1 gallon of water, 3 tablespoon of canola oil, and 1 tablespoon of dawn dish soap. Mix well and spray on both sides of leaves and stems.

Steve.

Dry, warm and actively growing plants are perfect environment for spider mites.

Raise the humidity in your grow tent to 60-70%. It should be easier to raise humidity inside an enclosed space. Place some trays with water. In the morning mist the underside of all leaves heavily and close the tent to trap the humidity. Spider mites dislike humid environment. To get a head start, if you can, give your plants a good warm shower in your bath tub. That should wash out and kill a good portion of the spider mites.

I do similar things and, fingers crossed, I have not had any spider mites problem in last 5 years or so. White flies are my new enemy now although limited to a few plants so far. Come March, I am sure aphids will show up too.

What Steve said. Also, put on some gloves and wipe off any webbing (the cottony build up) before you spray. And buy "Mosquito Bits" and sprinkle them on the soil in your pots - that will prevent fungus gnats.

Mine are outside in summer, but before I bring them inside to overwinter they get a strong shower from the hose and a spray of rosemary oil based treatment. No insect problems since I started doing that.

Agree with steve, just remember to spray the trees when the lights are off. Mineral oil works great too.

"And buy "Mosquito Bits" and sprinkle them on the soil in your pots - that will prevent fungus gnats."

I tend to water with 1 part hydrogen peroxide and 5 parts or so water when I get them (it kills the larvae) and trap the adults with a little bowl of apple cider vinegar. But I'm thinking I should shift over to the mosquito dips instead when I have a problem, they seem a lot easier.

The H2O2 can also be used to kill surface algae (often cyanobacteria), and treat root rot as well, although it's rather unreliable on that last point.

Reduce the temperature to somewhere between 40º and 60ºF. Increase humidity. (obviously after treatment, that is).

I do have mosquito bites, been using them for about 2 to 3 months. Maybe I should scale back on my ventilation fan. Currently running 12hrs along with the lights. I will try to give a couple a bath tonight, and a couple the next night and so on until they are done. Most are ready for a re pot as well. So I will do that at the same time Lol, can I just close the tent up and drop a bug bomb in there?

I would agree with tropic and add a few things: if your trees and plants are small enough you can eliminate spider mites by covering the pot in a mesh such as cheesecloth, or one of those mesh sport bags, etc. to keep the soil in the pot and then submerge the whole plant in a bathtub or other tub of room temperature water for NO MORE than 2 hours. I've found spider mites tend to die off in about 45 minutes under water. Don't do this more than once in 6 months or so or you can kill the tree. If the tree is too big, submerge just the pot in water (this ensures that any mites that get knocked down into the soil drown and can't crawl back into the tree), and then spray the leaves with a good jet of water, I'd give it about 45 minutes to 2 hours before I took it out of the tub just to make sure none survive in the soil to get back in the tree. Once again don't do this more than once in a long while and don't water the tree again until the soil is more on the dry side. This should clean off the webbing and knock off most of the mites. A horticultural oil applied after this or a D-limonene should kill any stragglers. For gnats I agree with the mosquito bits and would add that a thin layer of diatomaceous earth applied to the soil will kill off most other critters that would try to find a home there. I've done this for awhile and have minimal issues with pests growing indoors.

I'm not sure how helpful increasing humidity / airflow would be once you already have spidermites.

The key to any control strategy is early detection, well timed (life cycle) and consistent control (retreat). You could spray with water/alcohol, probably every day, to physically remove. Kind of hard to do with indoor plants unless you have a way to get a strong stream of water on them. My next suggestion would be horticultural oil, not sure the proper retreat interval on that.

I can't put any neem oil or hort oil on for about another week or so. The orchard spray and oil have to be applied no sooner than 3 weeks

You can always spray with slightly soapy water and rinse it off after a few moments. That will kill spider mites (who cannot stand soap, as neither can most other soft-bodied bugs). The rinse is to assure that your tree doesn't suffer any lasting phytotoxicity from the soap, although that's certainly rare.

All you need is about 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp per gallon of water, spray the leaves and bark (make sure to hit the undersides of the leaves), then rinse.

I don't usually rinse all that well, but when I have on smaller plants, I use the sink. I suppose the shower would work well enough for larger ones.

Repeat as necessary, which won't be often. Insecticides are certainly more effective, but this does work as well.

Trees need rain, not just on the soil, but also on the leaves. You've got those bugs because you don't regularly wash the leaves, especially the undersides. Poisons, potions, and treatments are all short-term fixes and are ineffective long-term. Just plain water (when applied properly) works better and will permanently eradicate both spider mites and mealy bugs, but it's a lot of work until you get them back under control and resume regular occasional leaf washing like you should always be doing if you want to keep trees.

Drag them outside on a less-cold day and blast off the bugs with the "flat" setting on a basic 7-way hose-end sprayer from any home center. It's a very sharp spray and will cut thru the sticky white nests of the mealy bugs you'll find under the leaves and at the leaf axils. Look VERY close to make sure you get as many as possible the first time and repeat every time you water for several weeks. Then taper off to just once month or so, depending on the tree, how healthy it is, and how well it resists bugs. Some can go much longer if they're healthy.

keep in mind.. many common dish soaps are a detergent ... so if you run with the soap suggestion.. get horticultural soap

how many trees.. of what size.. and what kind.. do you have in this 4 foot by 5 foot unit??

any chance at some pix???

are systemic remedies an option??? .. though i try to avoid such.. sometimes full nuclear warfare is the best option presuming they arent crop trees ,...

and should you not lose all hope ... lol ... figure out how to avoid or minimize this next winter ... like treating and insuring all stock goes into the house 'clean'.. and that the house is clean to begin with ... it is usually easier to avoid a problem.. than fix if later ..

pic or two???

ken

Horticultural oil easily kills mites, mealy bug, aphids, white fly eggs, scale and thrips.

"keep in mind.. many common dish soaps are a detergent ... so if you run with the soap suggestion.. get horticultural soap"

I just use Dawn. Because it's a liquid. I do make soap, so I could reach directly for the easily-dissolved sodium lauryl sulfate, but I don't make potassium-based soaps, and trying to liquify significant amounts of homemade non-K based ones is difficult.

I could go on, but the differences aren't that significant for momentary contact, and the mites die regardless.

touche' morph..

the only difference might be the experienced user.. versus the novice ....

how dilute do you make it.. how do you apply.. when do you do it [i presume not in afternoon hot sun] ... etc ...

ken

For here, I did include instructions (but let's face it, we're busy people, who reads anything fully)

"All you need is about 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp per gallon of water, spray the leaves and bark (make sure to hit the undersides of the leaves), then rinse."

Since this was an indoor tree in February, I wasn't worried about exposure to sunlight, which can cause some problems. Although I should note, I use sodium lauryl sulfate on the lawn, gardens, and so on with fair abandon without issues, just at much lower dilution, as a soil conditioner. That's not at a range that would even harm a spider mite, though, and works out to about 2 ounces of SLS mass per thousand square feet per app, about three times per year.

For outdoor plants, I've used this, and the immediate wash removes any issues with phytotoxicity. Frankly, I've found those concerns to be a bit overblown anyway for all but the most delicate plants (certainly, however, don't let it sit, even if it's unlikely to do harm because why would you). Even most of those don't become overly concerned when rinsed quickly. And I'm not particular about doing it at 2 PM in July. If one thinks it's going to be a problem, then don't do it, or move the plant to lower light to recover for a bit.

Foolish? Just one of my little stories? Some might say so, and I hope they don't show up and do so. :-) I call it real-world experience, personally.

I generally make sodium-based soap as it's the sort that interests me, although I will range through additives like a madman just to experiment (the old faithful ones are oatmeal, salt, and honey, for different reasons). Potassium-based, while it involves a lot of fun cooking down and measuring and calculating and playing-with...results in an uninteresting scummy and eventually liquid soap that I just have no interest in, and I can't make neat colored patterns in.

Sorry for the book, this is kind of a pet peeve and interest of mine.

Everyone has a choice what they want to do with their plants. If you want to abuse/misuse household chemicals no one can stop you. Would you use Dawn dishwashing detergent to "wash" your kids or your hands for that matter. Probably not. Treat your plants with the same consideration if you can. Plants are more primitive than us with less defenses against man-made chemicals.

We all know by now that it takes about 20 secs of washing your hands with soap to mitigate coronavirus. You do not need any special soap. An ordinary mild soap will do. Just like that a mild castille soap will take care of mites and aphids without doing any significant damage to the plant. It will not eliminate 100% of the problem but no soap or detergent will. Eggs are more resilient to such treatment. A few repeat use is necessary for high infestations.

With plants you can avoid post treatment wash too eliminating an extra step if you use a mild soap. It is as effective with lot less possibility of side effects. And you really do not need much. If you do find yourself using soap a lot then you need step back and re-evaluate the conditions under which you are growing your plant.

Whoops! A "mild" castille soap will usually have a pH of 8.9, far over the pH of Dawn dishwashing liquid. Assuming we're using the European definition (as I do) and not the degraded American definition of "any vegetable-based soap," in which case the answer becomes, "you really don't know what the stuff is and can't make any definitive statement about mildness."

I'd advise an 0.13% solution of a mild detergent, personally, before I'd wash a plant's leaves in that stuff.

Later Edit: The rest of the above is a Gish gallop of horribly bad science (Coronavirus? Evolution comparisons? Really?), and I don't find the poster to be terribly receptive and will probably nitpick on a minor point that doesn't really matter. If anybody else is interested, though, I'd be happy to continue. PM me.

Ken what would be a good systemic remedy? I'm not worried about fruit production so much as the trees are small. Right now I would like to focus more on getting a smuch healthy growth as possible. Also, I believe I have a manganese deficiency as I have treated with espoma iron tone with no luck. Wondering if using liquid fert for a bit would help them jump back. What would you guys suggest for manganese?

Morpheus apparently likes the sound of his own voice.

Morph: So far I have not come across any castille soap that is made with sodium hydroxide. I could be wrong. Dr. bronners castille soap and other similar ones are based on potassium hydroxide. Just because something is a surfactant does not mean they can be used interchangeably. In any case I have made my point to treat plants with some consideration. You have made yours. Let others decide what they want to do.

I did catch this before I checked out.

Manganese:

There are two ways. One, find a fertilizer with manganese in it. I'm not pointing you in a specific direction, per se, but Miracle Gro does have trace amounts that would maintain your plant with occasional use.

The one I don't recommend? Just the tiniest bit of manganese sulfate (eBay, any good chemical supplier) can be used to supply manganese. And by tiny, I mean recommendations are generally in the neighborbood of 1 tbsp/1,000 square feet at a time. If you were to source an ounce, that would last ages. Put about 10 small granules in 1 quart of water. Water your tree. That would be fine. Repeat in 3 months.

If you have the capacity to measure very finely at home, you'd want to measure about 1/10th gram. Or measure 1 gram sugar, remove around 1 tenth of the mass, then fill out with manganese sulfate. If you sweep a bit of the sugar into the cup with the water, it's no big deal.

Systemic Response:

One way is to look for an insecticide that offers a systemic response. Many pyrethrins are once-and-done. The soap thing is once-and-done. Bonide's Systemic Houseplant Insect Control works a treat.

Bayer Advanced 3 in 1 has a one-month residual (but isn't for use indoors...I do confess I might a bit cheat, but use it in the garage, let the plants dry very thoroughly, then bring them in only after they're done--it's rated for spider mites--but I'm not very comfortable doing that often).

Chad: Most of the systemics reasonably available to us homeowners/consumers do not have much long lasting effect on spider mites. You have to look into greenhouse supplies. Some like Avid are available but expensive. Some perist a long time. Something to think about if you are thinking of applying on fruiting plants. I suggest is to use a simpler method like water wash, horticultural oil or soap spray first. And devise a strategy to keep them under control. Eg spray Horticultural oil before bringing in for winter.

In most of these potions mentioned, it's the water actually doing the work more than the additive. Someone was saying below that some of these, like systemics, are "once and done". This is false. The oils and poisons and definitely NOT sustainable long term. You're building up layers of sap+dust+whatever else you're adding and completely clogging the stomata and hindering the plant's ability to regulate itself, while also vastly shortening the life of each leaf. It gets worse over time. This is not a question of accidentally "catching" some bugs then finding the right poison to fix the temporary problem. Instead think of those bugs as always being there in the background. If they flare up it is just a reflection of bad care. Poisoning and oiling are just heaping on more bad care. Learn how to keep them pest-free and MORE healthy without that stuff. Learn the plant's minimum requirements (like leaf washing for instance) and how to use it's own very powerful pest defense system. That system is more powerful than your potions.

Thanks for your lesson on soap making - morph. BTW I do not think I ever talked about mechanical abrasion of leaves or anything close to that. But it was a good read nevertheless.

ETA: Either houzz or morph removed a long writeup by morph. It has happened before but I am leaving my dangling comment anyway.

Indoors Spider mites and Mealy bugs thrive on opposite ends of the humidity scale. High humidity slows spider mites down but high humidity helps mealy bugs thrive. Misting the leaves will control the mites but will encourage the mealy bugs.

If you go to my idea book you will see a blue battery operated spray bottle. This is very good for washing away mealy bugs which get into tight corners. Put the plant inside an extra large tote and rinse away.

Nothing beats taking them out to the garage and using the garden hose. Have tried, neem oil, safer soap, Safers insecticide and alcohol this winter but nothing has been a one two punch.

From Safers website, "Soaps of all kinds are cleaning agents made from oils and salts. Many products you might think of as "soap" are actually detergents, made with synthetic chemicals called surfactants, as well as phosphates, bleach, dyes, fragrances and rinsing aids. Detergents can be harmful to plants and are not formulated to kill pests.

True soaps are made by blending salts, such as sodium or potassium, with fats. Soaps containing potassium, listed on labels as potassium salts of fatty acids, are milder and softer than sodium-based soaps.

Potassium-based soaps are formed from long-chain fatty acids, which are target pests (while not endangering people, pets, or plants) in ways that the short-chains of sodium-based soaps do not. The active ingredient in Safer® Brand Insecticidal Soap is potassium salts of fatty acids."

I agree with Tropic to give plants TLC. Just because someone uses xyz detergent and got away with it on occasion doesn't mean it is a great idea. Some plants will take a lot more abuse than others. Indoors always remember that rain and condensation are not going to wash any residue so what ever you wash with may be on leaf for a very long time.

LLO: Funny I have a Andonstar USB microscope too but do not remember the model #. Perfect for kids to start appreciating science early on.Just checked out on web, mine does not have the lcd screen and is probably less powerful too. My laptop acts like the screen for my model.

Check out Meade ETX Series maksutov cassegrain telescopes for your kids. They are small, powerful and computerized. Before covid we used to take ours out for the neighbors to enjoy the night sky.

Unfortunately I have not used my usb microscope very often for plants. I originally got it for circuit boards though to make micro repairs or alterations. Now that you reminded me I should take it out and inspect some plant bugs. I do have a scientific grade microscope (the old style to study specimens on glass plates) but that has been now relegated to my "museum" of gadgets.

Hi Tropic, thanks for the Meade idea. Great idea, was thinking of a telescope.