The borg has started its annual invasion of my greenhouse and have appeared on the cucumber first.

Just wondering what other peeps would use, I have the following in the cupboard.

SBPI
Biobizz Buzz Off
Liquid Deris
Westland bug defence (not for ediable crops!)

The greenhouse is full with Toms, peppers, chillies, courgettes, stawberries, basil etc so I am anxious to stop the borg from spreading this year. I am a big fan of SBPI but trying to get every leaf in the greenhouse takes hours and having two kids under 3 in the house I don't have that much time to spare anymore.

So far I have removed infected leaves from the cucumber and sprayed twice with SBPI.

Interested in hearing what others would do?

I use an alternating spary of neem oil and SBPI.
2-3 applications should be sufficient..........it is time consuming, but what else can you do.......smoke bomb, sulphume hotbox??? I would fancy eating the stuff after that.

I have some derris......but for some reason I am not a fan of it.

Be careful with SBPI and young plants....especially chillis, at full doses it tends to warp them and they take time to recover. I only ever use SBPI at half strength (max).

ATB

i use neem oil too, never used SBPI but if you can increase your humidity to around 70% they will reproduce at a much slower rate.

Some sort of automatic misting system or even spraying down your floor with a hose a couple of times a day will help.

I use D & S organic mite killer which does the lot eggs lavae and mite in one treatment, good luck sourcing it though i only know of one place in the country to get it.


Not needed for a good couple years now since i blitzed everything.

Thanks for all the replies so far.

I have learnt how strong SBPI can be, I've got a litre of the super concentrate and fried some of my indoor plants last year!!

Think I'll add neem oil to the arsenal and try alternating with SBPI, will just have to make time.

Increasing the humidty is possible as the cucumber is within a bubble wrapped enclosure as mother always said cuc's like a more humid environment than the toms etc.

Done a quick google for D&S sibs, and as you say, it does not look easy to find.

A quick update on how the borg are getting on in my green house. I have not been able to get rid of them completly, have been spraying with SBPI , 2 sprays, 3 days apart once every 10-14 days. I have only been spraying the cucumber and stawberries as I tried a bit on a couple of tomatoe plants and the leafs curled.

The mites do not appear to have spread to the tomatoes or anything else yet. The SBPI has not got rid of the mite completely but the numbers are very low and managable at the moment. I have been stuggling to see any live mites the day after spraying, but the little buggers keep coming back.

Have also been watering the g/h floor when hot and dry to keep the humidity up.

I am happy, have been picking a couple of cucumbers a week and feel like I am controling the mites this year, which is an improvment on previous years. Don't think i will ever get rid of the mites unless i grow my cucumbers outdoors, I gather cuc's are a magnet for the borg.