Ideas of Miticides

Hi guys, It's not uncommon for my roses to get hit with mites, I can usually knock them on the head quite easily.  However this season I just can't seem to get on top of them, I use alternate with Malathion and Wettable Sulphur, they seem to be immune to these products.
The local Dawsons can get me some Predatory mites at a cost of around $80,, ahh I'm not made of money I said.

So any advice is extremely welcome.  

As with antibiotics, the more you spray the greater the immunity the bugs develop.

Choose varieties that have natural immunity to the bugs it the best way to avoid them. Encourage natural predators even hosing them off I far better option to spraying them with chemicals.

Hi there

I'm not usually a big fan of the chemically sort of stuff ( it kinda scares me) and I don't do any other regular spray for blackspot etc, but I must confess to going nuclear on a bad case of spider mites last year.
Keltane miticide - you can get it at Bunnings and Masters. It was extremely effective; only one or two roses needed a follow up treatment, and they were all mite free the rest of the year.

If it was me Paul , there is no way i would nuke my roses with chemicals , you just create more problems , if you possibly can , go for the beneficial insects ...

Curdle1, can you tell me what the active ingredient is please in Keltane miticide

What's lethal to the pest bugs is also lethal for the beneficial bugs ... so wiping out predating beneficial bugs increases the problem of pests over the long term!! Not to mention the risks to the gardener's health!!

lSOg/L DICOFOL as far as I can see is the active ingredient...

I was going to post a few extras tho.. from my earlier research when I was looking into curing my mite problem, I discovered that the mites like dry dusty conditions ( at the time of my infestation, we were undergoing a heatwave of mid 30's and above temps, check). I had all my potted roses in the shadiest area undercover clustered together ( also not good conditions, bad air circulation).
What I should have done is to be spraying/misting the leaves with water to discourage the mites/ break up their cycle before they took hold in the first place. However, having never heard they could attack roses until I wondered why they were all totally covered in what apppeared to be spider webs, I didn't realise they were mites until I looked them up. From what I could find, there weren't many methods that would help the situation, so I decided on a targeted application of the miticide.

I was just looking up a bit of extra info, and it seems that Malathion may not be the best idea tho..a couple of sources say it's not a guaranteed treatment for mites, and may actually encourage them by (as Rosebud mentioned it ) making it inhospitable for any natural predators

I know a lot of people don't approve of chemical intervention and I am sorry if I have offended anyone by posting.

you can try and get a spray full of a good dose of washing liquid. Spray thoroughly all your plants...leave for 20 minutes and then wash down with hose. Do this before sun gets on it in the morning or when sun is off the bushes in the afternoon.....then water the ground after and the detergent acts as a wetting agent....just a thoughty...

"I know a lot of people don't approve of chemical intervention and I am sorry if I have offended anyone by posting."

This is part of curdles post from above. Firstly let me say, we have been in this house 18 years and never sprayed any of the roses, not that we should or shouldn't have it is just that I don't get around to it, it called laziness or they can fend for themselves. I have all the means to spray with whatever chemical there is. The closest they came to being sprayed was when we had a locust plague, with a pretty heavy chemical. IMO it is Horses for Courses, some people spray, others choose not to.
I believe it to be upto the individual.
Here is link to Wetable Sulphur, we use the same g/litre in the vineyard, but by another maker. I personally use it on the rose I care for when mites start to get out of control.
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Good comments people. Usually wettable has been great for me, not at the moment though, go figure. Interesting comment on malithion, I've noticed it won't even knoch out caterpillars. Buying predatory mites, hmm, $70 a pop, once the food source is gone so are they, then you're on a cycle of $$$.

Natrasoap is a new generation broad-spectrum insecticide formulated using potassium salts combined with fatty acids in a vegetable oil base. Natrasoap's mode of action is effective against a wide range of insect pests including aphids, mites, Leafhopper, thrips, whitefly. Natrasoap is a contact pesticide spray and best suited for early season application. Natrasoap used in an I.P.M. program has demonstrated an ideal fit as it has a different mode of action and is softer on predators than most currently used pesticides. It is cost effective and has nil residual, making it environmentally safe. Natrasoap is a BFA registered input

Paul...did you try Dipel for the caterpillars?

I am currently trailing Natrasoap on mites and so far the results are promising. I am surprised Kelthane is being used successfully as in NSW we have found the mite population to have developed a resistance to it.

neptune wrote:Paul...did you try Dipel for the caterpillars?

Not yet Neptune, I'm afraid I've got bigger problems with roses at the minute  

Ausrose wrote:I am currently trailing Natrasoap on mites and so far the results are promising. I am surprised Kelthane is being used successfully as in NSW we have found the mite population to have developed a resistance to it.

Thanks for that Ausrose, for me I am very loathed to use anything that has oil in it. Every time without fail after using products with oil in them it seems to suffocate the leaves to the point that they shed from the bush in a big way























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?????????......?

have you tried mitecide...

neptune wrote:?????????......?

have you tried mitecide...

No I haven't Neptune, I haven't come across that one, I need one that you can apply with a next day application, that won't harm the leaves. All my rose in the bed have mind the french, crapped themselves. I know I can't seem to knock the mites on the head, but I think something else is going on.

Over a period of time 4-5 weeks we were going through a lot of bananas, so I was keeping the skins in the fridge for about a week, then digging them in around the plants in the bed, I did this 2-3 times. The skins weren't fresh, they were slimy and turning blackish. At the same time I applied them with a dose of soluble Potash.

So what do you recon, could the said Banana skins been toxic? 

rogor will also kill your mitecide.......and you need to apply just before sun goes down or just as sun comes up(515am).....

You don't need to keep the bananas in the fridge that long.......put them in the blender(breaks them down quicker) and dig it in just outside the drip line.
The areas you have banana skin, just lighten the dose a bit around those areas.........The potash content of a banana is less than a fifth of a tea spoon

neptune wrote:rogor will also kill your mitecide.......and you need to apply just before sun goes down or just as sun comes up(515am).....

You don't need to keep the bananas in the fridge that long.......put them in the blender(breaks them down quicker) and dig it in just outside the drip line.
The areas you have banana skin, just lighten the dose a bit around those areas.........The potash content of a banana is less than a fifth of a tea spoon

So no toxicity then, I'll post some photos Sunday night to show you what I mean

Neptune, I found some photos on the net, that sort of look like what some of my plants are going through.
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the second and third look like sunburn...

neptune wrote:the second and third look like sunburn...

What about the last photo neptune

not sure...working on it.....

Paul, I agree with John about the burn factor, the burn could also be related to "some" sort of spray at the wrong time of day.
Is the last photo of your problem Paul ?, if so I will make my assessment from bottom left to right clockwise.
1. what cut the leaf ?
2. burn/chemical interference
3. same as 2
4. spray residue and tip marks indicating start of "burn".
5. spray residue, very minute "burn" to tip
6. spray residue with evidence of "spray burn"
7. as 6.
Paul if this is one of your leaves, can you tell me what the spray is/was and when it was applied(time of day), weather conditions

Thanks roseman. These are photos I found on net that look the same as what mine are. The last photo is similar mine are a bit darker. I thought chemical, Malithion applied early evening in the cool