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Spider mites

Dear listmembers,

Every spring, after putting new (shredded pine or cypress) mulch down
around my roses, without fail, within a week or so I have an invasion of
spider mites on my mini's.  These are two-spotted spider mites, which some
of you, I'm sure, must be familiar with (they're more damaging and more
difficult to eradicate  than the red spider-mite).

After many seasons, I'm now convinced the mulch is the culprit.  Either
they're attracted to the mulch from the surrounding area (we have lots of
pine trees here, and I've been told that mites like conifers) or I'm
bringing them in with the mulch.  Whichever the case, the problem has been
serious enough that I've had to resort to using a potent miticide, Avid,
which has worked absolutely great.  Cold water baths, systemic bug killers,
Isotex, plain Orthene, organic oils, like SunSpray, non-organic oils, etc.
have proven to be _totally_ ineffective.  As a matter of fact, when I used
non-environmentally safe products, like Orthene products, the problem
became _worse_, I believe because it also killed the beneficials.

At the risk of sounding like a commercial here, I highly recommend Avid for
the treatment of spider mites, though it is rather expensive.  One
application wipes them out for the entire growing season (which is rather
long here, 8 months and sometimes all year, depending on the winter).

My question:  has anyone else experienced an infestation of mites after
putting down new mulch?  Even though I've been successful treating the
mites with Avid, I'm trying to avoid having to use toxic chemicals until
all other avenues have been exhausted.  

Can anyone suggest an organic treatment I haven't already tried?

Thanks in advance,

Patty
zone 8b
Louisiana
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