Oh, yes, mites like streps. I have never had any on streps myself and would like to hear what the symptoms are. A picture with symptoms would be very educational.

Nancy

If we are talking about cyclamen mites, they will attack just about any gesneriad, especially when grown indoors. I don't know if I have ever noticed this on streps though.

Episcias seem to be the favorite target of mites, followed by AV's. I suppose the damage would be similar in all cases--the new growth will be brown, hairy, and crusty. The plant stops growing and gradually goes down hill.

I've had cyclamen mites on my light stand a few times and each time I sprayed with Avid, and go rid of the pest right away.

Jon

Is there anything other than Avid that works. I don't know that I have them, I strongly feel that the tight centers on my avs and leaf curl on my episcias is due to too strong light, which I've lowered. So I'm waiting to see if the lower light makes things better. But if it doesn't I'd like a remedy that didn't cost $100/bottle. At this point, my whole collection isn't worth that much, esp. since most of it can be replaced cheaply through my gessie society now. Has anyone tried anything else that works?

Kelthane is an older miticide that people use. I haven't priced Avid but I know that Cape Cod Violetry sells it in small quantities. It is very expensive but at the recommended use rate of 1/4 teaspoon per gallon, a very small amount will last for many years--like one or two oz. For most indoor growers a pint of mixed spray is all one needs to eliminate an infestation on a multilevel lightstand full of plants (hence, what??--a sixteenth of a teaspoon of Avid!!).

The characteristic of cyclamen mites that I have come to recognize on episcias is in the center of the new growth. It turns brown and fuzzy, and the plants stop growing. The stolons show this brown fuzziness too, as it spreads. It takes a month or so for the infestion to get really bad. Then the plants get really bad looking and begin to die. Once when I didn't know what I had, I didn't treat the plants till really late, and yet I saved almost all of them. The episcias recovered by initiating new growth from the stem, as all the growth points on the crown and stolons were quite dead by then. People have tried to see these mites, using magnification and microsctopes and often they can't find anything. Its one of the invisible pests that only shows itself by its pattern of damage. It sounds like you don't have them. In small collections c-mites are pretty rare. It took me many years to finally get them and now its been over two years since the last time. Avid has a distinctive smell that isn't that terrible but is pretty distinctive and can last a long time in a terrarium.

Anyway, last summer at the AGGS convention (warning:story) I bought a plant of rare rare Kohleria allenii. As I was carrying it around the plant sale in my box, I noticed that it had quite an odd smell to the foliage. Hmmm, I guessed it was one of those few gessies with aromatic foliage. After I got the plant home, via my carry-on bag on the airplane and about a week later, the odor was gone. Then I realized it must have been sprayed with Avid. I had finally recognized that smell. The very same plant grew on a sunny windowsill and now it is in full bud. I am anxious to see this species in flower for the first time. (PS, several months after I got back from the convention, I discovered I already had a plant of allenii, which had gone dormant and resprouted. So, now I have two, but the show differences in foliage so I shall see if I have two seedlings as I suspect or if one is mislabeled. Yes, Johnnie B. at least one of these is from you ;)))

Jon