Help plz! Have spider mites ruined my potato plants?
I LOVE gardening. But I HATE pests. I feel like I've wasted a ton of time and money when I see what they do to my "babies" - and I know others can relate. It's such a pain, and frankly why many I know don't bother growing vegetables. I feel like I learn something every year, but every year, there's more to learn.
I planted seedling potatoes (1st time) 7 weeks ago. Didn't know about hilling until after I'd planted them, so will do things a bit different next time. But I was amazed at how quickly they grew and how healthy they looked; beautiful, pest-free green leaves - until about the 6 week mark. Yesterday, I noticed they were infested with spider mites. I know I should've seen it coming, but honestly, I do my "garden walk" almost every day and didn't see them until yesterday. I think I was both focused on other plants, and the change in the leaves was gradual, until it was too late. I sprayed front/back of the leaves with the hose, and now ...I'm not sure the plants will survive. They look so sick :(
These mites are my biggest nemesis (coral color under lens). It's an ongoing battle they always seem to win. I've pulled oregano, tomato, & basil for them. Hose-spraying helps, but it's a tough solution to spray each leaf repeatedly (when I have so many things growing). Interesting I have a few bean plants interspersed with these potatoes and the mites have left them alone. They definitely like a certain type of leaf - oregano & tomato especially in my yard. My soil is well-draining and I believe they get adequate water/sun.
So, 3 questions please:
1 - Are my potatoes ruined? I think they're a little smaller than baseball-sized now. They're Russets.
2 - Are oils (neem) more effective than insecticidal soaps? Or is something stronger best? I want it to be safe (I realize what I buy in store has most likely been treated with something). I've read so much now that I'm more confused than ever. It's all so contradictory. Also, where do you buy predatory mites?
3 - Will row covers/mesh-tulle netting help (for next time)?
I'm in Orange Cty, SoCal. It's been mostly 70-85 degrees for the last two months.
Thanks for any advice!
Comments (6)
VLM
7 years agoRelated Discussions
spider mites and plants outside
Comments (16)odd for Imidacloprid to work as it is a strict insecticide and has no activity against arachnids whatsoever... maybe the carrier killed the mites? Mites do indeed seem to attack my favorite plants (palms) in low wind situations. My greenhouse is VERY humid and the plants are far from dessicated, but the mites still attack. My friends with more intelligently built greenhouses have large fans going all the time and that greatly reduces the spidermite problem. As for killing them, just about any product seems to work, so I use the safer ones. Gotta hit the leaves from all sides, though (most mites live on the leave's underside, where it is harder to spray). And once the damage is done, it stays that way, so you have to wait for the new leaves before the plant looks good again. No personal experience with mites on cacti... so can't comment there....See MoreSpider mites?
Comments (17)Sevin is hardly "the most toxic thing you could have used". Look up the LD50 of Sevin. Nicotine, Caffeine, and Tylenol all have lower LD50s than Sevin. (The lower the Ld50 the more toxic something is) But as said it definitely is one of the worst things you can have used for spider mites. I think you should find a new garden center. If you mix 1tablesopoon vegetable oil and 1 tablespoon of pure soap in 1 quart of water and spray this on the mites they will die. Don't use this if the weather is hot and sunny or you will burn the leaves. If you can't wait for a couple of cooler days cut the formula in half and spray late in the day....See MorePreventing/Controlling Spider Mites
Comments (24)Shamae, How big are the bugs? I know you posted a photo, but without something whose size is known (like, for example a dime or a penny or something) placed beside them to provide context, it is hard for us to understand what size your pests are. Spider mites are roughly the size of the dot over the letter "i". They are very hard to see with the naked eye and hard to view in a photo, though once you're used to seeing them, you can flip over a leaf and look at the underside of it and see the tiny mites on the plants then. Sometimes, folks new to spider mites aren't sure if they are seeing spider mites and we tell them to hold a clean white sheet of paper underneath a plant leaf and thump it. Tiny insects the size of a period will fall onto the paper and begin moving, and if that happens, they likely have spider mites. It actually is easier to identify mites on plants by the damage they do than by seeing the mites themselves. If you can tell us more about your pests, perhaps we can help you with an ID. If, by chance, they are the same size as spider mites, I'd suspect chiggers, but the pests in your photo look larger....more like the size of aphids? Not that I'm saying they are aphids, but rather that's just the size they are. Are you here in OK? Was your compost wet or was it dry? The more info you share, the better we might be able to help you figure out what it is that you're seeing. Or at least what it isn't. Dawn...See MoreSpider mites are the devil!
Comments (29)One of my first years gardening I found my string beans had many moth like bugs fluttering around so I went to HD and bought some pest control concentrate and a pump sprayer. Never having done this I mixed up a batch and sprayed vigorously but there was a lot left over so I spayed some more. A few hours later hundreds of worms came wiggling out of the ground in broad daylight and died, I had sprayed too much contaminating the soil. I'm fortunate I've never had to use that type of pest control again by trying to garden as organically as possible and tossing plants that are infested rather that treating with harmful chemicals as in above Bayer product, Imidacloprid. To members of the genus Apis, the honey bees, imidacloprid is one of the most toxic chemicals ever created as an insecticide. The acute oral LD50 ranges from 5 to 70 picograms of active ingredient per bee, making it more toxic to bees than the organophosphate dimethoate (oral LD50 0.152 µg/bee) or the pyrethroid cypermethrin (oral LD50 0.160 µg/bee).[28] (For comparison, the weight of just the DNA of a human cell is about 7 picograms.[29]) The toxicity of imidacloprid to bees differs from most insecticides in that it is more toxic orally than by contact. The contact acute LD50 is 0.024 µg active ingredient per bee....See MoreVLM
7 years ago
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