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Cottage Gardens

WHAT do you do for spider mites?

threeorangeboys

15 years ago

Spider mites seem to just PLAGUE my garden. I KNOW that everyone says all you have to do is blast the leaves with water to knock them off, but they are seriously all over everything. I've got to spray practically every plant in my garden with water several times a day, and they are back in full force the next day. There has to be something else. They are all over dahlias, crocosmia, hyssop, echinacea, on and on. of course, nothing blooms when they have been attacked by these guys, and I'm going on now three years without seeing a crocosmia bloom because I can't keep the plants healthy. ARGH

Does anyone have any thoughts? Is there a good organic spray you can use?

thanks

S.

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Comments (10)

aftermidnight Zone7b B.C. Canada
15 years ago
Spider mites are a real pain you know where. I have used Safer's products in the greenhouse, here's some info they put out on Spider mites.
Annette

Here is a link that might be useful: Spider mites
squirrelheaven
15 years ago
I've read to spray with potato flour and water.
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Well the article I linked above discusses several other options. Horticultural oil sprays would be better for bad infestations I'd think. Also Gardens Alive (gardensalive.com) sells a product specifically for spider mite control. No personal experience with it as they aren't that much of a problem here but I have seen it discussed and recommended by others. Dave
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Spider mites are worse when insecticides are used and irrigation is inadequate. Insecticides kill off the predators of spider mites without affecting the spider mites (which, since they are arachnids, not insects, are not significantly affected by insecticides). So I would say the roses spider mites like least are the adequately watered roses that host spider mite predators. Recommended controls are sprays of water, adequate irrigation, insecticidal soap or agricultural oils. Here is a link that might be useful: Controlling Spider Mites.
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LMBO...prevent them, not in my world. They take something down every year-usually mums like this year-almost my tagetes lucida. I think the best thing is spraying them with water every so often. Spray during the day or morning when the plant will have time to dry so they don't turn around and get powdery mildew. People say that spider mites don't like humidity so that's why spraying helps...but they grow fine in FL which is the most humid place I've ever lived-sheesh, towels mold in the closets. This may have been luck, but I was treating some other plants for powdery mildew the other day and my marjoram had spider mites so I hit it with the same baking soda/oil/ivory dish soap solution I was using for the PM. Now the spider mites are totally gone, and I had been trying to fight them with just water. I don't know if I stumbled on something but it seemed to work better than pure water and it is the P.M. cure so maybe that would be a good idea for rosemary, I know that this mixture is fine for rosemary. You know your area best Heathen1 but her in Tx I had spider mites within the last few weeks. Here it hasn't been consistently cold enough, but they are better than during the deep summer. Oh, watch how hard you spray, I broke 1/2 a mum plant by spraying too hard. And get that rosemary outside, it will love you for it, Heathen is right.
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I can assure you that a dry atmosphere is not the only thing to encourage spider mites.. high natural humidity and rain do also. Let me explain. I live in the Dominican Republic and in our winters its around 75f with 100% humidity most of the time because of all the rain, constantly. Even so, in all my life I have never seen spider mite run so rife on almost any plant life it feels like. I am going to take the advice of those that have offered it and try a few things out that ive not yet tried. However, why I am writing is to say.. it is not a dry atmosphere that encourages them.. as explained.. it happens also in months of high humidity.
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squirrelheaven
15 years ago
Here's one site with recipes. I'd read just the flour and water but there are a variety of similar mixes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Some Natural Recipes
threeorangeboys
Original Author
15 years ago
Oh, interesting! Thanks so much. They really are just unbelievable. I just can't keep ahead of them. I don't want to use chemicals in my garden, so this is promising. thanks so much!
squirrelheaven
15 years ago
Ladybugs, a specific type mentioned in the second article, also help. Here's some info on predatory pests and some companion plants that attract them naturally. It would be good to do a combination of things.

Natural Predators

Natural Predators
lorna-organic
15 years ago
I had red spider mites in one quadrant of a garden. I seem to have gotten rid them by planting chrysanthemums and marigolds. I haven't noticed them in a couple of years.

Lorna
squirrelheaven
15 years ago
Missed a link, with plants that attract certain predatory insects: Predatory Insects

And one source of companion plant info: Insect-Repelling Companion Plants
threeorangeboys
Original Author
15 years ago
Oh, what great advice! You are right, they seem to hit one region of the garden particularly hard. I'll put some marigolds in there and see if that helps.

Thank you!

I have lady bugs in the spring that do a bang up job on the aphids, they just don't seem to help with the spider mites at all. I'll look into some other options though.

Thanks everyone.
angelcub
15 years ago
Just wanted to say Welcome to the Cottage, Squirrelhaven, and thanks for all the links!

Diana
squirrelheaven
15 years ago
Thank you and you're welcome, AngelCub : )

OrangeBoys, it's actually a particular type of ladybug. I think it was called a 'black ladybug.' They only had the one bug mentioned though.

Planting deterrents can work well to solve problems, too. Hopefully that will keep a lot of them away.

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