Yesterday my daughter was playing in the garden and dumped a shovelful of dirt on one of my dahlia plants. I should thank her. When I went to clean off the dirt today, I noticed that I had a happy new infestation of spider mites on a few plants. Already dealing with aphids, leaf hoppers, and the driest NH summer I can remember in my life. Let's add mites into the mix. I took off visibly all affected branches and wiped down the leaves of nearby branches with alcohol wipes (didn't have any to spray). I accept that this probably won't work, but was wondering what others' experience of using plain alcohol on mites was, if any. Also, just because I have them now, am I doomed to have them forever?

Thanks,

Katy