoms of broad mites so I isolated and treated it. It wasn't one of my favorites so I wound up pitching it anyway after about a week and no new growth. This is what I found on it. That little pearl thing looks like a spider mite egg.
Would have been a long, hard recovery for that plant and none of the leaves looked good enough to propagate so I didn't want to take the chance. I sprayed the leaves and crowns of all the plants around it too.
Well, I don't have a lot of experience with bugs on my African Violets and that's probably because I am a proactive sprayer of fungicide, miticide and insecticide. I don't wait until I see one before I spray or dust. They creep me out. I believe prevention is the key to growing healthy violets. What is that in the picture? I don't know but it wasn't moving. Looks dead to me.
I even got a jeweler's loupe a while ago so I could find them but I haven't found anything crawling yet. It's fun to play with though if you get one with a clip that attaches to your phone camera! You can take pictures real close up of your violets. Gee, even the flowers are hairy!
I have a word of caution for violet growers and I want you to take it with a grain of salt because I don't mean to lecture but I'm really worried that some new violet people are buying commercial outdoor chemicals to kill bugs on a few indoor violets and not reading the instructions. A few to me means less than 300. Unless you have a greenhouse operation or have an outdoor nursery most people don't need anything that strong for home use. It's not meant to be sprayed in a house where people live. You can kill thrips and mites with a lot safer stuff. ooohhhh lookie... pretty pink flower petal...
READ THE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST
Most new violet people want to get the bestest, strongest thing that everyone else has and that's not necessarily a good thing. If you buy samples of a commercial product online that doesn't come with instructions, or you can't do the math, you probably shouldn't be using it. The instructions call for mixing 100 gallons at a time and you only want 1 gallon or less. If you have to ask somebody how to mix it, that tells me you are not reading the instructions because it's basic math to divide a liquid amount by 100. Please, read the instructions first!
These chemicals can damage you and your kids and pets if you don't take the precautions you should take before using them. I would rather lose all my violets than put my own, my kids or my pets health at risk. You have to read the labels and you have to take ALL the safety precautions. You practically have to cover up like a plastic ninja before you use them. They are not meant to be sprayed indoors.
Hmmm, the inside of the flower... is that a pistil?...
If you do decide to use them, please, please be careful. They are toxic substances. I understand the panic when you see a bug on your plants. I have a sample of Forbid 4F I bought a few months back and after reading the instructions, I decided not to use it. I was able to get rid of my bugs with a safer product so I have not opened it yet.
I'm not saying that I never will or that nobody ever should - I'm just saying you usually don't need to break out the big guns every time you see a bug. And please be careful with toxic chemicals.
Here's what I use for safer bug killing (but you still have to read and follow the instructions):
Bonide Houseplant Insect Control granules with Imidacloprid and mix it into your potting mix or for plants that are already potted, mix it into the top soil of the pot.
Maggie's Farm 3 in 1 garden spray for organic gardening (fungicide, miticide, insecticide) OR
SaferGarden 3 in 1 fungicide, miticide and insecticide with neem - both of these products are good and one of them should be sprayed once a week on all your violets as a preventative even if you don't see a bug. They make your plants taste bad to a bug. I rotate them. Shake them up really well as you spray. Both of them.
If you see a bug - the following sprays will kill them at the .001% premix strength or the .007% strength diluted from concentrate: Spray initially, then every 5 days for 4 more times to kill thrips in all stages of their life cycle:
Capt Jack's dead bug brew w/spinosad concentrate at .5% dilutes per instructions to .007% OR
Monterey brand concentrate at .5% mixed with water as directed also dilutes to .007% spinosad too. Same strength.
The commercial brand of spinosad called Conserve may start out at 11.6% but if mixed as directed, it dilutes down to .5%, the same strength as what the other two concentrates come in. Personally, I wouldn't put .5% spinosad on my violets because it's too strong for the delicate tissues and will kill the flowers and buds. The others at .001% - .007% won't. Remember, these commercial products are for outdoor use.
I previously used Bayer Advanced Rose and Flower insect killer when it had .012% imidacloprid in it but they changed their formula and now it's hard to find. Some people dip their violets into a solution or hot water to kill mites. I don't even do that, I just spray and dust.
These are the ones I use to keep my plants bug free but there are other good ones out there over the counter that are just as effective. Of course I don't use them all at the same time. I rotate treatments so bugs don't build up a resistance to them. And, I use diatomaceous earth on all my violets, both in the soil and dusted on the leaves and flowers, especially the crown. If I suspect a rot issue from overwatering or a powdery mildew issue, sometimes I will dust sulphur on the crown or leaves. I do lose a violet occasionally no matter what I do. It happens to everyone.
I will tell you that I've been growing violets over a span of nearly 40 years off and on and I currently have about 300 plants, leaves and babies coming along. Even though I have had bugs in the past and probably will again, none of my violets has powdery mildew or thrips at the moment. I have four suspicious plants isolated until I can figure out what's wrong with them and one that I suspect has broad mites being treated. <knock wood>. I think it's low incident because of my pro-active stance on pest control. You usually don't need anything stronger than that for most small violet collections.
GOOD PRACTICES FOR BUG AND DISEASE PREVENTION
Always use good plant room hygiene. Wash your reusable pots and wells with 10% bleach water solution and keep your violets groomed by removing dead and dying plant material. Sterilize your blade and potting utensils with alcohol so you don't spread pathogens. All these little things help prevent and deter bugs and disease.
The best practice to prevent bugs is to isolate every new plant you bring into your house. Do not put it with your collection for at least a couple of months. Use preventatives. If it goes south on you, at least you won't infect the rest of your plants. Play it safe with the chemicals. JMHO
Seriously, get a jeweler's loupe, they are fun to play with even if you never find a bug. Just don't creep yourself out too much with it. Happy violeting!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NOTES
August 6, 2018 - I finally did break open that little bottle of Forbid 4F and mix up a small amount to use and I took all the precautions. One of my violets had all the symptoms of broad mites so I isolated and treated it. It wasn't one of my favorites so I wound up pitching it anyway after about a week and no new growth. This is what I found on it. That little pearl thing looks like a spider mite egg.
Would have been a long, hard recovery for that plant and none of the leaves looked good enough to propagate so I didn't want to take the chance. I sprayed the leaves and crowns of all the plants around it too.
Comments
Post a Comment