Taking the garden hose, full on, and blasting each infested plant thoroughly. Come back next day and do white paper test. If a few are still present repeat again.

Works as well as any insect product and totally environmentally friendly.

Since you have this infestation you need to be on top of this testing frequently till you are satisfied the mites are gone.

Dave

Controling mites is difficult with out high dollar miticides. You can knock them down with broad spectrum sprays and oils, but you murder all the benificial mites that tend to do a very good job of keeping the bad mites in check except for the hottest driest parts of the year. Praying mantis will not likely do much damage to the mite populations, but they are fun to watch, and probably help with other issues. Beneficials mites are sold to commercial growers but are pricy, and require that you know exactly what the target mite is. Broad spectrum chemicals may also only kill the adults, and need repeating as new ones hatch from eggs. Good miticides kill all stages of the mites, and are suppose to not kill the good mites. Get the bad mites under control as best you can, and try to make the area as "good" mite friendly as you can.

Avoid spraying large areas with broad spectrum chemicals or oils. If you must, restrict spraying to only the worst cases. Remove dead and dieing plant parts, as there is probably plenty of unhatched eggs. Organic mulch gives good hiding places for the good mites to winter/summer over. Almost every time I see mite explosions is several months after some spray company comes out and soaks down a whole yard. If you have spider mites the blasting off with water may help knock off mites, and the humidity is suppose to slow down their reproductive cycle, but they will unlikley be detered Hopefully it will slow them down some. I have very active populations of "good" mites and almost no signs of bad mites for most of the year until late july, August and early September. Good mites seem to take a long vacation, and usually that is when I get the miticide out. Unfortunatly the bottle was $140 for 10 oz.

Do what you can to get your garden back in balance with nature, and things should improve. You have the right idea. Laurels in this state seem to be nothing but mite factories. You may want to consider removing them if there is evidence they may be supercharging your bad mite populations.

Good luck

Thank you Dave and Carl. I bought a really good nozzle today and will go spray those suckers here in a minute.

Now, Carl you have made a very good point (I'm happy for you that you have so many good mites).

Given I've sprayed with Neem Oil once, plan to spray every day or every other day with jets of water, release lady bugs and white flies later this week can/will either of you also give me suggestions for how to get the yard back in balance e.g. nematodes in September and April, other. Thanks so much guys!

P.S. I don't mind paying the cost for good mites or other, I have quite an investment and a lovely landscape so I want to keep it that way. I'm new to beneficials and organics so any tips will be most helpful. I do use red hemlock for mulch.