There are various ways on how to get rid of spider mites. Spider mites are serious ornamental crop entry passes that quickly reproduce and mature in short amounts of time.
These tiny pests feed on their host, plant chlorophyll throughout their life cycles in severe. Infestations cause a decrease in plant growth and eventually, the plants are deaf.
So this blog post, you will learn how to identify and get rid of spider mites around your property enabling your plants to stay green throughout the season.
What are Spider Mites?
According to Wikipedia, a family of spider mites known as the Tetranychidae comprises the majority of the world’s 1,200 species. They belong to the Acari class (mites).
On the undersides of plant leaves, spider mites may build silk webs to shelter themselves from predators, but they can also puncture plant cells in order to feed.
Hundreds of plant species have been found to be preyed upon by spider mites.
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How to Identify Spider Mites
The first thing you should do in any Pest Control plan is to identify what exactly you’re dealing with. Careless identification can lead to wrong treatment methods costing you time and money.
Spider mites compass many different species each with varying features, but they all share some common traits.
Size: Spider mites are arachnids with eight legs and oval-shaped bodies, and they grow between 1/50 to 1/25 of an inch in length depending on the season and species.
Color: Their body colors can be white, red, brown, orange, green, or yellow-spotted, spider mites have black spots on their bodies. Red spider mites are dark red.
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Picture of Spider Mites
Below are pictures of spider mites:
Signs of Spider Mites on your Property
Checking your property for signs of spider mites is the next phase of any good pest control plan. Once, you know what spider mites look like, check around your property to confirm their presence or find hot spots of activity.
Spider mites are active and warm or hot dry weather and they’re able to survive for winter by feeding on their host plants.
The most common sign of spider mite infestation is webbing, spider mites are arachnids. Hence, they will produce webbing under host plants to create shelter.
Webs are usually found underneath leaves between branches and stems and over entire foliage and prolonged investigations.
Another sign of an infestation is the presence of small white or yellow spots or staples on the foliage, once left unaddressed, this will progress. So, the yellowing of the leaves has been browning and then eventually the plant’s death.
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How to Get Rid of Spider Mites
Do you know how to get rid of spider mites? After identifying your spider mites and inspecting for signs of spider mite activity on your property.
It’s time to start treatment, they’re two treatment (natural and chemical) methods you apply that works effectively and depending on which best suits your condition.
Natural/Home Remedies for Getting Rid of Spider MitesÂ
How to get rid of spider mites? Below are natural and home remedies for getting rid of spider mites:
1. Alcoholic Rubbing Rag
Spider mites can be killed with household rubbing alcohol. Cotton balls soaked in rubbing alcohol can be used to treat infested houseplant foliage.
After a few hours of soaking in dish soap or rubbing alcohol, thoroughly clean the plants’ leaves under running water.
2. Dish soap
To get rid of spider mites, combine 3 tablespoons of dish soap with 1 gallon of water. Spray the soap solution on affected plant leaves once or twice a week, as needed, with a spray bottle filled with water.
3. Water Splashing
Any spider mites that have escaped the DIY repellents can be washed away with a garden hose spray. This plant pest may reappear after each rinse if you use water to wash away the spider mites.
4. Using Essential Oils
Spider mites are suffocated by neem oil sprays. Two-spotted spider mite eggs and adults are best killed by using chamomile, coriander, spearmint, and rosemary.
Spray the leaves of your spider mite-infested plants with a mixture of water and the oil of your choice from the recommended list.
5. Applying Peppers That are Really Hot
Spider mites were poisoned using pepper extracts. About 45 percent of adult spider mites can be destroyed by peppers like chile, cayenne peppers, bell peppers, and jalapenos.
Additionally, spider mites can be deterred by pepper cultivars such as lemon drop peppers, as well as by the Bishop’s crown pepper.
6. Controls Based on Nature
For your indoor plants, you can purchase real predatory mites and insects. Put them into the crocks.
mite populations are kept under control by these natural predators, which include scavenging mites (Phytoseiulus persimilis), thrips, lacewings, and ladybugs
In a single day, these predatory mites and insects can eat hundreds of mites and pose no risk to plants, humans, or pets.
Avoid the use of insecticides to keep these beneficial insects around. Regularly water the plants and the lawn by mulching the flower and garden beds and raking up the leaves.
Chemical Methods to Get Rid of Spider Mites
How to get rid of spider mites? When applying any chemical treatments, be sure to wear your personal protective equipment and remember to keep all people and pets out of the treated areas until dry.
Also, before starting chemical control.
- Rinse, all plants and foliage and spray your plants with a gentle stream of water to knock down any spider mites, webs, and eggs.
- Use about 1 inch of irrigation.
Elimination starts with choosing the right insecticidal, a broad spectrum of insecticides are ineffective because they eliminate spider mite predators rather than the spider mites themselves.
However, products made with bifenthrin have been shown to kill spider mites. We recommend you use Supreme IT.
1. Using Supreme IT Insecticide
Supreme IT is an insecticide concentrate made with 7.9% bifenthrin. It will need to be mixed with water in a sprayer before application to treat spider mites.
How to Apply
- Make 0.25 to 0.5 fluid ounces of product with 1 gallon of water.
- Treat 1,000 square feet, use 0.5 fluid ounces.
- In severe infestations, once your solution is mixed. Treat the ornamental plants and foliage on your property.
- Spray above and beneath the leaves and spray to the point of wet but not runoff.
When Supreme IT dries, it will leave a residual which will double control enabled pests for up to 90 days. Spider mites that make contact with the spray or the residual barrier will have their nervous systems impacted and die within several hours.
Spider mites reproduce quickly it’s possible for an infestation to develop resistance. So, we recommend you rotate Supreme IT with a lighter side, that’s labeled control spider mites each year with miticides.
2. Applying Miticides
Miticides are chemical agents that are used to manage mite or tick species (particularly species that damage ornamental or food plants) that are not responsive to frequently used insecticides.
Miticides containing Abamectin, Extoxazole, Spiromesifen, and Haxythiazox will help reduce resistance and infestations. If they return after residual application prevention is next.
How to Prevent Spider Mites
Prevention is essential to keeping pests in check even after you’ve applied pesticides, the best way to stop spider mites from returning is to get rid of food source and habitat(host).
- You start by pruning the leaves and stems off your plants that show discoloration or are completely dead.
- Be sure to dispose of these parts and an outdoor trash can to avoid any bites on the parts to stop them from spreading.
- Don’t buy the plant if it has mites on it.
- Spider mites dislike moist wet environments. So it’s recommended to regularly water your plants with an inch of irrigation no more than once per week to discourage spider mites from establishing themselves.
- To see if you have mites, perform the white paper test that we discussed before.Â
- Don’t put your new plants near open windows or heat vents once you get them home (with an uninfected plant). Spider mites can be brought in from the outside and thrive in warm, dry areas.
- Additionally, minimizing the amount of dust on plants can help keep them free of spider mites.
- Using a moist towel, wipe the leaves of your plants every week.
Lastly
Keep up with regular applications of both natural and chemical methods, it will control treated areas for up to 90 days to quarterly for year-round protection.
If spider mites activity still persists, or it returns after control, then rotate the application with the labeled control.
Spider mites are tiny pests that can kill off ornamental plants and shrubbery but there are ways to control an infestation that’s gone out of hand with these professional products and tips we guarantee you now know how to get rid of spider mites.
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