I like the nematodes from arbico too, though I have to time the shipment right so they don’t die of heat in transit. We seem to have fewer fire ants in our yard compared to neighbors when I do nemos 2x yearly. The nemos and pillbug spiders seem to be denting our weird pillbug infestation. Damn things will eat my strawberries.
I also always buy the ones that infect subterranean termites. Those are a thing a round here.
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I’m seeing recommendations for neem oil as a preventative (kill the moths) and spinosad to kill some/most of the caterpillar miners. Lots of recommendations to do nothing too, that most trees can ride out the little beasts just fine.
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Neem oil stinks, and is hard to wash off produce. Not my fave. B. thuringiensis for beetles and caterpillars works well, though.
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neem oil also does nothing for miners already in the leaves, doing their little zigzaggy dance through the soft, interior flesh of the poor plant’s leaves. i rarely use it except for fuzzy thrips and aphids.
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Like I posted earlier, I haven’t seen citrus leaf miners in my North Alabama container-grown “grove”, but I suspect that is climate/growing zone-related: no significant number of citrus growing = no citrus leaf miners. Question is how long that will last. Anyway, I’d love to follow how you tackle them for the future, when/if they do move up here.
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@KeybillyJefe thanks for the summoning!
May as well share my final pick of the year here, too:
We’ve had frost twice already, but somehow the last two days were 77F. Michigan! 
Last time we were this warm, this late, we got a lot of snow. Mr. Kidd has the same recollection and has ordered firewood to arrive tomorrow. Just in time for weather to turn colder and wet. 
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My final gardening post at the old place, and my first one here!
I dug up these peppers a few weeks ago, repotted them and brought them inside for the winter. Look! A habanero, some jalapeños, and some banana peppers!
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I’m suddenly reminded that I have not posted about the plants that live at work. About a year ago, Kidd Jr. started an avocado tree, but we couldn’t keep it at home because his omnivorous cat tried to eat it. So I took it to work. This past summer, I found a tiny twig of a lime tree - and took it to work. Both have done well! The picture below is from a month or so ago. The avocado passed a big milestone this week, not pictured below, she has grown her first branch!
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I cannot have a single indoor plant and we have to be really careful with tomato greens. Only cut flowers I can have are roses, well rinsed, and basil flowers from the yard
One afternoon, spouse gets home from grocery shopping. He puts everything away except the produce and pantry and goes to the restroom.
When he returns, he hears a rustling in the kitchen. Then a gentle thump. The cats have dragged the bag of kale out of the canvas tote and onto the floor. A then-tiny Nimbus was attempting to run away with a piece of kale twice as long as he was but kept tripping on it. He growled when my spouse took it back
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Healthy eater! Hard to get too made about it, even when they’re being bad in the process of securing that fine, fine green stuff.
Logan, as you may have guessed, is the omnivore. Last night he was very interested in the pumpkin guts, so after checking the webtubz for safety, let him have it. He ate quite a bit!
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I found Nimbus gnawing on a pumpkin stem this morning. Ravus will cruise the kitchen after we’ve made a salad looking for dropped greens. She loves spinach.
Maybe I could grow some garlic or onions indoors? 
Neither of them will touch those, luckily
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Spinosad is broad spectrum, and will kill off beneficials along with presumed target insects. It’s not as bad as DDT, of course.
https://veggiegardeningtips.com/bt-the-organic-caterpillar-control-that-works-naturally/
Kills soft-bodied caterpillar types.
ETA: argh, this link isn’t Oneboxing, so here:
Yes, healthy larger trees can, definitely.
Drought-stressed trees, or those growing in soil with crashed soil biota, may be a harder fight to win.
If you intend to eat what you grow… do you have any garlic? seaweed? peppers? because:
Natural Control: Native parasitic wasps, lacewings, lady beetles, and pirate bugs. Beneficial fungus called Beauvaria bassiana.
Organic Control: Spray garlic tea or garlic-pepper tea and seaweed. Release the parasitic wasp Encarsia formosa indoors. Manure compost tea, molasses, and citrus oil spray works well. Best control is from plant oil products. A single application of a particular insecticide only affects the susceptible stages present at the time of treatment or shortly thereafter. The surviving stages will continue the cycle. Several applications at weekly intervals may be necessary. Spray Garrett Juice and drench soil with garlic tea. Applying dry granulated garlic also works. Add the microbe product, Bio S.I. to the drench for better control.
Insight: These pests are more troublesome in phosphorus-deficient soils. Use lots of colloidal phosphate and you probably won’t see many of these pests. The pests are commonly found in tropical plants in pots. The lack of mychorrhizal fungi on plant roots is a strong contributor to the presence of this pest.
To make your own, here are the instructions:
Mix the following in a gallon of water.
Garrett Juice (ready to spray):
1 cup compost tea or liquid humate
1 ounce molasses
1 ounce apple cider vinegar
1 ounce liquid seaweedFor Garrett Juice Plus and more fertilizer value add:
1- 2 ounces of liquid fish (fish hydrolysate) per gallon of spray.
For disease and insect control add:
¼ cup garlic tea or
¼ cup garlic/pepper tea or
1 - 2 ounces of orange oilFor homemade fire ant killer add:
2 ounces of orange oil per gallon of Garrett Juice
I used the orange oil + Garrett Juice made by Medina, in the garden section of HEB, to control fire ant mounds at the community pool. Get a 5 gallon bucket, fill 4 gallons of water, the rest with this recipe. Make a long pilot hole in the center of the mound with a hoe handle or big stick, slowly flood the mound. Be sure to pour down that pilot hole slowly, so you’re letting the air bubbles escape and you’re flooding every. single. chamber. Instant results, every time. Conditions the soil. Safe for pets and food plants. In the case of older, well-established mounds, you may need to repeat applications as you see new aboveground mounding.
ETA2: missing word 
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Gonna look into that. I dislike the poisons 
but if I don’t keep on top of them, they infest everything and then end up in the house.
Gonna need a spike for the pilot hole, our yard is clay and super hard in the summer. The mounds are softer from the tunneling but often not by much!
I’ve been having trouble finding the mounds. I saw some on the front patio today and cannot find the mound anywhere. I can see under all the rose bushes and rosemary out there too. I’m beginning to wonder if they’ve inhabited the lemon tree pot. In which case, I will need to use that recipe to drench. I’m not putting any poison in there, not even Come And Get It.
Edit: Or the neighbors. All sides do not take care of their fire ants
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hmmm.
that garrett juice sounds a lot like the organic spray i use to foil the iguana. IguanaRid smells like garlic and peppermint and the pesky bugger leaves the plants alone, until it rains.
manure tea, soil biota, B. thuringiensis and nematodes, along with pre-application of horticultural oil soil drench, has done wonders in our garden beds. ours are raised beds and as such, need twice a year amendment and top off of compost/top soil.
and you bet i grow garlic and peppers! those are good producers here in the way, way south. melons, squash, cukes - those are more delicate and readily attacked by… well, everything! the tree crops (bananas, mango, avocado, mame sapote, carambola and now lime) are generally happy. this is a new lime tree and i was very concerned. i have high hopes for mi arból limon. ¿que, no?
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I have zero experience with the following, but a relatively sane friend who gardens a lot mixes sugar with borate powder, 50/50, and leaves loaded heaping jar lids near the fire ant paths of travel. She says they eat it and bring it back to the mound. The problem goes away.
A slightly less sane friend leaves inverted bottle caps with some aspartame poured in them. She says most ants incl fire ants eat it and die. 
more-research-is-needed.gif
Fire ants are a signal. I know it’s super super dry where you are right now, but the first issue is that fire ants love dry soil with zero soil biota. They also like being close to food and water. I had to shake out all the fire ants from my garden hoses before I loading the moving truck because the ants were mining out droplets of water. If you’re surrounded by fire ant habitat-makers, the only thing I can recommend is what you are already doing, which is apply beneficial nematodes with the rains (haha! I know: when? right?) and change the soil biology on your parcel. With luck, the damp soil will allow proliferation of those expensive yet effective allies.
I used to keep my soil hydrated using some of the following techniques. Pro tip: your city has already changed a lot of its graywater regs and ords! Hint!
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I need to come over in high season and eat tropical produce. It all sounds amazing. I just wish bugs didn’t like to eat what we like to eat. How come they aren’t busy eating poison ivy, giant hogweed, and kudzu?
I love what you’re doing, and what you’re using. I can’t imagine that Keys soils are easy to work with.
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We are definitely working on our soil biota. My spouse has decided this year we are top dressing the entire back and front yard 
We encourage as much species variety in our lawn cover as possible and will be buying some seed for this spring full of various natives to help that process along. We don’t use weedkiller, ever. Love me some dandelions!
The fire ant problem has gotten much better. They aren’t going away, not without a huge commitment from the whole neighborhood. But over the last year we’ve been seeing far fewer mounds. I suspect many of the trails I’m seeing are from the neighbors. We have a small lot and, since we actually water our trees in the summer, have some moisture and food available.
I’ll need to look into regs on grey water for our city
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soil? what soil? this island is ancient coral rock, with the thinnest of dry, salty, gray dirt between layers. this is why we grow in containers and raised beds. we have to bring in topsoil from the mainland (everglades black dirt, FTW!) plus bags of Black Cow and compost from the local greenwaste recycler.
the trees (other than the limes) are planted in the ground, at much expenditure of sweat and effort, and do well because they are salt tolerant.
i suppose the produce grown here may be higher in calcium for growing in the near-solid coral limestone, but you and @kii have limestone under that soil in your part of the world.
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A cheap-ish first step:
In years past, I’ve seen this Medina product in some big box hardware stores. I know they sell it at finer independent nurseries. It does improve the structure/friability of hard dried out freaked out clayey soils, while supporting/creating conducive conditions for healthy soil organisms.
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It’s all about seaweed, is what I hear.
I figured.
Wicking beds much?
Update:
Now I have an insane amount of soil depth. In. Sane. Depth. I moved to Virginia!
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