Ashes to Ashes.

[Sage Hermit]

Feeling the effects of Spider mites.

They have really been destroying all my favorite herbs. I don't know what to do. My sage plan and mint are both looking really bad. The sap on the pinneaple sage is eaten up and the leaves are dying. Same with my mint. The spider mites also tore my Echineachea's leaves up nice and good.

The herbs look to be in poor shape and I was wondering how I can help them back to health, keep in mind a good percentage of their foliage is eaten away.

Used 1 shot of neem oil spray and they died off. Sprayed off each leaf with water mist bottle. I discovered the affected leaves should not go back into the pot because this will help them regroup but I had been doing this unaware of the consequences. Put a little cinimon in the soil too.

The herbs get good light and are well drained. The soil I use is a mix of top soil and potting soil. I'm wondering what to do to balance the problem.

Thank you

[Kisal]

Well, as I'm sure you know, spider mites don't chew plants, they suck the sap in the same way as aphids. In addition to actual insects, the plants also have eggs on them. The plants must be treated every 5 to 7 days, for about 4 times, in order to kill all the new mites as they hatch out. Spray the tops and undersides of the leaves, and spray all the stems. Be very thorough.

I use 1 teaspoon of pure soap in 1 quart of water. (My personal preference is Dr. Bronner's soap, which is certified organic.)

Whatever you decide to use, be sure to read the label carefully. Detergents can damage plants.

HTH!

[applestar]

Especially with indoor plants, I think it's a good idea to give insect infested plants a good shower either in the kitchen sink or in the ... well, shower, depending on the size and number of plants. That alone will get rid of a good number of bugs hanging onto the plants. I also rinse thoroughly after spraying.

Depending on the size, value of plants, and scope of infestation, I find it also helpful to use different sized soft watercolor brushes, paper towel, or cotton swab dipped in soapy water to get them off.

Spider mites favor dry environment, so increasing humidity and/or spraying with water (I use filtered) will help to alleviate. When spidermite infestation is bad, I use very diluted soapy water instead of plain water, and continue with the showers. During infestation, one of the hardest things to do, I find is not to overwater the plants and stress them out in the process.... Be diligent in breaking up their webs under the leaves and between stems -- that would help to stress THEM out (as well as eliminating places where they can hide from whatever you're spraying)

Oh, don't forget to spray the soil surfaces -- they might've fallen off the plant onto the soil. If you leave them there, they'll just climb back up.

[Sage Hermit]

Ah very insightful feedback guys. I think with the tidbits of information you gave me I'll help turn the tide in my battle with spider mites. Once the sap is sucked up how can I rejuvinate the plant? Will the leaves of the plant just grow back on their own? I would like to know some advice regarding getting the health of the herbs back up in addition to the purging of the mites. Please tell me what you would do to get your leaves back up to speed. Thank you very very much. )

[Toil]

Here is what I would do: determine the life cycle of the mites (3-5 days). You can use the naked eye but I like to use a pocket microscope to see egg density. I think it helps focus your animosity if you can see them as little creepy aliens, not just spots and webs. I only ever see eggs along big veins (term?). Or you could use temperature to make a guess.

Set a schedule say every 4th day for a 4 day cycle, and spray on that day. Do this for 2 weeks. Then you are Pretty sure. The goal here is to decimate the population by wiping out the adults repeatedly before they have a chance to reproduce. But you can't be late. If you spray on day 5 instead of 3 or 4, they have a chance to lay, and soap or neem does not kill eggs. (you can crush them though, to focus your ire further).

Soap or soap and raw neem oil is good. But if using raw neem oil remember the blender. If any insecticides have been used outside, that's the culprit. They eliminate the predators, but can't hurt mites.

Is this outside? Inside, you could mist plain water in between treatments of soap. Mites hate moist. You can mist them outside, I guess, but maybe after sunset? That way it stays moist.

[The Helpful Gardener]

All good advice, toil. And AS, And Kisal.

Sage, you are sure of your prognosis?

HG

[JONA878]

Must admit HG it doesn't sound like spider mite damage.
They are suckers not chewers.
They are incredibly small and often the first sign of a problem is the webbing...which by then means a hell of a lot of them.
There are very good biological predators that you can buy. Easy to get over here so I guess you must be able to buy them at your GC's as well.
Phytoseiolus for eg.
Mixed in a tube with bran flakes or similar and just shaken over the plants for the minute little beauties to do their work.

Jona

[Toil]

I look for white or light spots on the leaves, not webbing. Webbing is a major infestation.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Pics might help, sage...

[Sage Hermit]

Its undoubtedly spider mites.
Chew suck damage all same to me. We are talkin about my babies here!


I think we covered what to do as far as eliminating spider mites but now that the damage is done and it was a major infestation what does the plant need from me in order to get their leaves to grow again?

Plant Disease could show up from having eaten up and dried out leaves. What are methods used to treat for leaf damage?
[img]https://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa267/adaba/aba002.jpg[/img]
Destroyed mint
[img]https://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa267/adaba/aba003.jpg[/img]
more destroyed mint
[img]https://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa267/adaba/aba005.jpg[/img]
Pineapple Sage some stems bare.
[img]https://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa267/adaba/aba006.jpg[/img]
Echinacea looking really damaged

[Kisal]

They look to me like they'll bounce back in time provided they get good, standard care. One thing you might want to do is set the pots in humidity trays. Those are trays of gravel which have water up to, but not over, the surface of the gravel. In other words, you don't want the bottoms of the pots actually touching the water. This will increase the humidity in the air around the plants. Misting the plants works well, too, but in my experience, the trays provide a more consistent level of humidity.

Make sure the plants get plenty of light. You might want to add some supplemental lighting, just to coddle them a little.

That's what I would do, anyway.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Hard to tell from the photos, but I did see some stippling, so mites are at least part of the issue.

Kisal is right on about light and water. I would probably cut back all the severely damaged growth on the herbaceous plants (mint, echnacea) and start daily misting. New growth will be more productive that trying to sustain damaged old growth...

An oil spray would not be amiss to be sure to get any emerging broods of mites, but they are probably on their way out as the food sources seem pretty depleted. Toils schedule is spot on...

HG

[Sage Hermit]

You guys are awesome. Just needed a push

Thank you for your feed back and advice.

[Sage Hermit]

The first sign of plant damage caused by these mites is a stippling pattern on the leaves. Look for a series of small dots that are brown. This is where the mites have pierced the leaf to get at the juices. Leaves under severe attack will turn either a yellow or bronze color. They may also begin to curl as they dry out. Once the damage reaches a certain level, there will be no recovery. Photosynthesis is halted. Carbon dioxide can no longer be processed. The leaf will eventually drop off. If enough leaves are attacked, the plant will die. The two-spotted spider mite lays its eggs amid a mass of white....

yeah yeah yeah that all I need from U internet.



The Echinacaea is dead but the sage and mint have bounced back after some experimenting with neem oil and regular mist.

The trick is just blast them suckers into another dimension with a mist bottle at close proximity. Aim the spray away from the plant and maybe have a towel collect the spray cuz it takes some misting skill.

My soil is teeming with centipede. When I was pressure washing the leaves by hand I noticed the centipedes might be eating them as they fall to the soil.
Could this be true? I wonder. Anyway

I quit using neem oil. I just blast them off religiouslly everyday. They killed my Echinacea. I really wanted to see that plant bloom. It was the only seed to sprout of a whole packet of them. Sucks because I had been trying to grow it for almost a year and 1/2. I started it around when I join HG.com