Spider Mites

Spider Mites

Red, green, yellow, or white tiny spiders (not insects), sucking on plant juice with needle-sharp mouthparts. Length is less than 1 mm.

Mites form colonies and multiply quickly. Adult females lay about 100 eggs, hatching just 3 days after being laid. Whole life cycle is only 2 weeks.Uncontrolled, it will destroy a plant and move to a nearby plant. Not harmful to human, pets, and farm animal at all though.

What they like

• Ideal growing condition: 21-27 °C and dry air. Heated up home in the winter time is ideal for them.
• Eating by sucking plant juice.
• Loves to live underneath leaves. So they are found on leafy plants, trees, and prefer ones with greater nitrogen, carbohydrates, and phosphorous.
• They crawl to bottom side of leaves, puncture individual plant cells, suck out the sap that weeps from the holes.
• They accept anything comes from the holes, including chrolophyll. Which is why the plants begin turning yellow in spots.
• Left alone,they'll go after every plant cell they can, sucking from thousands of hole, turning entire leaves and plant yellow over time.
• Under optimal growing condition, warm (27 °C) and dry, they reproduce very fast and quickly becoming resistant to pesticide.

What they don't like

• Dusty environment. That's why they are not in soil or carpet (also no food there)
• They don't last in carpet. The can be inactive, but only for a short period of time. If eggs fall to surface without food, it dies pretty soon.

Signs of investation

• Yellow blotches on leaves. Leaves look mottled and yellow, dusty and distorded, dry out and drop off.
• Fine webbing. When this is noticed, plant is already seriously invested.
• White, green, brown mites walking around

Prevention

• Increase humidity: mist tepid water to the air around the plant.
• Keep leaves clean: wipe off dust with damp cloth. For fine-leafed plants, use a fine spray bottle with room-temperature water.
• Keep tools clean: clean gardening tools to reduce spread.

Fight investation

• Remove: isolate invested plant, prune badly infested/damaged leaves.
• Clean:
  • Clean invested plants with a sponge dipped in soapy water. Use mild dishwashing liquid without fragrance/additives (2 tsp in 1 gallon room-temperature water).
  • Wash leaves especially underneath. Rinse well.
  • Wash along the stems too. For ivy for example: make a sinkful of soapy room-temperature water. Swisth the stem through it for several minutes. Rinse thoroughly with clear room-temperature water.
  • Repeat in 2-3 days if necessary.
• Heavy investation: Use insecticidal soap for indoor plants. Spray every 2-3 days to break life cycle. Make sure it's safe for the plant.
• Neem oil
• Under optimal growing condition, warm (27 °C) and dry, they reproduce very fast and quickly becoming resistant to pesticide. Rotate pesticide being used.
• If plant is entirely engulfed by the weebing and turning yellow mostly, dispose it. Don't rescue it. So it doesn't spread.

Plants they eat

• There are about 300 catalogued. Here are some favourites
• Ivy
• Corn, strawberries, peppers,tomatoes, potatoes. Marijuana.

Action

17 May 2022: Re. Spider mites. Washed leaves of suspected invested plants. Basil, kemangi, mini rose, bunnytails, pole beans, cucumber, tomatoes, and pumpkin. Removed a lot of yellowing leaves. Cilantro thrown away since it's just more practical to restart.

Reference

• Guide to Houseplants: How to Kill Spider Mites on Plants
• Worst Room: Where Do Spider Mites Come From? (Prevention Tips & More)

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Spider Mites

Reference

• Worst Room: How to Get Rid of Fungus Gnats - Quickly & Permanently

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