# Springtails and Spider Mites



## lbb091919 (Apr 26, 2020)

My wife and I built our house in 2019 and it has the PestShield tubes in the walls. I hired them to come out quarterly to treat and, while I was skeptical at first, have actually been pretty happy with the results. However, the last two springs we have noticed a lot of springtails and spider mites hanging out on window/door frames and window sills, especially after rain.

I have been spraying the yard and foundation with Bifen IT monthly since last year during the growing seasons, but the PestShield guy has convinced my wife that he uses different chemicals and we need to treat the yard for $75 a pop because the springtails and mites came in with the sod. I caved and let them come out once, read the report and lo and behold he sprays Talstar P and Suspend Polyzone. Easy peasy.

I presented my sales pitch to the wife, showed her my fancy DFW wand equipped with AIXR teejet and got the green light to treat the yard myself. I have read through some threads in this section and cannot come to a decision on my plan of attack.

Do I continue with the monthly Bifen or replace it with something like Demand CS or Suspend Polyzone? I read that Bifen is good for knock down but Demand will last longer (up to 3 months). I see that ImidaPro 2SC is an option every 3 months as an additive. I also want to mix in an IGR like NyGuard to keep them from breeding.

Am I on the right track or is there something out there better for treating springtails and mites. Obviously I want to keep everything else out too, but these two have been the worst intruders thus far.


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## NotBobSaget (Jun 9, 2019)

This might not be correct, but when I talked to my Pest Guy last, he said they change minor things in the formulas to stop generations of insects from becoming immune to the poison. They might not label it as such on your guys invoices. Just a thought...hope you figure it out.


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## Katodude (Apr 22, 2021)

Springtails are tough. Also changing the formulas is a good idea. I would recommend a combination of Demand CS with the NyGuard IGR. Two applications 10 days apart worked for me.


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## lbb091919 (Apr 26, 2020)

Thanks! I went with a mix of Cyzmic CS (Demand CS generic) at 7mL rate and NyGuard at 8mL rate. On 5/3 I sprayed the yard, foundation, windows/doors, and even the siding as high as I could reach. I've been monitoring the areas where I've noticed them the most and there's been a significant decrease in mites. Temps have been cooler though and they tend to show up when it's hotter so we'll see how that goes. Springtails are still around with a only slight decrease. Might hit them again with Bifen and then begin a 30 day cycle between the two. I did notice quite a few dead spiders stuck to the foundation in the backyard so it's definitely working!

I also picked up some CimeXa dust and a puffer for window sills, baseboards, etc but havent had a chance to mess with it yet.


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