***** versus Citrox

[Ruth M C]

Can anyone let me know if ***** is better at dealing with red spider mite than Citrox or vice verse. I got an infestation of red spider mite in my green house and when I come to clean it this autumn I want my efforts to be effective.

Many thanks
Ruth

[snohare]

Hi Ruth,
I have not had this exact problem myself before, but having spent a few years using ancient greenhouses I can tell you that the most important thing seems not to be which product you use - if it says it disinfects, it disinfects - but how thorough you are in sweeping and cleaning away debris before using the product.
In our case, when my mate and I were doing the annual clean, we removed all staging, swept with a hard yard brush, weeded where necessary between bricks, cracks in mortar etc, cleaned away all cobwebs with brushes (paying particular attention to overhead areas that are not so visible - going up on a ladder is sometimes needed), then sprayed with water alone to douse the area completely and remove caked dirt before adding disinfectant. That way, the disinfectant did not need to be sprayed in every corner - it would dilute through the water that was already on the surfaces, into every corner and piece of remaining debris that was already dampened.
For the future, you may find that it is easier to keep infestations to a minimum throughout the growing season by taking in a hose occasionally and spraying the inside of the greenhouse thoroughly, giving the plants and fitments as much of a blasting as they will withstand. That tends to discourage the little darlin's !
Hope this helps.

[Ruth M C]

Thanks, Snohare, that's really useful. I'll be doing it over the next few weeks, if not days. In my greenhouse, the most visible collection of the horrid things is at the top of the obelisk I used to support my cucumber, which they have killed. So that will get dunked in a trough of whichever substance I use.

KR
Ruth