Horticulture oil for spider mites?

[jbclem]

My tomato plants are decimated by spider mites every year. It's easy, but tedious, to kill the spider mites, but the eggs are a different story. I'm thinking to try horticulture oil, that smothers the eggs, but I don't know if it would have a negative effect on the tomato plant. Has anyone tried this, and can report the results.

John

[GoDawgs]

I know hort oil and summer heat are a bad combination for ornamental plantings and would tend to think that would hold for tomatoes as well since they're not as tough as camellias, etc.

Check this article:
https://www.kemin.com/na/en-us/blog/cro ... his-summer

[jbclem]

Thanks for the article. Of course, hot weather is spider mite weather, so I was happy to see them write about it...

"The hot season does have an optimal time for using horticultural oils. You need to adjust the application time of horticultural oils to be during the evenings, after sunset or early in the morning before the temperatures rise above 85° F. This optimal timing will also help avoid contact with foraging bees or other day active beneficials. It is recommended to avoid application before an expected rain event or topical irrigation that will wash the leaves following use."

My tomato plants are so infested that I can spend hours just spraying Safer Soap, and it doesn't kill the eggs so they come right back. I think I'll go out in the evening, or even at night with a head lamp, and give the horticulture oil a test. The worse thing that'll happen is plants will die a little quicker.

[zendog]

Please let us know how it goes. This is the first year I've had a big problem with spider mites, but they are definitely close to wiping out some of my plants.