stefan m. wrote:Its red spider mite. Recommend heavy insecticide(and regular spray) Though would like confirmation on that from other users.
Ever since you made your assessment of
RSM (
Red
Spider
Mites), i've been doing some research. Both to find some additional documentation on what a RSM infestation looks like (to kind of solidify a diagnosis) and as a way to find out what to do about them. And i've a few thoughts.
1) I don't find any evidence of LCT (Little Crawly Things) whatsoever. Maybe because this is a greenhouse cacti and outside temperatures have reached a low of 40 degrees (thanks to my thermostatically controlled heater that comes on at 40 degrees F and goes off at 45 F) and the LCT have already retreated to a winter habitat. I just don't know.
2) The damage to cacti that i've see pictures of (google search/images) are almost consistently have a light tan coloration. And LOOK like something has killed the surface layer of cells (which is what is happening, as the
RSM are eating the surface layer) ... where what I see on MY
Ferocactus latispinus looks more like some wax has been
painted on the surface and then dusted with a red to orange to brown substance. It looks topically applied, not eaten from it's surface if you get my drift.
3)
RSM are reputed to not care for high humidity, and the humidity in my greenhouse (a subjective evaluation as I do not have a calibrated meter to measure it with) is rather high.
4)
RSM are reputed to like fresh growth the best, and THAT tells me that they would go for the crown of the plant first. The damage to MY cactus is not located primarily at the top of the cactus, but scattered in a somewhat random fashion over the surface of its body. But the pictures of damage to cactus i've seen via a Google Search/Images show it to occur most anywhere. I'm not sure what to believe.
All in all, I am beginning to have some small doubt regarding the
RSM diagnosis. But what do
I know? It's just that in order to effectively treat what is wrong with this cactus, i've
GOT to know
WHAT'S wrong with it. I
HOPE the information in
THIS post assists
SOMEONE in giving me a correct diagnosis,
RSM or not.
So here are some more pictures of the stuff ON my cactus. These pictures, originally at 2592 x 1944 have been resized to 800x600 to reduce the amount of time it takes for you to "download" them so they can be seen. Their filesize, originally around 1,500kb is now only about 115 to 140kb.
#1) in this picture are a couple of red circles that should illustrate what i'm talking about when I say that it looks like what can be seen ony cactus appears to have been topically applied ... painted on the surface ... not eaten INTO the surface.
- 1.jpg (81.83 KiB) Viewed 1629 times
#2) Again, painted on the surface ... and mmmm ... 'redder' ... than what I see from a google search.
- 2.jpg (72.44 KiB) Viewed 1629 times
#3) what's inside the circles in this photo look more like scale ... although i have never seen scale ON TOP of a waxy looking substance painted ON the cactus exterior.
- 3.jpg (76.29 KiB) Viewed 1629 times
#4) it looks almost like wax has been painted on or poured on the surface of the skin. and then there is that 'orange' coloration outside the circle on the left.
- 4.jpg (70.44 KiB) Viewed 1629 times
#5) more evidence of 'painted on' in the circle at the upper left, and stuff that looks a little bit more like scale in the circle at the lower right.
- 5.jpg (79.66 KiB) Viewed 1629 times
#6) in the red circle at the top, more appearing as though it's 'painted on' or 'poured on', while the green arrow points to an area where i was able to pick at it and pull some of it up. not an easy chore, as this stuff is STUCK to the surface.
- 6.jpg (66.25 KiB) Viewed 1629 times
#7) the green arrow in this picture points to an EDGE where I was able to pick at it some and pull up a little bit. and the surface of the cactus underneath this waxy 'looking' stuff looks perfectly normal
- 7.jpg (63.89 KiB) Viewed 1629 times
One More Thing ... i've discovered some stuff that is supposed to be effective in killing something like 45 different insects, eggs, larvae and adults. It's called Safer Brand End All Insect Killer and the list of bugs it's supposed to kill is:
- Aphids (including cabbage aphids, conifer aphids, rose aphids), Beetles (including Asian lady beetles, asparagus beetles, bean beetles, blister , beetles, Colorado potato beetles, cucumber beetles, flea beetles, Japanese beetles), Billbugs, Box elder bugs, Caterpillars & worms (including armyworms, bagworms, cabbage loopers, cabbage worms, Codling moth, cross-striped, diamond back moth larvae, eastern tent, fireworms, forest tent, gypsy moth, hornworms, imported cabbageworm, leaftiers, leaf rollers, Naval orange worm, sod webworm, tent caterpillars), Chinch bugs, Earwigs, Harlequin bugs, Lawn moth, Leafhoppers (including green peach leafhoppers), Mealybugs, Plant bugs, Psyllids (including boxwood psyllids, pear psyllids, tomato psyllids) Sawfly larvae, Scale crawlers, Sowbugs, Spider mites, Stink bugs, Thrips, Weevil adults, Whiteflies
And it's supposed to be organic ... that you can apply it on stuff you are going to EAT right up until the day before its harvested. The active ingredients, pyrethrin, neem oil and potassium salts of fatty acids, and is supposed to work (partially anyway) by paralyzing them so they stop eating, and damaging the insects outer surface so that it dries out from the inside out and dies.
A 32 oz bottle on Amazon is $12.45 and I'm a prime member so it ships 2nd day express to me for free (well, no additional charge). The URL for that is:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0031 ... UTF8&psc=1
The same bottle is available straight from the manufactured for $7.99 and I don't know how much shipping would be, from:
http://www.saferbrand.com/safer-brand-e ... #specs_tab
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE ... somebody help me out here. I've killed enough of my cactus just learning how to take care of them. I don't need to have one of my favorites die over some darn bug.
