I bought a beautiful cat palm from the "wonderful"(sarcasm lol) world of wal-mart .

However I did not realize until I brought it home it also came with an extra gift of the dreaded spider mites =(

There are holes in some of the leaves and spotting from these bastards as it is. I have been spraying it with water 3 times daily and have done the dish soap method spray twice (each spaced a few days apart.) I thought maybe I had nixed them but when I took palm into the bathtub/shower last night for a watering and wash down of the leaves I found one crawling on it (and I am sure if there is one...)

Does anyone know what I can use to eradicate these buggers? I heard that Plant Vita+ is a miracle when it comes to this stuff but they only sell it in U.K, it seems, and so far I have been unable to find a vendor that ships to The States.

Finally, the brown tipping is on several leaves, including on the top. I heard this could be caused from underwatering or overwatering.

Being that it came from wal-mart and it was dry when I bough t it, I can probably guess in this case underwatering.

Those of you with you healthy cat palms, how often do you water? //what is the soil like when you do so.

There seems to be alot of conflicting information on this.

Thanks! :)

Keep it away from your other plants!

Can you recommend a good one?

Any one know anything about the browning tips and water?

<3

Spider mites can spread really fast. I had some on my air plants and was really surprised because first of all, I didnt know they affected air plants, and second, I checked the plant maybe 3 or 4 days ago and saw nothing on it. If its a small infestation just a water squirter can at least control them, but larger problems do need some insecticidal soap. Usually the plants I have that are infested with spider mites have no problems once they go outside for the summer since spider mites dont like humid climates. Fortunately this year my plants dont have too many spider mites.
Good luck!

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