don't know if it is from too cold (49) overnight, or if they got too warm under the plastic greenhouse.

Hi Doris I am still around. I have been fighting a major battle with spider mite on my DR's. The leaves didn't look like yours do more yellowing then brown. I think they might have gotten a little cold I had that same problem this winter most of mine lost all of their leaves but they came back fine only to be assaulted by spider mites I tried all of the natural remedies and nothing then I got some liquid seven and I think I am finally winning that battle. Those little buggars are tough I think you'll be fine These plants seem to be tougher than we think...........Ron

Hey!!! Ron, how are you doing???
The leaves will grow back Doris.

Hi Ron, good to see you again, and yes I think the leaves will come back.
I have no mites on my Adeniums but my brugs were loaded, I tried everything including Neem Oil Spray that I purchased, it did nothing, I finnaly mixed up some soapy water with a tablespoon of vinigar, took all brugs outside and soaked them all and finnaly got rid of them. I have never had them that bad befor.

I hate bugs on my plants!!!

Neem will make all the leaves drop off an Adenium.

I use Malathion for bugs, ugh. I spray heavily, then an hour later spray with clear fresh water.

I hear spider mites don't like wet-- like heavy humidity and fine sprays of water.

I didn't know that part about Neem making the leaves drop. I used it on my plants over the winter and just assumed that the plants went dormant. I wondered why some DRs kept their leaves and others didn't. That may be the reason. Anyway, I'll stick with the Malathion. It's working for me in getting rid of the mealies.

I had a really hard time trying to get rid of the mites last year they were on my Brug's and almost killed all of them this year they invaded my DR's when they were inside for the winter it was a dry room no humidity. When I moved them back into the open air greenhouse I thought the same as Melissa that between the humidity here and the fact they were watered with a sprinkler system every other day that
I wouldn't have to worry about them but the just move from one plant to another every time I get them off of one they show up on another. Neem oil is worthless but Liquid seven seems to do the trick. We can't get Malathion here anymore. ......Ron

We cannot get malathon either, I have been mixing my own soap and water and it has been helping a lot.

Isn't that something? Malathion has been such a standard for so long. Banned because of bees? Imacloprid, or however it's spelled is going next.

Hi to all, it the miss use off insecticides thats causing the band of them, people just don't read when they use them and this is causing to some extent the disappierring of one of the most needed insect there is, the Bee. also the contamination of our water surplies most water surplies are already contaminated with some type of chemical or poison.

soup and water for spidermites, mites don't like water but if you don't use soup mites make like a web like the spiders that is kind of water proof to some extent but the soup goes through it like when you got a pot with grees and water in it, grees flots on it but once you but the soup it breaks it up, same thing happens to the spider mites web and the water drouns them, their so small one drop of water is like a swimming pool to them, all insects breath though the bottom of their bodies, the got their nose between their legs in other words, if you notice some bugs make bubble under them when wet that why they don't droun, but the soup break up that bubble as it breaks water surface

you can also try cinnimon powder around your plants, that helps control mealy bugs on plants as ants don't like cinnimom and ants are the ones that carry mealybug on your plant in exchange for sweet juice the mealybug provide ants with, most mealy bugs don.t have wigs if you look at them up close, they depend on the ants to move them around, get rid of the ants and you get rid of most of the mealybugs, if you don't beleave me try this find an ant hill, por some cinnimon powder on it and wach for a while, you'll notice ants try to avoind it as much as they can, i use cinnimom sticks to keep ants out of my suger bowl, it works perfectly.

hope this helps a little

Your Friend Wilfred

Hi, Wilfred!!!

I believe you mean soap, not soup. Wash dishes with soap, eat chicken noodle soup. No problem! Either way, I wash plants an hour after I do anything like that to the leaves. Just a plain water spray.

And you cannot tell me that mealy bugs don't fall out of the sky! No ants, but here come the mealies sometimes.

I'll go put some cinnimon on a fire ant hill and see them! haha, can't wait!

This white flower is from a plant you sent me so long ago...

Fire ants, Really?? Cinnamon??? Going to try that!!!!!

I'm going to try some cinnamon around my tomato plants, the ants are bringing in the aphids. Almost any kind of poison is available here, unfortunately I think. Some of the ones I remember from my youth that have been banned in the US for a long time are still available in agricultural stores. I try not to go crazy with them but some of the bugs here are just overwhelming, it is the tropics. Mainly the million different types of ants, I really hate ants. We have small ones that eat electrical insulation and also bite. The bite swells and itches for days, hateful things. I have the exterminator come in regularly to put powder in the outlets because I don't want them to short out my wiring. Getting rid of them in the garden is impossible but I fight them when I can do it without endangering my pets. I'm with you Melissa, I think some of these bugs come down with the rain, they just suddenly appear.

Yeah, cinnamon works really well as deterrent for ants, I use that in my kitchen..but it will not kill the ants. So remember to have an alternate method to deal with the ants, once the ants figures out a way to bypass the cinnamon line thru another route.

It's our raining season, and with the rain comes the ants! I have a splash of Cinnamon on my counter and set the sugar bowl right on top, it's the only thing that keeps the ants away. "It's not what they eat, it's what they get into and mess up"

I know what fire ants eat...gardeners!!!! I think I have my spider mites under control but I have said that before then they show up again. I will try the soap and water. Right now some of my DR's look kinda sick from all of the stuff I have sprayed on them. Its a good thing these plants bounce back usually. Gotta say I am really glad to see Wilfred posting again. I can understand depression. Sometimes life just keeps throwing rocks at us we gotta just pick them up and chunk them back. So far this year I lost both my parents a month apart and my mother in law This month.I just wound up spending more time with my plants and my gardens. They have a way of cheering me up. I have declared war on bugs.

I'm at war with this guy
I'm trying to find what it is! my first thought was it 's an iguana; then I'm thinking it's a Jesus Lizard (real name it walks on water) now I'm thinking it's a Anolis Carolinensis, anyone have a clue as to what it actually is? Ron, you folks in Texas arn't having any problems with white fly or Sri Lanka weevil do you?

The lizard looks like a knight anole lizard I think..

Hi, all.

Jim, here is a link to Wikipedia about knight anoles. Doesn't look like that there lizard of yours.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K...

Given the shape of the nose, the color, the dorsal spines and its long nails, I am tempted to say it's an iguana. Eventually, our network brain will find out what it is.
Sylvain.

Hey, Rucky--Ron, Feels strange, doesn't it, to feel like an orphan when you're not a kid. My sympathies to the max to you. Very hard to lose the folks. very hard.

Grief can get to be a habit, if you get sad at the same old feelings that arise over and over. I say to myself, when the downners crowd in, I say, "Stop it!" and go find something to be grateful for, and something to cheer me up.

I have so dam many adeniums! A tray full of about fifty that need their own pots, and several dozen over there that need weeding. and and and---

POLL: Do you pull weeds, or cut them with scissors?