Mites damage orchids quickly and quietlyoften their presence is not noticed until significant damage has occurred. Mites are visible, but their presence is easily determined by rubbing a white cloth over the area that is damaged. If mites or their eggs are present, a brownish residue will be left on the leaf. This will come off and be visible on the towel. Some spin light webs which are visible on the plant or at the base of the plant. A very good natural remedy is an oil/soap treatment. Dr. Martin Motes recommends using a light oil--such as vegetable oil. Olive oil is very heavy and could potentially damage plants. Using 2 TBS oil/gallon is sufficient, you can add a teaspoon of baking soda for a bit of antifungal. Remember to keep shaking the solution in the container to keep the oil mixed with the water. Spray thoroughly on all sides of the leaves. FOLLOW UP with a soap solution about 7 days later. Using 2 tsp/gallon of Joy or Dawn (dog shampoo is great too) not only does a number on the pests, it helps clean off the oil treatment. I actually follow up with a third treatment in another week with the same soap solution. The soap/oil mixture remedy has been shared in the past, but the University of Florida recently discounted it as the two agents act in direct opposition of each other and essentially decrease the effectiveness of the effort. Just like the TV ads say, the dishsoap is designed to cut grease (oil) in its tracks! :) AOS recommends Malathion, or Volk Oil/Sunspray for scale. Also Knox Out 2 FM or Orthene Turf, Tree and Ornamental Spray. Mites are nasty buggers to get control over. If the infestation is confined to one plant, isolate it to prevent spreading--watch for that carefully. Be careful to follow the label on preparations TO THE LETTER to avoid damage to plants. One tip for success is to make sure you do TWO treatments of your selected poison about 7-10 days apart in order to catch newly hatched pests. Submitted by Rhonda Heide

Steve, I think that's what they call a Velvet Ant, it's a wingless wasp. Spider Mites don't have stingers, and even if they did they're way too small to penetrate human skin. They have mouth parts similar to regular spiders but use them to rasp the surface of the plant and then they suck up the juices. The tiny stipple spots are where they've scratched and sucked up the plant juice. A close up of the Two Spotted Spider Mite. This is a common one, but they're many kinds. And how they look to the naked eye, up close. You can see the fine webbing with mites crawling on it. They're the tiny dots. It does look fairly different than regular spider webs. And here you can see the stipple spotted damage on a leaf; This is a pretty bad case on a lemon tree. The webbing, the tiny mites and the stippling can all be seen here. If you click on the pics, most will show it as a larger picture.

Dave I had some leaf drop on my Benji, but it was mostly old leaves and mostly at the times when it was moved - and yours is past being moved. My plant has dropped very few leaves past couple of years (less than usually) when brought from outside indoors. But it was kept in little cooler temps (well, quite a bit cooler, close to 50*F) and I didn't feed it at all. I figured that being cooler, it was more of hibernation and I didn't want to encourage the growth. There were lights on for about 14hrs/day, but not as strong as yours. Maybe your plant need rest? Obviously where they grow naturally, they get warmer temps, longer days and so on. I am just speculating here and maybe totally wrong. I think you may be onto something with spraying young leaves. They are more delicate, and if there isn't any bugs, I wouldn't want to spray excessively. My plant gets scale at times, which I take care of just with rubbing alcohol. It did have mites on couple of occasions (quite a few yrs ago) and once quite a bit before I noticed. I sprayed with water+alcohol, and kept it showered in basement shower (it wasn't used at that time! so was handy - Benji spent probably couple of months there if not longer). Not sure if my 'musings' give you any ideas or if they are even on the right track. I have never used strong chemicals on any of my plants (even when looking, they are not available to buy...) Rina edit to add: it 'froze' once,when I was mowing in Jan. of 1996...all the leaves fell of and branches were just dry sticks. I kept it - don't know why since it looked totally dead. Eventually I pruned off any branch that was so dry it broke by me just touching it. I was ready to toss it (after perhaps 3 mo?), but noticed one tiny green tip - and tree recovered. So I thing they are quite resilient trees - after all, they take lots of abuse in shopping malls!

Sara, schefflera are infamous for being spider mite magnets, though perhaps not as bad as as their close relatives, English Ivy. I am also a fan of using an alcohol mist. Do you have any horticultural oils besides the Neem? Any of them are effective in the on going battle against spider mites, as long as you concentrate on getting the mist to the underside of the leaves. You do NOT need to spray every day! Whatever you use, read and follow the directions on the container! You can damage the plant 'skin' by using any product too often or making it too strong. That includes the rubbing alcohol. By the way, your best hope is to gain the upper hand over the mites, rather than eradicate them. You must have X-Ray eyes if you can spot one or two sitting on the leaves, lol! Once you get to the point that you have to search for them, you can work with a preventative schedule, rather than a curative.