The plague has struck again.
Just when I thought it was safe to imagine that the strawberries I've been raising all winter long would be safe and sound in time for the spring planting -- which is just around the corner -- the world has been turned upside-down by the appearance of the dreaded spider mites.
You know. Those teeny-weeny web-spinning vampire mites that explode all over your strawberry plants and suck the juice out of them until they die.
Cheryl noticed them the other day crawling all over the planter. (She pointed out the Big Clue on the hook from which the planter hangs, which was covered in spider-mite silk.) Ick.
How do you get rid of spider mites? I looked it up on the web, and there are many different ways, some of which don't involve toxic chemicals. My favorite was the one which uses a distillation of habanero sauce liberally applied to the leaves. Apparently spider mites are not from Mexico. And don't like the spiciness.
Or so it said.
I tested it out by filling my spray bottle with a mixture of habanero sauce and water, then spraying it onto the leaves. Or at least I attempted to spray it on the leaves; apparently my mixture had too many 'floaties' and the nozzle got jammed up. And since I was misting it onto the leaves, it got into the air and everyone in the room started coughing.
Oops!
So then I switched to a bottle for the mix and just poured it over the leaves. No one coughed this time.
Now to see how the little devils like their sauce.
Just when I thought it was safe to imagine that the strawberries I've been raising all winter long would be safe and sound in time for the spring planting -- which is just around the corner -- the world has been turned upside-down by the appearance of the dreaded spider mites.
You know. Those teeny-weeny web-spinning vampire mites that explode all over your strawberry plants and suck the juice out of them until they die.
Cheryl noticed them the other day crawling all over the planter. (She pointed out the Big Clue on the hook from which the planter hangs, which was covered in spider-mite silk.) Ick.
How do you get rid of spider mites? I looked it up on the web, and there are many different ways, some of which don't involve toxic chemicals. My favorite was the one which uses a distillation of habanero sauce liberally applied to the leaves. Apparently spider mites are not from Mexico. And don't like the spiciness.
Or so it said.
I tested it out by filling my spray bottle with a mixture of habanero sauce and water, then spraying it onto the leaves. Or at least I attempted to spray it on the leaves; apparently my mixture had too many 'floaties' and the nozzle got jammed up. And since I was misting it onto the leaves, it got into the air and everyone in the room started coughing.
Oops!
So then I switched to a bottle for the mix and just poured it over the leaves. No one coughed this time.
Now to see how the little devils like their sauce.
No comments:
Post a Comment