They are bad here every year. The worse the heat and the worse the drought, the worse they are. The big difference this year? I saw them as early as March instead of May. I'm sure they are here before May every year, but their population isn't so large that it is doing a lot of visible damage in May. They usually peak, both in population and in the amount of damage they're doing in late July or early August and then their population and the amount of damage I see begins to decrease. Any tomato plants still alive and tolerating them by this late in July usually outlasts them here. That is what happens in my garden where I don't spray with any pesticide. In the only year I sprayed my garden with a broad-spectrum pesticide to kill the grasshopppers, it killed everything and my garden was in horrible shape for the rest of the summer because the bad guys rebounded and there weren't enough good guys left to fight them.

If you spray a pesticide, the situation is likely to seem better for a week or two and then get worse. Why? Because when you spray, you kill all the mites---the pest mites that cause damage and the beneficial mites that eat the pest mites. Because pest mites rebound more quickly than the beneficial mites, they can rebuild their population quite a bit before the beneficials rebuild and begin eating them. This occurs because beneficial mites won't begin to reproduce until there is a sufficient food source available already to support the next generation, and by that point, your pest mite population is doing a lot of damage already because there's been a lack of beneficial insects working to keep them under control.

Be sure no one talks you into using Sevin. Research has confirmed what I learned long ago with my dad---that spraying tomato plants with carbaryl actual gives you a higher spider mite population, not a lower one. The reason why wasn't understood decades ago as we observed this happening, but it is well understood now.

Remember that spraying neem oil in drought or in temperatures above 90 degrees can harm and even kill plants.

I feel like my own spider mite population has peaked on most plants. Maybe not on lima beans since they just showed up on those, but on most everything else. I haven't seen worsening damage on my remaining tomato plants in a couple of weeks, and the new tomato plants have very few mites on them, for which I am exceedingly grateful. We have mites on so many plants in the fields and pastures that surround us that I understand from experience that killing them in the garden just opens up the garden for a fresh batch to move it. Nature abhors a vacuum.

I just try to ignore the damage, which isn't impossible when I'm only running out there early in the morning to harvest.

It usually is the same with grasshoppers and blister beetles---about the time I decide that I absolutely, positively cannot tolerate them in the garden for another single day, their population seems to begin to drop. Do I get the urge to drag out the sprayer and the neem or Spinosad or something with pyrethrin and kill them all? Certainly I do, but then I realize I can outlast them without poisoning my garden.

I know you need to do what you need to do, but consider the longer-term consequences and remember that this late in the season, one spraying of neem (or anything) won't wipe them out, and once you start spraying, you'll need to continue it on a regular basis until their population begins to fall of its own accord.

Thanks, Dawn. I haven't sprayed them with anything, because of the heat. I hate to lose these azaleas. I planted 3 encore azaleas last year, in a bed that I weeded, tilled, and filled with really good compost. They are on the north side of the house, right next to my patio. They sure were pretty ("were" being the operative word). Any suggestions? They are really defoliating.

They were horrible a few weeks ago! So were aphids and white flies... But they've all disappeared. It's a mystery...where did they go?!

they left some very ugly tomato plants, but those those plants are making fruit still.

the ladybugs all disappeared too. Hmmm...

the tomatoes in the front garden have hornworms, but I've picked them all off.

I'm glad to hear they're gone, hazel. That's an awesome sign of health in your garden !

Turbo, my tomatoes are starting to show some wear, but only on the lower leaves. I'm a huge advocate of planting veggie plants in soil they can really use, so they can fend for themselves better. I know it's not always ideal, but I try. Otherwise, like dawn suggests, if they're looking rough but alive, they're likely to rebound when the heat wave subsides.

My beans, on the other hand. I need to work on their soil because they're looking pretty pathetic. I recently brought in some more bean seedlings. Should keep me supplied a little, anyway.

Funny how good things come by accident. I do find it curious that there is a potential for spider mites to come in from outside the garden. I've never really considered this. I suppose that makes sense, tho.

It'll be interesting to see if the outer trellised beans will cut down on the spider mite damage on the inner beds next year. It definitely is something worth trying out. I think I might just configure my extra pole beans in such a fashion next year, too!

Dawn, regarding the Azaleas: I went to the link, and I have more than one issue, apparently. I also found one of those Azalea caterpillars, but I found it on the tomato transplants that are on a plant shelf right next to the azalea bed. Yes, there is webbing in the plants, and apparently there are caterpillars, too. Yuk. One is almost entirely defoliated. I have a several of the listed insecticides, and BT, etc, so I don't know how safe they'll be in this heat, but if it stays decent like it did yesterday, I may spray them this evening.

Well, having said all that, I went ahead and sprayed them. It is overcast, and the temps aren't supposed to be much over 90. I might as well do it, because it looks like I could lose them if I don't do something. It is disappointing, because they were recommended for that spot, and I tried to give them exactly what they wanted in terms of soil, nutrients, mulch, etc. I will say that I have never been successful with azaleas, or at least in my opinion. When we lived in southern Tennessee, we had a very heavily treed lot, with lots of pine trees. I planted them among the pine trees where they got morning sun, and then dappled or shade the rest of the day. I don't recall them dying...they just never really grew even among all the pine needles.

I just went and weeded all the cucumbers and put more straw mulch around them. Checked the soil, and it's nice and moist. They are growing like crazy...the 2nd batch of cucumber plants is over the top and coming down the other side of a 6 foot trellis, and I had to fight the bees to get the mulch down. The oldest batch (old growth) looks terrible from spider mite damage, but the top is also growing well again and lots of blooms. The 3rd batch of plants that I put out a couple of weeks ago against the chain-link fence is blooming nicely, and I see one or two babies on the largest of the plants that are climbing well. I have a dozen new plants under the lights that will probably go out in another week or so. I picked several cucumbers this morning, and I'll test them later for bitterness. I'm not holding out much hope.

I think I'll do up some more of those bread and butter jalapenos today. Everyone who has tried them really likes them, so I'm making these for folks at the hospital who requested more. (One doc even offered to buy them if I would make more...lol). So, Dawn....you get the credit for that recipe.:)

Still haven't come to a decision about what to make with the habaneros. I'm struggling with the "paralysis of analysis" syndrome.

Finally heard from my baby daughter, who is in Yokohama, Japan. She called at 5:30 a.m. this morning, but it was 7:30 p.m. in Japan. She's worn out, and just about ready to come home, I think. This is her 3rd week there, and she said she is the ONLY female engineer. She also said that there are very few females at the plant at all. She leaves her hotel an hour early to get to work, and has to walk, take a bus, and a train to get there. Then she works 12 hours, and then she goes back to the hotel and sleeps. She said she really misses good old southern food. She's really enjoyed the sights she has seen. She has ridden the bullet train, experienced her first earthquake, and said she is sure the Japanese will remember her as "sweaty American girl with bad hair". She has curly red hair! lol Well, I'll be glad when she comes back and plants her feet firmly on American soil!

Mary, On that Clemson page, when I saw the damage from azalea lace bugs, I wondered if you might have that plus spider mites, and I never have seen caterpillars on azaleas, but that's largely because I only had them for about three or four years in Texas because even though I made them a berm that was almost totally peat moss/pine bark fines, I still couldn't alter the alkaline water so they never looked good and I took them out.

It sounds like you ought to have lots of cucumbers from now until the first freeze if you can just beat the bitterness issue somehow. I'm hoping keeping them well-watered and well-mulched works, but with the kind of high heat we have been having, it is hard to know if that will be enough.

The credit for the bread-and-butter jalapenos goes to JRSlick on the Veggie and Harvest Forums. He's the first person I remember posting the recipe a few years back, though others chimed in and said they make them too. I believe if my memory is correct, he was making them and selling them at his local Farmer's Market, which I think is awesome, though I wouldn't want to do that myself. I expect some folks have made them for decades and it just took the rest of the canning world a long time to catch on.

I do hate analysis paralysis. It strikes me a lot. At some point, I just make myself do something, though often with the tomatoes, what I do is just fill up gallon ziplocks with them and freeze them whole, figuring I can thaw them and use them in cooking in the winter months. With jalapenos, when I am truly undecided or overloaded with other tasks, I cut them in half lengthwise, roast them in the oven and freeze them in batches large enough to make jalapeno poppers. When I am ready to make a batch of poppers, I thaw the frozen peppers, fill each half with a mixture of cream cheese/shredded cheddar, and top each with a small piece of bacon. (I know people who wrap a whole piece of bacon around each popper, but I cut each slice into bite-sized pieces and top each popper with one little bite sized piece. I want to eat a whole pile of poppers without eating a pound of bacon in one sitting.) Then I bake them in the oven until the bacon is crispy. I probably freeze about 40 ziplock quarts (not stuffed completely full though) of oven-roasted jalapeno halves this way so we can have poppers all year long. You also can freeze them whole or freeze them without roasting them, but doing this the way I does it leaves them ready to be made into poppers as soon as they thaw. With habaneros, since we cannot eat them in halves or whole, it is easier to use them in Habanero Gold or salsa than anything else. Some folks use some habs (or any other pepper) to make pepper-infused vinegar or vodka, but I've never tried that since habs are hotter than I can handle except when used in small amounts in salsa or jelly.

I bet your daughter has found Japan to be quite interesting. Is she on a short-term assignment or had she gone there intending to stay a while? We have two nieces who are engineers who have spent a substantial amount of time working overseas, mostly in China. It seems to be one of the job assignments that all the engineers at their company are expected to take for a few years early in their careers. Nothing makes you miss the USA more than living outside of it for a few years. I'm sure you will be happy and relieved to have her back home again.

Dawn

I've always wanted azaleas, DH didn't. Now I'm glad I don't have to worry about NEW bugs!

I ate at a Japanese restaurant Friday. I don't do raw fish. But the shrimp tempura was wonderful. Tasted kelp salad, acceptable. Nice sesame dressing. But there was some weird brown stuff they said was pickled squash, but it didn't taste like squash. Pickled ginger, nice. I wouldn't want to eat any of it EVERY day. I've seen alot of Japanese and Asian vegetables described as bitter. But Japan! Experience of a lifetime! Glad you heard from her. Can you Skype with her?

Dawn, she'll be back Saturday. She is getting training, as she is responsible for a new engine line, in a new plant, for a new vehicle model that will come out, I believe, late 2018, or early 2019. I hope she would never take a job out of the country. I don't think my heart could take that. I don't believe she would at this point, but down the line...who knows?

Amy, I don't know how to skype! lol I can barely use my cellphone. I'm SO 20th century, and do not care. :) When I was younger, I would have been all over the new technology, but as I've gotten older, I just have no interest. I'd rather be in the garden, or reading about something.

Speaking of Japanese restaurants, Claremore is getting one! I'm excited...we're moving up in the world.

The nice thing about skype is you can see them. Actually, you can text or talk on it, too, I think. I used to use it to talk to my boss when he was out of the country, and my DIL used it to talk to her kids when they were in Germany.

skype is wonderful for international calls. Get to the see the family members when they're half way cross the world. I remember those long-distance land line calls and such. Love technology for this reason.