Spider Mites

Jaspenelle
by Jaspenelle
Fri
1
Feb
2008
3:28pm
Posted in sub-blogs:
Tagged as , , , , ,
2 Comments

Poor George has spider mites… He is my little cypress tree who stays near the front door. (Yes, I name my houseplants.) I don’t know how I didn’t notice the infestation, now his branches are dry and brittle. George’s rootball is really tight in his pot so I am going to try repotting it, as well as doing the water thing (a strong water stream to the underside of the leaves will knock off/drown mites.)

I read you can cut the water 50/50 with rubbing alcohol too and spray it on the underside of the leaves to kill mites. Has anyone had any experience with that method?

Damn you spider mites.

2 Comments

  1. flarecarrot
    Posted Sunday, February 3, 2008 at 9:03 am | Permalink

    I could not get rid of the spider mites on my plants for anything. It would seem to work, but we mustve missed some or something cuz they’d just keep coming back. Spread like crazy on other plants. Hand to toss ‘em all.

  2. Laurie
    Posted Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 6:23 pm | Permalink

    Hi, Andrea gave me the link, I’m her sister-in-law and an obsessive plant geek (I too, used to name my houseplants, until I ended up w/ too many & I couldn’t remember all the names :o )

    Spider mites are persistant, evil little bastards, and George is suffering the ravages of a dry winter. I’m going to guess that he probably isn’t getting enough water (at this time of year the atmosphere sucks it all up before the plant has much of a chance to get any, worse than hot weather), which is going to be complicated by the fact that he is so root bound. If you haven’t repotted him yet, wait until April, when we are closer to Spring, otherwise the shock might be too much, and plants tend to get bugs when they are already stressed. And please, I implore you, don’t use the miracle-gro crap when you do re-pot.

    The best thing you can do is put George in the shower and spray him down, like you said, then carefully wipe clean every surface w/ paper towel. After you do that, you can apply a houseplant insect spray, thoroughly, to the tops and bottoms of leaves, all the branch crotches, etc – there are lots of really great organic sprays out there, just make sure they are labeled for mites. Also, George is very contageous, so he’ll have to be quarentined for several weeks, no play dates.

    You’ll also have to keep a close eye out for return mites (webbing) and continue to thoroughly spray him w/ the insecticide every couple of weeks. Watch your other plants carefully, too. I have tried the rubbing alcohol method, and it does work, but it has the tendency to act like a decsicant and further dry out the plant. After you get him clean, there are ways to improve the humidity around him. Place a large saucer underneath him w/ pea gravel and water, you want the level of the gravel to lift the pot so it doesn’t sit in the water, to rot the roots. You can also keep him in the bathroom, or plug in a humidifier. It wouldn’t hurt to move him away from the door, out of drafts.

    It is possible to get rid of the nasty little buggers, but it does take diligence – I hope this helps. Sorry about the book and I hope that I didn’t give you too much information that you already knew. If you have anymore plant questions, I’d love to help. Take care and good luck, Laurie Parrish