Second year in a row Iāve had these fuckers in my grow cabinet & I swear this time theyāre back with a vengeance. Iāve tried everything. I rotate pesticides (spinosad & acephate). Directly spraying the mites with 90% iso alcohol wonāt even kill them. They just squirm & then scurry off once theyāre dry. Iāve spent HOURS spot killing w/ a lighter. Iām genuinely at a loss at this point. When I think I finally got them under control, theyāre everywhere again within 24 hours. Itās beyond me.
My care is fine. I water when dry & they get ~10hrs/day under a grow light.
Did a full cabinet deep-clean yesterday w/ alcohol (shelves, lights, reservoirs, everything) & sprayed every plant THOROUGHLY w/ spinosad. Since then Iāve spot-killed at least 20 more mites. I donāt know what else to do at this point. If you have any pesticide recommendations or tricks to get rid of these little freaks PLEASE drop them below. Iām at my witās endš
by Vegetable_Oil_3504
18 Comments
I donāt know how delicate some of your plants are, but I failed to get rid of spider mites with alcohol and neem oil several times. What did end up working was de-potting everything and blasting them with the hose on high pressure.
Capitan Jacks insecticidal soap always works for me !
I live in an apartment with a balcony so I have no hose access, so I put the plant on the corner post of the balcony and used my handheld pump sprayer (Solo brand) with water. Enough pressure to blow apart their webbing, but not enough to damage/blow away the small houseplant (luckily in a ceramic pot).
I bought Bonide Insecticidal Soap and am planning on using it today. It’s an indoor plant so I’m not concerned about the effect it would have on beneficial pollinators.
Edit: reading more about your issue maybe try repotting with a different type of soil after you do several rounds of pesticide treatments? Also keep the plants isolated as much as possible so it’s harder for them to get from one to the other. In this picture they’re basically all touching (I know it’s your shower and they were there while you were deep cleaning).
They’re in your cabinets as in your kitchen cabinets?
Spider mites likes dry and hot environments, you have tropical plants and can use that in your favor. Increase the humidy that gonna help.
This may sound crazy but I order lacewing larvae and unleash them in my plants twice a year, early spring before they go outside and late summer right before they come back in. They take care of any and all pests.
You don’t have any bushes or other vegetation outside of the house near windows do you? We had spider mite issues for years and we didn’t have houseplants. They came from the bushes outside the window. We had to cut them back away from the windows and treat the wood around the windows, the screen, etc.
Predatory mites
https://preview.redd.it/eo6xmy4e88jf1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=430593bdee2f4d5256086f896156ffcd2cd69ecd
Long time spider mite cultivator here šāāļøI used to stay mad about them. I spent hundreds of dollars on predatory mites. I have tried as many methods as suggested except for a $300 bottle of 4F forbid (if there are any SLC plant people in here that would go halfsies with me on a heavy hitting systemic foliar spray, hmu).
Here is some advice that some may frown on or disagree with. Once you finish going thru the 8 stages of grief or whatever, settle on the fact that they are extremely difficult to eradicate and focus your energy on keeping their population low enough that they canāt devastate your plants. OTC stuff like jacks dead bug brew knocks them back fairly well, but Iāve never had success with full eradication. Get you some brushes (I used a variety of small paint brushes, makeup brushes, and flat 2 inch brushes) and the poison of your choice. Inspect your plants regularly. When you see webbing, brush it off and spray. Keep knocking them back. This is your new life.
Try dish soap and olive oil. A reason a gallon should do it. Spray and gently wipe. It work on my guys. And yes I and serious.
Captain jacks dead bug spray is the only thing that has ever worked well for me. You have to be consistent but it really works.
I had to end up cutting all my ficus down to the soil – zero leaves at all – to get rid of the spider mites they had. Surprisingly they all survived the chop and are doing well now.
Start over. Get ride of the plants pots and soil and throw it away in the outside garbage. Deep clean plants area and place they will sit and the walls around them along with the floor below them. Buy new plants and new soil like fox farm ocean forest is my favorite. All new pots. Wash the pots in the sink with dish soap before using. This
You need an insecticide soap or horticultural oil. Spidermites breathe through their skin. If you can coat them in soap or oil (or both), they’ll suffocate. Or if you really wanna knock em down, get some phyganic. 100% will kill them all, and OMRI listed organic.
Bonide insecticidal soap knocks them back pretty well. I prefer it over their āsuper soapā because it doesnāt contain a pesticide and smells better.
Whenever you detect them isolate them along with all the other plants within a few feet of them and treat them regularly. My understanding is the eggs are the challenge so you have to treat frequently enough to kill each generation after they hatch but before they lay eggs.
No doubt itās a tough battle. Every time I have a resurgence itās been because I deemed them clear and stopped treatment too early. Their life cycle is 2-3 weeks, so Iād treat 3x a week for at least 6 weeks. (Note this is my goal but I always forget to keep up with it)
Bioadvanced 3-in-1
Bonide in the soil
Lost Coast Plant Therapy if youāre anti chemical.
Youāll have to treat them all at once AND after you see theyāre gone. They can live in your vents.
Have you tried Neem oil?
I hated them to until i got thrips, then i missed only having spider mites š«