With the few exceptions of spiders that such as the brown recluse and black widow and one or two others whose bites can cause a bad reaction, spiders are beneficial and won't harm your plants. They are predators and feed on pretty much anything that they can catch and subdue.
Spider mites, which are tiny, feed on plants and drain plant juices producing a stippling damage.

Regards,
Colin

There are spider mites that eat other spider mites. (Predators).
Insecticide does not kill mites. It is necessary a miticide. But it is not good starting a chemical war, because you kill good insects and good mites. Yellow sulphur can be used as repellent.
Mites are not caused mainly by stress, but disequilibrium with predators (usually caused by cold nights).

There is a diiference between spiders and spider mites. Spiders are passively beneficial since insects are trappped in their webs, but spider mites are pests and should be controled. Spider mites prefer more arid conditions so daily misting of the plants and keeping the soil evenly moist will increase the humidity around the plants and aid in control of them. For really bad infestations adding insecticidal soap will also help.

yes, spider mites are not spiders but mites. mites are arachnids like spiders but they're different. anyway like so many people have said, spiders aren't harmful but beneficial. They eat things that COULD harm your plants, and for example, it is thought that spiders pollinize cobra lilies.

A Spider is an arachnid. A Spider will spin his/her web and catch a fly for his/her meal. Period. Who~ever sed that a Spider will eat a leaf was telling you a lie. They don't. A Catterpiller DOES. A Spider 'mite' is fantasy in an un~educated world. So A Spider(any Spider)isn't Harmfull to ANY Plant in the Known-and un~Known World at all. SPIDERS DO NOT EAT PLANTS... THE END...
By,
Super~man,Spider~man,Super~girl,and Bat~man.

Here is a link that might be useful: GardenWeb

Not any Spider Is Harmfull To Plant Life...

Here is a link that might be useful: GardenWeb

"A Spider 'mite' is fantasy in an un~educated world."

Really, isn't saying Ford automobile the same thing or how about Bengal tiger? Uneducated world? Please educate the dirty unwashed masses, we need you kev, desperately!

I live in Tennessee. Many spiders and their nests made up of the plants' dead leaves are pocketed all over my scrubs. Now the scrubs seem to be dying. I thought these nests were smothering the scrubs. Comments?

Here is a link that might be useful: GardenWeb

MZW1, if your shrubs have webbing involving the leaves and they are showing signs of dying I doubt those are spiders. I would suspect probably the Fall Webworm.

Kev needs to get out more :-)

There is actually a herbivorous species of spider, a jumping spider known as Bagheera kiplingi. And spider mites are not spiders at all but mites - their only resemblance to a spider is the webbing they spin to protect themselves and their eggs from predators. They are nearly microscopic and their diet consists entirely of plants, plant juices to be precise.

talk about an uneducated world........... Kevin could be the poster child!!

Spider mites are still 'spiders'
spider mites are classified as an Acari which is a taxon of arachnids that contains mites and ticks

Your normal spiders are arachnids.

99.99% of the time arachnids are good. They do however tell you that their is something present that they are eating. Since they are general predators.

Acari or spider mites are split into both beneficial predators that eat only bad spider mites. and the 'pest' spider mites that eats your plants.

LOL,

1) spider mite or mites are just vernacular or common names for some insects that are related to spiders and thus look like spiders -- think wolves, dogs, and wolf hounds.

2. some spider mites prefer low humidity, not all. Others actually prefer high humidity, an example being dust mites which actually don't eat plants.

3) some spider mites are plant pests, other mites eat plant pests, including the mites that eat your plants.

4) scientists have recently discovered that spiders do eat plants -- there is 1 species that is exclusively vegan -- although their primary diet is insects. Over 60 species of otherwise carnivorous spiders have been found to also ingest plant materials, mostly nectar (like your butterflies and bees and humming birds) but some actually will spit out digestive juices to digest vegetation which they then suck up.

5) HOWEVER, just because something eats veggies does not make them plant pests -- witness your butterflies and bees. Note that butterflies come from caterpillars which chow down a significant amounts of leafy materials on their way to being butterflies.

6) The moral of the story: nature is a wonderfully diverse entity with many examples and counter-examples to the tiny world we glimpse in our narrow everyday lives or within our own garden web.

Spider mites are mites. They are not spiders, and they are definitely not insects.

Spider mites are members of the arachnid family of insects that includes spiders and ticks. Spider mites are plant pests and become problematic when the humidity around an infested plant drops which causes those mites to seek more plant sap which stimulates their sexual drive. Perhaps this link will answer some peoples questions about Spider mites.

http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7405.html

Contrary to what Isaac Wong wrote the larva of many butterflies that eat the plants we grow for food are pests.

kimmq is kimmsr