Linda,

I would expect it to be too much lights, too. Just take the plants with the tight centers and put them in a much lower light position and see if the centers losen up.

After tight centers, mite gives other symptoms, too such as sometimes flowers being deformed, leaves reaching up at an angle, leaves just past the center getting "rumpled up". Increased hairiness of the leaves, finally centers becoming like ash.

If any of these symptoms are present, isolate them from the others and maybe you can catch the mites, though they do spread quickly.

Hopefully it's only symptoms of too much light.

Nancy

Thank you, Nancy. Gratefully, none of the other symptoms exist. Just the tight centers and not as pretty as the Episcias growing in my window.

I've removed them from the light and will resist the temptation to look at them every hour on the hour :-)

Linda

Episcias generally suffer from maladies in winter. If its not the lack of humidity in our heated homes its the drop in temperature at night or all day long when we keep the thermostat at lower settings. Then again, cyclamen mites know no season and can strike now or in the middle of summer. Mites present that characteristic dead baby new growth. Then the damage spreads to the next younger leaves and kills all the foliage before the stems die. Chances are you are having those winter maladies rather than mites. A good way to tell is to enclose your episcias in bags and give them the high humidity treatment. The bags also seem to protect the plants in lower temperatures. If the problem is cultural then the episcias will respond by perking up a bit. If its mites, the centers will look worse and worse. The high light that your plants received may well have contributed to the problem, but I suspect it was temperature. Wood stoves can also cause dryness and gasses which could affect the plants. But, that is a subject I know nothing about.

Jon