Spider mites are a common pest that can quickly infest and damage artillery plants. These tiny 8-legged pests pierce plant tissue and suck out sap, causing stippling, discoloration, and wilting of leaves. An infestation can spread rapidly, so it’s important to take action as soon as the first signs appear. With the right techniques, you can get rid of spider mites and protect your artillery plants.
Identifying Spider Mites
Spider mites can be tricky to spot since they are only about 1/50 of an inch long Look for the following signs of an infestation
- Fine webbing on leaves and stems
- Yellow, bronze, or white speckled foliage
- Stunted plant growth
- Leaf drop
Use a magnifying glass to inspect the undersides of leaves. Early detection gives you the best chance of eliminating spider mites before they cause extensive damage
Non-Chemical Control Methods
For mild infestations, try these natural and organic remedies first:
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Hose down plants with a strong stream of water to dislodge mites. Focus on the undersides of leaves.
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Apply insecticidal soap by spraying plants thoroughly, especially the undersides of leaves. Insecticidal soap smothers and kills mites on contact.
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Use neem oil by mixing with water according to package directions and spraying all plant surfaces. Neem oil disrupts the mite life cycle and repels them.
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Release predatory mites like Phytoseiulus persimilis that specifically consume spider mites. They are available for purchase online or from garden centers.
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Remove heavily infested parts of plants to eliminate mites and prevent them spreading. Discard the clippings immediately.
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Increase humidity around plants to deter spider mites, which thrive in hot, dry conditions. Group plants together or use a humidifier.
Chemical Pesticides
For severe infestations, you may need to use a miticide or insecticide specifically formulated to kill mites. Some options include:
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Supreme IT – Contains bifenazate as the active ingredient and provides residual control for 4 weeks. Spray all plant surfaces thoroughly according to label directions.
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Abamectin – Derived from avermectin, it disrupts nerve function in mites. Use strictly according to label and reapply weekly.
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Acephate – Systemic insecticide absorbed by plants and toxic to mites. Avoid using on blooming plants.
Always follow label directions carefully when using chemical pesticides. Apply them at 7 to 10 day intervals for 2 to 3 weeks to break the mite life cycle.
Preventing Spider Mites
Prevention is the best defense against destructive spider mite infestations:
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Regularly inspect plants, especially the undersides of leaves, for signs of mites. Catch infestations early.
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Hose plants down periodically to remove dust and discourage mites.
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Avoid over-fertilization and dense planting which create the ideal environment for mites.
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Introduce predatory mites before problems start as a biological control.
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Maintain proper humidity around plants. Mites thrive in hot, dry conditions.
Ongoing Spider Mite Management
Getting rid of spider mites requires diligence and persistence. Here are some tips for keeping them under control:
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Quarantine new plants before introducing them to check for mites.
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Remove and discard any heavily infested plants to prevent the spread of mites.
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Apply a miticide drench to plants at least every 2-3 weeks until mites are gone.
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Continue releasing predatory mites according to label rates to maintain control.
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Monitor plants very closely and treat at the first sign of mites before they multiply.
Spider mites can be challenging to eliminate but with prompt, thorough treatment and vigilant monitoring, you can protect your artillery plants from extensive damage. Combining multiple control methods is key for getting rid of mites and keeping them away for good. With persistence and patience, you can enjoy beautiful, healthy artillery plants free of destructive spider mites.
Prevention is the Best Cure for Spider mites: How to Not Get Spider mites
First, let me be clear: getting spider mites does not make you a bad plant parent, or bad at plants, or a terrible grower, or anything. They are the plant equivalent of fleas. You don’t consider someone a bad pet parent if their pet gets fleas, just if they don’t take care of it, right?
And the first and easiest step of taking care of fleas is preventing them from getting on your pet in the first place.
For spider mites, the first and most basic level of prevention is to quarantine new plants. If you are forking over money for rare, hard to find, or just a plant you really like, protect the others in your home and keep the new one quarantined in a different room or area for at least a month. This helps you spot if any pests hitchhike home, and ensures that if they did, they don’t spread.
Most of us know this is probably a good idea, much like eating vegetables and walking 10,000 steps every day, but do we do this?
No we do not.
So if you don’t, then the other best practice preventative measure is to routinely spray down your plants to clean the leaves. Drag them bad boys into the shower, and use the shower spray to clean the leaves, top and underside. Or use the hose, if they’re outside. If it’s too big to cart into the shower, then use a wet cloth to wipe down each and every leaf at least every month or two. This isn’t just to pamper your plants, but because the less dust and debris is on the leaves, the fewer places there are for spider mites to get cozy. Clean, healthy leaves resist pests! You’re also mechanically removing any eggs, poop, webs, or mites and then either flushing them down the drain or throwing them out on the cloth you use to wipe down leaves, so you’re removing anything before it gets to be too bad.
So, one-two punch:
One: Quarantine so your other precious plant babies don’t get the mites
Two: Keep them leafs CLEAN and SPARKLY
Okay, so that’s a spider mite. How do I know when there’s any on my plants?!
This is where keeping an eye out for spider mites and doing the thing you like to do are one and the same: stare at your plants every day.
Since you got your plants to enjoy them, I assume, spending a few minutes staring at them every day should be an enjoyable task. Check the leaves, stems, and in particular, any leaves with texture. My experience with spider mites has been almost entirely that they attack the soft, fleshy leaves of my tomato plants, tropical indoor plants, or my Bodhi trees (Ficus religiosa). I’ve seen people reporting or posting photos of spider mite webbing on succulents as well, although they seem far less common on cacti. I assume this is because the air flow, low water, and exposure to sunlight tends to repel the mites; when researching cactus care, it seems if they get mites at all, it’s a different species.
You’ll most often see spider mites at the base of the leaves, the underside, and anywhere the leaf isn’t flat – so you’ll really see them on textured leaves, such as those on Alocasias, or those with convenient variations in leaf texture, like Anthuriums. For some reason, they seem to be particularly fond of calatheas and marantas, although I am increasingly suspicious that there’s just some bulk grower supplying stores that has an infestation they keep shipping out.
One of the first indications you’ll see, often before the webbing has reached a point that it’s clearly visible, is a distinctive type of leaf yellowing. After seeing a few plants develop it, you’ll gain an eye for it – and if you’re unsure, grab that jeweler’s loupe and check your leaves closely! To help you develop “the eye”, see the photos below of spider mites vs not spider mites.
Hard to spot, but this was the beginning of a severe spidermite infestation on my Dragon Scale Alocasia baginda. Some giveaways were the funky leaf shape, yellowing on the edges even though this was a new leaf, and if you look closely (you should be able to click and see the full size), there’s a tiny bit of the “dirt” spidermites leave behind in the grooves of the veins.
On my Alocasias, I’ve come to find that spidermite damage, particularly on new leaves, seems to result in this funky cupped-leaf shape.
This is an older leaf on my larger Philodendron verrucosum, and is a good example of what overwatering / soggy roots results in. The yellowing edges and overall yellow hue that the leaf is taking on is pretty typical of philodendrons that are mad about too much water. I check both of my verrucosums daily, and have used my jeweler’s loupe on them, and it’s genuinely just that they get too much water. With rainy, cloudy weather, even being by a south facing window isn’t enough, so the oldest leaves are yellowing. I’m still working on the balance between enough water on the grow pole and their sphagnum moss top layer (for humidity) and not letting them dry out so much they droop and die off.
This is the spotting type of damage that can be the early warning sign of spidermites. This particular Alocasia frydek is who I suspect brought spidermites into my indoor collection; I didn’t have any indoors before this plant, and afterwards, 99 problems and all of them are this plant. The speckling you can easily see is the damage from the mites, and upon close inspection, tiny webbing was visible.
This Philodendron stenolobum has spent this winter riding the struggle bus, and has not terribly enjoyed going back and forth between being in the house and outside. Combine that with overwatering it a bit when the weather was too cloudy and cool, and you get this leaf. The leaf is just dying, and likely earlier than it needed to because of winter and hating life.
This calathea began having some leaf crisping and curling leaves that seemed unusual for how well it had been doing. Closer inspection found spider mite dirt and some damage; it was harder to see on the calathea than on greener-leafed plants, which may be why they’re considered spider mite bait. It’s not that they are particularly attractive to spider mites, but rather than it’s harder to see them early on.
Scroll through the red leaf anthurium above – if you look closely, you can see tiny little webbing on that brand spanking new leaf.
SPIDER MITES? IS THAT SPIDER MITES?
This is my beloved Philodendron mamei showing the very earliest signs of spider mites. This one’s a twofer – the top corner edge is what shows spider mite damage (that tell-tale yellow fade/spotting thing), while the lower edge shows some yellowing and crisping from inconsistent watering. This leaf is one of the oldest leafs on this plant, and only the two oldest leaves were beginning to show signs of spider mites.
Jen staring at her plants all the time = 1
spider mites = I don’t want to talk about it
The saddest of sad Alocasia sinuata leaves. This isn’t spider mites – it’s watering weirdness, and the leaf managing to rest on a begonia pot with damp sphagnum, causing some rot.
Sad Alocasia is sad. They all hate winter, even in San Diego, at least for me.
Jewel Alocasias in particular hate winter, and need plenty of babying to get through while looking pretty.
These little Alocasia “Pink Dragon” leaves both had spider mite damage. You can see that they are somewhat rounder and an odd shape compared to what typical searches of this type of Alocasia would show you, and the tell-tale yellowing around the outer edges is there. Both leaves are slightly cup shaped, and mites were primarily on the bottom of the leaves on the outer edges.
That’s not spidermites, silly, that’s variegation! This is just an average, slightly dusty leaf of Golden Pothos.
This particular plant didn’t produce any variegated leaves when I first propped it from a mystery cutting box, so getting the lightly variegated leaves as it grew was a pleasant surprise. Totally healthy and fine.
Spider Mites on Catasetums
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