Great references Sue. I have surfed the web for help but did not recall finding these articles. Lots of good info included in these... Regarding your healthy soil comment.. I have had soil tests over the years and I know that my basic problem is NOT poor soil. My garden has been "well conditioned" over the last 25 years. I know that my base problem is most likely due to not rotating the strawberry bed each year. Why not rotate? Well the location that I plant the strawberry plants produces the best plants of any area that I've tried -- the ground is a bit higher than the other garden area. I use black plastic and the when I plant in the lower area the soil under the black plastic is too damp and the plant don't survive after being set. The area that I continue to plant produces the most beautiful plants unless and until the mites begin to attack. Even so, with 84 plants, I still get more berries than I know what to do with. The are a couple oils mentioned in the references. So your neem oil suggestion (JustAGuy) might also be the ticket. Anyway, thanks folks for the feeback. I'm still wondering if there is someone else out there who has actually "gone to war" with these insects and who might offer their personal experiences..

Thanks, jean001. It seems someone else posted about the exact same thing within minutes of my post. Also from NJ. Guess the little ones are particularly active here now. What do clover mites do? All the info I've found since reading about them here says they are a nuisance. But not much about them. I do the helpline at the cooperative extension and I'll bet I'll get a question about this.

I had them once on a ever green and before I notice a 2 ft area was dead. I asked a nursery man about it and he said you can't see spider mites. He said to put a white sheet of paper under the area and shake the plant, then rub your fingers across the paper. If there are blood smears they are spider mites.

"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!