You may be wondering how you even got spider mites into your house. The annoying little suckers seem to come out of nowhere! Well, they can come in from outside on your clothes, through your window, or you may have bought an infected plant.
Spider mites suck the life out of your leaves making them turn yellow and fall off. Spider mites can be extremely difficult to deal with and if left unattended, can kill your plants.
Identifying Spider Mites
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| Spider Mite Webs |
A trick that I have found to monitor your plants for spider mites is to spray them with water. Water makes the webs more visible so that you do not miss them. The water also acts as a way to deter spider mites as they do not like moist environments.
Other houseplant pests do not have webs like spider mites. If you do not see the webs, but know that there is something killing your houseplants, it is probably not spider mites.
For more information read Identifying Spider Mites.
Getting Rid of Spider Mites
I have found that commercial miticides and insecticides to little to help cure my spider mite problems. Here are some ways that I have found to be effective in getting rid of spider mites.
1. Wash your plants. Either hose them down in the shower or wipe them with a wet washcloth. Make sure when you are rinsing them that you put something over the soil like plastic wrap so the mites do not just fall into the soil.
2. Use a mixture of 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 cup of water, and 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Apply this to the entire plant, including the bottom of the leaves. Leave for 2-3 hours and then rinse off. Do not have your plants in direct sunlight when you do this, otherwise, you may burn your leaves.
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| Neem Oil leaf burn |
CAUTION- read my post on Neem Oil if you have never used it before.
4. Continue doing this process once a week until you are clear of spider mites. After you are clear of them, it is a good idea to wash your plants and apply neem oil once a month to prevent another outbreak.
5. Make sure that you separate any plants with spider mites from your healthy ones to prevent spread.
Spider Mites on Cactus and Succulents
Cactus and succulents need a different treatment because they do not like to have water on them. To treat cactus and succulents for spider mites, follow these steps.
1. Take a Q-Tip or pick of some kind and remove the webs by hand.
2. Spray the plant with a mixture of half water and half rubbing alcohol 70%.
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| Succulents and Cactus need different treatment! |
4. Repeat these steps once a week until the spider mites are gone.
For more information read Spider Mites on Cactus and Succulents.
I hope this helps 😊
