Help! My Aubergines Are In Trouble.

[Snoop Puss]

All that for a few aubergines? Just mist them and accept you'll lose a few?

I guess it depends how many you have to start with.

[Trouvere]

Eh, honestly, I'd just spray with pyrethrins, and then keep the treated plants safely away from the hoverflies and ladybirds and bees for about 5 or 6 days, after which time less than 3% of the pesticide would remain on leaf surfaces and they would probably be safe again.

The thing is, now that the mites have established, misting with water will make them less comfortable and slow their reproduction down a little, but it won't kill them off. They'll be looking for other plants to colonise - and their host range is very wide. And if they are still around at the end of the season, fertile females will find a hidden crevice and overwinter, and it's likely the problem will repeat next year. I've been there.

If I were going to mist, and it can't hurt, it might as well be with some bacteria-filled water, i.e. compost tea, which will feed the plants a little and just maybe there'll be something that will infect and kill the mites. They really do rely on their aseptic feeding method and their ridiculous reproductive rate for survival.

If I sprayed with pyrethrins, I'd still spray with some filthy water, since the same organisms increase the rate of pyrethrin degradation.

[smallblueplanet]

Eh, honestly, I'd just spray with pyrethrins, and then keep the treated plants safely away from the hoverflies and ladybirds and bees for about 5 or 6 days, after which time less than 3% of the pesticide would remain on leaf surfaces and they would probably be safe again...

Good to know, not 100% then. It's a personal choice as to what is more important. Not my choice though it's Snoops. #shrug

[Trouvere]

No... I'm basing that guess on the reported 12 hour half-life of pyrethrin on leaf surfaces, in sunlight, with a pessimistic safety margin. After 5 days there's probably no physiologically relevant amount left. But not zero, no.