Home and Garden Wisdom

The following article discusses spider mites and the unfortunate problems they bring to unsuspecting gardeners. For more information on these pesky mites, feel free to browse additional articles provided by the site in the above link.

Plant lovers and vegetable growers know just how much work it takes to grow a healthy plant. However, your hard work can be disrupted by pests and vermin such as spider mites. These tiny creatures leech onto your plant for food and shelter. Whether you’re only nurturing a simple garden, an orchard, or even a large field, no plant is safe from these small insects.

So what exactly are spider mites?

Spider mites belong to the acari subclass, which are a hybrid of anthropods and arachnids. Because they can weave webs, they are related to the spider species. However, unlike the light, gentle webs that spiders create, spider mites weave thick, white webs to help protect their eggs and keep them dry. This will help keep them alive, especially since they prefer to live in dry, warm environments. You will find them living on the bottom area of your plant’s leaves. Although the damage to the leaf area might appear to be on top, this is actually just the damage showing through as the mites have eaten through the bottom of the leaf.

Why are they so darn hard to get rid of?

What makes it difficult to get rid of these pests is their shockingly quick rate of reproduction. Imagine one female laying 20 eggs in a day. This female will live up to four weeks while only laying eggs. An egg can hatch in a minimum of 3 days, and by the 5th day they will be out of their shells, ready to mate and produce their own babies. That’s hundreds of spider mites, all taking their sweet time sucking the life from your precious plant.

You will begin to see spots on the leaves or mottling in a very short time from their introduction to your plant. Within weeks, your plant will wither away and die without treatment. Your plant will stand no chance if you don’t take instant action to cease them from multiplying.

What types of plants and vegetables can spider mites ruin?

Anyone planting vegetables should be made aware of how harmful these mites can be. They destroy many plants which are found in vegetable gardens, such as tomato plants, corn, strawberries, jalapeno plants, and even beans. If you’re growing any of the aforementioned vegetables or fruits, be warned about the problems these mites can cause and do your best to destroy them immediately.

How do I defeat these pests?

There are several ways to get rid of these frustrating bugs. Growers sometimes opt to freeze or drown the critters in an attempt of desperation. While spraying down your plant can definitely work by disrupting their dry habitat which is necessary for their survival, it’s only a temporary fix and it can cause some damage to your plant.  Freezing the mites is a huge hassle and likely something that you’re not willing to do.

An additional way to kill the mites is to bring in outside insects or predatory mites to feed on the spider mites. However, you will be bringing in more possible problems with the introduction of a new species into the habitat, and it’s not a guarantee that they’ll be destroyed completely.

The best and quickest solution is to use something strong, like spraying miticides to get of these creatures. By acting fast, you will save your plant’s health, and possibly its life. Do yourself a favor and kill the mites immediately. Your plant will thank you!

Tiling your own bathroom is a great way to save money if done properly, and can also fill you with a sense of pride when you look at the fine job that you have made of your room…… but if it is not done properly you could end up regretting not calling in a professsional tiler. Here are a few pointers to get you started if you decide to take the plunge.

Prior to fixing a single tile, it is imperative that you make sure that the walls you are planning to tile onto are in a decent overall condition. Fitting tiles on top of ancient crumbling plaster isn’t a good start, obviously. If the wall surfaces turn out to be less than solid they will need to be re-plastered or possibly replaced instead with plasterboard or even tile backer boards. Tiling over existing tiles should really be avoided whenever possible, as you can not be totally certain of what is beneath them.Any time you intend to tile on plaster you really need to prime the wall surfaces prior to starting – use the primer which is recommended by your adhesive distributor, and never use PVA.

When choosing equipment for wall tiling you need to have a 6mm or 8mm notched trowel, typically a 6mm will be fine for mostly flat walls along with small or medium sized tiles, however, you may find an 8mm is much better for large tiles and slightly uneven walls. A high quality dry cutter for scoring and snapping ceramic and porcelain tiles when making straight cuts, in addition to an electric powered wet saw for creating “L” shaped cuts and cutting natural stone such as marble tiles or travertine. A rubber grout float is essential also, since this will make grouting much less of a chore.

When considering adhesive, you can use tubbed adhesive for fixing glazed ceramic tiles, however ensure that you work with one that is waterproof when tiling showers and bathing areas. This type of adhesive sets due to dispersion on contact with the air, so should be left ungrouted for several days in order to dry out properly. For porcelain or large format tiles you need to use cement based adhesive, but do avoid using rapid setting adhesive for wall tiling. With regards to grout, it is better to mix your own powdered grout from a bag, and do not use the stuff which works as both adhesive and grout! Lastly, you will need tile spacers, the cross style will work perfectly.

When setting up you absolutely do need to begin from a totally level base, which will probably not be the case if you attempt to start from your floorboards or bathtub. There are a selection of approaches for accomplishing this but the simplest way for any beginner is by using a spirit level and fix a batten made from 2″ x 1″ timber to your wall at the level of the base of your first full tile, fix the tiles on top of your batten leaving the bottom row until after your adhesive has set hard enough to hold the tiles. You can then take away the batten and cut your tiles to match the gap left between the bath or floor, and the bottom of the first line of full tiles.

Walls look best when you center your tiles on the wall. Start by measuring out from the center of the wall and in case you are left with a small cut at the edge then shift the center tile to one side by half a tile prior to starting, this is going to make certain you have over half a tile at the edges, which always looks much better.