Questions, Spiders & Mixing - Orchid Board

BURR · #1 01-29-2010, 05:40 AM

Hope everyone is having a great New Year!

Question 1. Are spiders good?
I have spiders, spiders every where and webs every where. Should I kill them or are they doing good eating the other little bugs. The flowers are outside!

Question 2. Is it OK to mix fertilizer and bug killer and or fungicide in the same water bottle?

And if I can't mix then should I spray each on a different day?

In the pass I just put a little of everything in a one liter sprayer and started spaying.
The local guy said NO, don't do that.

So maybe you'll can give me a little input. I ain't to smart but I have a few smart books to help me but they don't cover this (I think).

Bolero · #2 01-29-2010, 06:05 AM

Spiders won't hurt the plants and they will eat bugs so I guess they aren't a bad thing. However if they are poisonous to you then they are bad, when you put your hands under a plant to lift it check that there isn't something poisonous under it. This happens in Australia and I'm sure it happens elsewhere.

Just today I put my hand under a pot and a tarantula type spider was there, not poisonous but large and ugly and I squashed it by accident. If it had been a black widow I might be in hospital now.

Question 2: No. Do not mix things like that as it's not possible to predict the chemical reaction and the potential things that could happen. Treat each thing as a separate process and not as one process. I just don't recommend it and I'm sure others won't either.

BURR · #3 01-29-2010, 06:09 AM

Thanks Bolero!

Orchid126 · #4 01-29-2010, 05:20 PM

True, spiders eat other insects and keep the plants clean. By the same token, the abundance of spiders must be finding food. You might consider checking your plants for the source of that food. Many insects are visible to the eye, but mites are very tiny. Run a damp cotton ball across the underside of the leaves. If you see tiny specs, you've got insects.

BURR · #5 01-29-2010, 07:07 PM

OK, I'll do that.

The spiders are every where outside and try to get in the house. They have just keep getting worst every week. Think I'll just debug all flowers and see what happens. Just way to many spiders.

Thanks,

King_of_orchid_growing:) · #6 01-30-2010, 01:00 AM

Spider mites aren't insects (should you find that you have some). They're arachnids and are related to spiders which are also arachnids.

Arachnids have 8 legs and have no antennae.

Insects have 6 legs and have antennae.

Spider mites do massive damage to plants. They are very, very small. You need a jeweler's loupe to see them clearly.

Spiders do not harm plants. Many of them are predators of insects, while some that are large enough will eat small birds and lizards.

BURR · #7 01-30-2010, 03:39 AM

Mr. King,
What do you think I should do?

My plan is to re-bug, Kill everything and start anew.

My plants are down a little because I have been to lazy to take care like I should and it has caught up with me.
I will spent time with all my flowers from now on.

King_of_orchid_growing:) · #8 01-30-2010, 12:57 PM

There's no need to sterilize everything.

Spiders are good.

Spider mites are bad.

If there are no signs of damage on your plants, then I wouldn't go the extra step of sterilizing.

If you have insects that are harmless (i.e. springtails). I'd do nothing.

If you've got a ton of spiders, I'd do nothing as well. I've got tons of spiders crawling amongst my orchids when it's warmer here. Mostly cute little jumping spiders. There're the occasional other kinds of spiders. I leave them alone.

If you have aphids or other soft bodied insects that do damage, rubbing alcohol works fine.

Scale insects must be removed by hand first. Then the part of the plant the scale insect was on, rubbed with alcohol (unless they're invading the roots, remove by hand only and do nothing else).

Check on-line and look at pictures of mealy bugs, scale insects, aphids (green and black), spider mites, leaf hoppers, and fungus gnats.

Then go on-line and check out spiders and springtails.

Just be careful of which spiders are dangerous to humans when bitten and know which ones aren't. Spiders are usually not terribly aggressive towards humans. The black widow spiders we have here in the US are dangerous when they bite us, however, most of the times they just run away when they see something as large as a human.

I suspect in the tropics there are a lot of spiders because there are generally more insects in the tropics. When it gets warmer, there's a large population boom for the insects, and the spider population follows suit because there's plenty of food.

No matter how hard you try, you'll never eradicate 100% all the spiders in your house, so don't bother. Mother nature will take care of it for you. Spiders don't live too long anyways (lifespan is usually 5 yrs or under).

BURR · #9 01-30-2010, 06:42 PM

Nice Post King,
I'll go slow and see what I can do. Feeding the plants and lots of TLC will help a lot. I watch and see what is going on and I'll get a big magnifying glass today so I can get a good look. (I'll look like Sherlock Homes running around out there)

BURR · #10 01-31-2010, 02:50 AM

OK, I played Sherlock and what I found was nothing but it is the middle of the day and maybe to hot for anything to move.

I did find fungous and little white spider webs way down inside. Are these spider mites?

I think I'll treat the fungous this afternoon, I fertilized two days ago and I misted this morning with water. It's 90 degrees but cloudy.