Could try but these little ba$tards are very hard to kill by any means. Sorry to hear this but...welcome to the club. There are some predator mites that may work if you can identify the mite.

Gerry:

Sorry to hear about your bug problems. Mango trees are perfect hosts for spider mites.....they love living on the undersides of the leaves. I don't think that 35 F would kill them. I think that the temps you would need would kill the tree before it killed the bugs. Apparently hudidity and light have more of an effect on them than cold. Rubbing alcohol can help. There are also commercial miticides and predatory mites can be purchased. In Florida, we just grin and bear them.

Harry

Here is a link that might be useful: Getting rid of Spider Mites

have you tried spraying with neem oil? isolated those trees for now and give neem oil a try, it's great.

Harry...I recently tried spraying full strenght rubbing alcohol on some that are on my plumeria. They never batted an eye!

I've tried nearly everything on the market, within reasonable costs, and home made crap as well. You also have to rotate the products you use or the pests will soon shrug it off. I thought mites were tough. I don't believe there is any pest more tough and adaptable than thrips. It's a battle that will go on forever. Even the big money pesticides($200+)/pint have no guarantees of cleaning them out.

If a plant is not too large and you have the time and the patience...get a bucket of soapy water and a wash cloth and start cleaning the leaves by hand...even branches. I've done this more times than I care to remember and it is the only way I've found to get rid of a particular outbreak.

It's only a break in their cycle though. Most of these pests go thru several cycles and can be found in your soil, mulch, gravel/dirt on the floor, and on the plant itself. Not all methods work on all cycles. It's brutal and they have the upper hand. Systemics don't even always work and growing fruit trees, you need to be careful what you use and when...and there's still a doubt whether it is safe or not, a few claim they are...or whether it will kill the mites. I used a good systemic on the plumeria and it didn't slow them down a bit. Where do you draw the line in the sand?

I had them on my bananas in the greenhouse one year. I purchased Cali predator mites and they pretty much irradicated the mites on the nanas. There was no evidence of them on the plumeria all this summer. Why now? How now? Beats the he!! out of me.

Humidity? Forget it. You've all heard how high I keep my humidity in the greenhouse. No affect at all on mites. The only thing neem has done for me is to make every object and surface around the plant a sticky mess. Hort oils were not much better.

So what to do? Try everything and rotate them. Make sure whatever you use can penetrate their little webbing. Blast your plants with the hose before bringing them indoors. Try beneficial nematodes. Forget ladybugs and green lacewing larvae...waste of time and money. The predator mites may benefit but you have to look at their environmental requirements. You could look into one of the more nasty fogger type pesticides. Pop that off and shut up your garage and turn off all fans. Your garage is not attached to the house so you don't have to worry about anything making it inside. You need to make a stand before the population gets out of control and spreads to other plants. Try to keep plants from touching in the mean time...hard to do I know.

Sorry to have rambled on guys but this has become a personal war for me...and I can't stand losing. I will never win this war...I just need to keep at the rebels long enough to wear them down some.

Jay.....I was in Lowe's last night checking out their garden section. They sell something that should work on spider mites and thrips. It is a combination or malathion and horticultural oil. I remember using this years ago wth success when I was trying to deal with these critters on host trees I was trying to grow orchids on and under. I thought that malathion was no longer on the market, but I guess I was mistaken. While it is not organic, it says its safe for use on fruits not being harvested right away. I remember the product having a very strong smell. Have you tried it?

Harry

thanks for all the tips and advice.

I've tried all the malathion combos I could get my hands on. Thrips used it as a salad dressing. Don't get me wrong, it does knock them down some...but not completely out. Spinosads worked for a while and now that is nearly a waste of time. The problem with greenhouses and such is that rarely does a single poison work on all life cycles. And if it if did, I would have to drench not only the plant and container...which may or may not harm the roots, and drench to gravel floor...difficult to do. I firmly believe that if you cannot get 100% coverage on everything, then you run the risk of the pest building up a resistance to the product.

Spider mites are a little easier to contain to a single plant. Thrips are my number one enemy. I've lost more new growth from thrips than anything else...including my screwups!

I used to use Orthene on orchids......that definitley worked....but I wouldn't use it on food plants...its systemic. Oh well.....looks like you're in the "do the best you can to survive" mode and hope they don't too much irreparable damage.

I had spider mites all over one of my orchids and the cold (30-35F) did not bother them at all. So, I took my orchid and hosed it down for about 5 minutes and they went away. It seems that mites like dry places and my orchid was very dry! I try not to water my orchids too much in the winter time...

Here is a very good resource about mites that was very helpful to me. It explains a lot of the how and why of mites and it could make your life easier in the future...

Here is a link that might be useful: mites on orchids