AusBonsai

Its seems my Chinese elm is having a red spider mite infestation. I first noticed this last season, where the leaves were turning yellow similar to this

http://www.organicgardeninfo.com/images ... damage.jpg

and dropping off whenever i touched them. i thought at first it was due to lack of food and old soil, so i thought a repot should fix it. The same issue has popped up again, but this time i have noticed a lot of small red dots on the leaves, particularly on the underside. the move when disturbed. I have looked up what it could be and they seem to be red spider mites. I have tried some low toxicity pyrethrum spray for a few weeks but i havnt seen a change in the level of the mites. I have also read that chinese elms dont respond well to stronger insecticides. So short of cutting all the leaves off and hoping they go away, im not sure how to proceed. I have kept up the watering and regular fertilising to try and keep the tree strong. I cant upload photos for some reason, but the condition of the leaves are much like that one in the link

Try hosing the foliage with a good semi powerful soaker gun . Blast it from underneath and all angles. Every morning . I soak the foliage on all my trees every time I water and haven't had much problem with any infestation since I started doing it . I think spider mites hate water and love heat and dry conditions.

Hi Naimul,
I have noticed with my Azaleas that I have stopped getting problems with their leaves since I have been using foliage feeding. I don't know what effect you would get with your Chinese Elms. Foliage feeding them certainly won't hurt them, I foliage feed mine very regularly. If you give it a try I would also spray under the leaves.

This is just an idea to share with you.
The link to the post is viewtopic.php?f=7&t=16894&hilit=+foliage+feeding

Regards Ray

Paulneill wrote:Try hosing the foliage with a good semi powerful soaker gun . Blast it from underneath and all angles. Every morning . I soak the foliage on all my trees every time I water and haven't had much problem with any infestation since I started doing it . I think spider mites hate water and love heat and dry conditions.

+1

I can't speak for how it will work on your bonsai, but this is the only way I could get rid of the buggers from my cucumber plants. I sprayed the undersides of the leaves every morning and they were pretty much gone within in about 10 days.

I do the same, when watering my trees, the leaves get a good spray of water from below, this has seemed to keep the pests at bay...
at least in my garden.

I hope you get control of them

Cheers Mike

Thanks for all the advice. I gave the tree one last spray of the pyrethrum stuff last night, and today ive just hosed the tree off with water. plenty of leaves fell off in the process, but im not surprised. not sure if it was the pyrethrum or the water, but there is definitely already a great deal of the mites gone. ill hose it off every day around the evening (only chance ill get for the next few weeks). Once i manage to get rid of the mites, i give the foliage feeding a go. i tried it before when i first saw the thread, on my swamp cypress, but i never got around to doing it again.

Ive just done a quick inspection of the tree, after spraying the foliage with a strong jet of water everyday, and the tree is showing great signs of improvement. i was able to count the number of remaining mites on my hand, which is a good sign. New foliage looks strong and normal, the ones that were affected dont seem to have gotten any worse. Safe to say that spraying them with strong streams of water definitely did the trick. Probably a few more days of before they are all gone.

Informative post!! Had faced this problem and discovered red mites in plants too. Last month found bed bug symptoms in kitchen also. My friends recommended me an organic spray. Tried it and happy to see great results.