Greeting fellow blades. Gotta question for you. I have what appears to be fine white specks on my leaves, and the finest spider webs appearing on some of the leaves, but I can't see any spiders or anything that looks what I have read that spider mites look like. So what do I have, and will Hot Shot pest strips kill it?? Thanks.
Yes! They are a member of the same group as spiders. See that period at the end of a sentence? A mite is about 1/4 that size! Teeny-tiny! And I am wary of those "chemical wonders". Many of them are "1st cousins" to nerve gas- not something I would care to smoke! I use insecticidal soaps (Run a search for Dr. Bronner's- it has the "how to"- cheaper than buying premade soaps) since the mites can't become immune to it, as the soap dries it smothers the mites! It can be washed off easily the next day with warm distilled water. It doesn't kill the eggs, so you have to re-apply it a few times. How effective the soaps are depends on how effective you are at getting every leaf wet! Mites hide on the undersides of the leaves. Another reasonably safe product is Garden Safe Fungicide (works on mites too). For a neem oil product, it smells OK! Still not too good to use near harvest. (Smoked neem tastes like ) Granny
Yep,, Apparently the big one is Neem oil.. I am treating mine with neem now. You can also get Predator Mites at your local shop or order them online. They will eat the Spider Mites and not your plants. Lady Bugs are also supposed to work fairly well. Good luck,, Make sure you wet the undersides of all your leaves with the neem and you will have to do it about 3-4 times.