I think that floramite is an excellant tool in the proper situation. That being said- DON'T USE IT!!!!!

Floramite is a relatively risky chem to use just to kill some mites. It's not approved for human consumption, and has a fairly scary application protocol.

More importantly- resistance is very rare, SO FAR.

Mite resistance to Avid is a relatively new phenonema- and can be directly traced to the over-use of Avid in BC grow-rooms in the late 90's. Avid had become the de riguer treatment for minor infestations, and was so effective that it was used as single treatment, almost never rotated with other pesticides. Worked a charm- until resistance began to sprout up. By 2002-2003, abamectin resistant mites were common in BC and beginning to appear up and down the West Coast. The casual overuse of a good pesticide had ruined it's effectiveness.

The same thing occurs with antibiotics. Penicillin was a wonder drug until we started taking it for everything- now it's almost completely ineffective. There's a quiet epidemic of MRSA ( Multidrug Resistant Staphococcus Arueous) going on around the world- folks get little staph infections that shouldn't be much of a problem at all, BUT- the staph that they're infected with is resistant to every drug that they throw at it.

So far, drugs like Cipro are still effective against life-threatening MRSA, but the clock is ticking...

To bring it back to Floramite- I don't think that it should be used casually, any more than I think that Cipro is appropriate for a bad pimple. If you have a signifigant ( ie life threatening) problem which is going to cost you a crop, then go ahead, use it... (but I don't want to smoke anything that it's been used on.)

But using Floramite casually ( and if you don't have a pesticide applicators #, you're using it casually) is long-term a really bad idea. Every time that anybody anywhere uses Floramite, we're that much closer to it not working anymore. Professional growers of other plants rotate pesticides on strict programs to minimize this process, but it still happens. When we're talking casual household use, the process accelerates rapidly.

Avid's already out of the bag, so Floramite may be indicated to to control Avid-resistant mites. But what are we going to do when the mites are both Avid and Floramite resistant?

Let's save the Floramite as a " nuclear option", so to speak. There's not a great replacement for Floramite on the horizon- let' s try to keep it as effective as possible for as long as possible, by NOT USING IT, at least as a first option.

Anyway, that's my convoluted $.02 US.