i live on 5th floor, too. plants galore- i really want you to think twice about using systemic insecticides. i've used it in one of my big pot and it's alot of troble and it's something that i regret so much. it doesn't really get rid of the pest. i know, funny, right? that's what they are there for. i had some weevils and some unidetifiable tiny pests on my moprning glories that was sucking many leaves. i applied systemic insecticidal granules and it didn't get rid of it at all, not only that, they come back even worse. plants are not doing well besides. and whatever the benificials that could come can't come such as spiders, can't have bird. can't touch the soil. always have to fear watering.... it's really TOXIC if the water comes out through the bottom of the pot and gets into neighbours balcony they could be affected , it could drip from the balcony and get on people, kids..... it also gets absorbed through skin , so you are just no where safe. hard to keep it safe. it's really hard to dispose. so you are basically stuck there with the poison. so i always have tray underneath the pot and i could only water tiny bit at the time so no water comes out ever. therefore the soils don't get enought oxegen and push out the air, that makes them unhealthy. it's hard to take care of, but you have to be very responsible. i mean , i need to call harzadous material branch or poison control to try to find the way to dispose the soil and left over at the end of the season.... basically i never ever want to see that stuff again in my life after i had better sense of what they are and what it takes. and at the end of it your plants don't do well. i'd rather battle it with my homemade insecticidal soap. i just normally go through daily patrol to keep them sort of undercontrol, if not completly. i understand exactly what you said and believe me, i had my fair share with pest and that's why i reached out for systemic insecticides. but now i think of it it creates far more problem than ever. have you tried differnt traps? diatomaceous earth? BT as someone here mentioned? Neem? Pyrethrum? Rotenone? Ryania? - they require same caution as toxic chemical but they are organic and the big differnce is that they degrades pretty quickly. i haven't used them yet myself but i've read many people experinced very good result.

Oh, I did not know that. I only heard somewhere that there was something that came and wiped out all the fuchsias a while back like in the 70's. A blight? A mite? I don't know what, and that the ones that survived "old survivors" would have lived past that. So gall mite will not respond to spider mite treatments? The site said all large flowering ones will get it, and mine looks to have large flowers, they are red. So, I don't know, maybe I never had gall mite? I know I have spider mites in my garden. I have had them for years. You can't kill mites without a miteocide, if you just use a insecticide it won't kill the mites. I thought it could have been blight or a fungal type of thing. I am not ruling that out. But, cold was the number one killer. I would not invest in buying many of them, until you see if you can get any of to live past winter.

My thanks to fuchsiabonzailady and the others who responded to my questions about fuchsia gall mite. You have been a big help. What a disgusting pest! I just thought I'd add that the fuchsia that got sick first (last spring) had been stressed, because it had to be dug out of the ground when our fence was rebuilt. I've decided that I don't want to use the serious pesticides, so I cut back all the sick wood, and I'm watching....Meanwhile, I used the pruners (with a little chlorox bath between snips) on all the deformed growth on my other fuchsias. So far, the new growth looks normal, and I'm spraying with insecticidal soap as a preventative (hope,hope). It may only be a stopgap measure. I'm looking for a new blooming plant to cover that fence on the east side of my house. Since I live in CA, the new home of the fuchsia gall mite, and the pest is spread by hummingbirds, of which I have an abundance in my yard, I don't think there is any truely happy fuchsia answer for me. Happy gardening to all. Toni

Jim, I have had success using Imidacloprid in a systemic insectcide produced by Gordon's called ImidiPro. It is used as a soil drench and as a foiler application with local systemic penetration. It can take a few weeks to start working. Also, I have use Abamactin in a miticide/Insecticide produced by Syngenta called Avid 0.15EC. Avid also works on the dreaded Pacific Bamboo mite and not to mention spider mites. I obtain both products mailorder from Florida from Sunshine Gardens, George and Hope Lewis, email hope at hglumis@comcast.net. They are a lovely older couple that are quite knowledgeable. These products are expensive, but a little goes a long way and Sunshine sells them about as reasonable as it gets. Hope this helps. -Steve