I remember seeing this post or one similar to it a few months ago, and I did a bit of research, but I think that the African Spider Plant is NOT the one that most of us have grown as house plants at some point, and I also think that the number of them that would have to be planted in/around/among the canes of the rose would be an impossible and improbable task. The facts are correct (thank you Henry), but the implementation isn't actually going to do any of us much good.... IF I remember correctly, and now (I know I should have done it before I started this post) I'm going to trot off and do that research again.... Susan

I ended up pulling out the plants that were the most infested and taking them to the dump in a garbage bag, and then spraying a couple of daylilies that had some but not a lot. I hate to use insecticide, but I'm so paranoid about spider mites spreading everywhere that I'll do pretty much anything to get rid of them. Looks like all the adults are dead, I imagine I'll have to spray again in a few days to get anything new that hatched.

Thanks for the input. I thought about this situation and I've got a new theory. Hear me out... I think the spider population has been growing over the last couple years as a result of the scale problem. First, the river rock mulch has stressed the Holly shrubs, which has made them more vulnerable to scale. The scale produces honeydew. This, in turn, attracts ants to "farm" the honeydew. The spider population has been increasing to feed on the ants. Its kind of like a nasty little eco-system, so to speak. And the timeline is about right since I didn't attack the problem once I originally noticed it two years ago. Plus, I see ants traveling all over the shrubs. So anyway, as an update... I've sprayed high-powered water under most of the holly leaves to dislodge the scale. But I'm hesitant on using horticulture oils now given the sun and heat at this time of year. I'm thinking of just spraying it with the horticulture oil in the late winter/ early spring, when scale is more susceptable. Any thoughts on this? (I'll leave the spiders alone, but not their webs. Our shrubs resemble those of "The Adams Family.")

"I have noticed little clumps of webs. Not spun from leaf to leaf but more like set up as little houses on the under sides of the leaves. I have noticed that one of the plants the leaves feel very dry, not dead, just dry, and have yellowish patches on them. Is this spider mites? There are some little holes on the leaves as well." Sounds like classic spider mite sign. If you can see the webbing, you have a large amount of spider mites, and they are moving to the next plant! Take the plant AWAY from any other plant, and treat those plants as if they are infected even if you didn't see any visible sign. This is the organic way- Clip off the branches with the webbing, toss in a sealed bag into your trash. Wash each remaining leaf and stem by hand with a bit of soap and lots of water. I'd pour slightly soapy water into the pot, too, for good measure. Keep quarantined from other plants, and I'd spray leaves with soapy water every other day for a week, then every few days for another week. Or you can use neem oil instead, but it has a rather offensive odor inside. Good luck!