I'd bug bomb the room, maybe with something like Dr. Doom.

As they say....'Nuke 'em from orbit'...it's the only way to be sure.

Josh

I first got mites indoors 3 seasons ago.
The only thing that seems to somewhat work is Hot Shot no pest strips to control them.

I've totally cleared out all my plants for a couple months and all of a sudden there was a ton of webs hanging down from my Fluoros.
That was more than a month of no plants indoors.

The mites hibernate when things get bad,the fluoro housing was where they went.
I guess they don't mind the heat from the ballasts either.

They send egg ladened females into hiding when the colony gets into unfavorable conditions.

I don't know how long they can hibernate for or what wakes them up.

But I do believe what U.C.Davis and Cornell said about mites.
They are very hard if not impossible to get rid of but you can somewhat control them.

They easily get immune to most poisons and usually reproduce faster than beneficial bugs can eat them.
Pyrithrins(sp?) actually help mite reproduce according to what I've read.
Though there is a poison with Pyrithrin and sulfur that is supposed to work pretty well,I can't find the stuff at Homey Depote or the Nursery.
They do sell it online though.

I tried every beneficial mite eater sold by Tip Top Bio and several poisons and miticides that only worked 4-6 weeks max.

Over 3 years I bet i spent over $1000. in every so called mite killer in the book.
Neem was a total waste even though it's sold as a miticide.
Mites lined up every morning and evening with their bath brushes and robes on to get their neem shower.

Just plain water worked as well or better than 99% of the stuff I tried.

Outside hosing down my plants at dark thirty AM and at dusk kept them to reasonable levels.
Indoors I can't do that.

Green Lacewings seemed to help out more than ladybugs.
Ladybugs liked other stuff better I think where Lacewing larva(whatever) are into eating anything they can catch,including each other.

Read the warning on the no pest strip-not for food areas and not in places you spend 4 hours or more a day.
They also only last about 2 months not 4 like the label says.

I put mine indoors only when I see mites and for a week or so after , then it goes out in my shed to deal with the crickets and black widows.

I haven't found a water soluble form of sulfur yet but read that it kills mites.
I find lots of powders but no liquid.
I tried powders indoors and it was too much of a mess even when I took the plants outside to treat them.
The powder ended up everywhere eventually.
I got tired of the stuff getting all over and really never gave it a chance.

I still get mites whenever I stop with the no pest strips or hosing down my plants.
I have to find the source-where they are coming from.
We have been having 30-40 degree night but I recently found mites on my Manzano.
We hardly ever get weather as cold as it's been lately and it's supposed to kill mites when it's this cold
I assume there is some place they are hibernating and come out when the days get warmer.

This season I'm getting rid of all my plants and starting over.Usually I can grow year round outside here.
Waiting on my last pods to ripen and then I'll get rid of all but a couple plants.
I'll cut them down to stems and spray the heck out of them.
If they don't die I hope I'll have gotten rid of the mites outside.
I just started some new plants a while back indoors and after using the no pest strips it seems they are either gone or are under control for now.

Good luck fighting the sob's.

Oh, carp! I just found webs on my two overwintering rocotos! Last year it was aphids, now it's mites. I do have Safer brand fungicide, which is sulfur based. Maybe I'll try that for starters. The only other things I have on hand are sevin powder and Safer soap. Since the high today is supposed to be 12 degrees, I won't be going shopping...I'm trying to hibernate at this point(and it's not officially winter yet, sigh).

Uuuuggg, I wouldn't wish spider mites on anyone - OK maybe a few politicians ;-))

If you're going to listen to anyone, Smokemaster unfortunately knows of what he speaks. Once established they're next to impossible to get rid of.

If you're lucky you catch them early and happily isolated to just one or a few plants. At this stage you can bag the plants in place, seal and toss. You may loose a few plants but this is one case where you'd gladly loose the battle to avoid having to wage a full out chemical war with odds of success against you.

I dodged a bullet a year ago. I didn't notice mites on a Bay Laurel I brought in for the winter. They quickly spread to a dozen ornamental pepper plants I had started a couple of months earlier to give as x-mas gifts. I bagged everything and tossed to the end of the driveway. A month later I moved an expendable plant to the area where the mites were and watched it closely for a few months for signs of them. As I said, I dodged a bullet. I have numerous plants in the previously infested area without any problems.

noinwi, if you're sure they're spider mite webs and not just webs left by an ordinary spider, ya gotta ask yourself how badly do you want to keep those Rocotos?

Bug bombs didn't work.
I put 3 in a 11ftX14ft. sealed off room.
I tried the ones that were for Fleas,another said cockroaches and the other said everything including spiders.
Didn't phase them.

Like i said,I tried about everything.

Diazinon,Dursban,Malathion and several miticedes,neem,and all kinds of stuff that friends had in their garages.
I tried systemics that killed off the bees etc.but not the mites and a few messed up the plants worse than the mites did(rose miticide).
All only worked for up to 6 weeks max. before mites started drinking it like it was vitamins.

I think the mature mites died but the unhatched eggs became immune.

Okay, you guys have completely scared the crap out of me now! I guess I'll monitor my plants carefully and if I see any sign that the spider mites have made it into the next room and found my plants I'll discard them all, disinfect the entire area and leave it barren for a few months until bedding-plant season. Maybe set off a small neutron-bomb in the growing area just to be sure...

LOL don555.

A small neutron-bomb might be overkill. Start with the least force possible and build up from there. Perhaps a healthy dose of napalm to start?

Seriously, they are the worst nightmare for growers (home thru industrial).

Bill

"ya gotta ask yourself how badly do you want to keep those Rocotos?"
Pretty badly, Ott, and yes, it's mites(sigh). Some control is all I can hope for. My two plants are small enough(in 8" pots)that I put them in the sink and thoroughly soaked them with the Safer soap. I'll do that every few days and see how it goes. If things don't improve I'll switch to the sulfur fungicide. They are my only plants aside from a few houseplants spread out around the apartment(can't isolate...have cats). The growing season here is so short that I'd like to keep them alive if I can. Otherwise I'd have to start more from seed(and I don't have much room to do that)in a couple of months anyway just to get a dozen pods by the end of the season(I think I got about 8 usable pods from these two plants this season). Either way I'll be frettin' & fussin' for most of the winter.
The environment is working against me,too. It's so dry here right now that we have a humidifier and a water kettle going constantly and you still can't touch anything without getting zapped. But I'm sure the mites are loving it.

smokemaster was right when he said the only thing that is 100% effective is no pest strips, unfortunately using them in your living area is not a good idea.

best i have been able to do otherwise is alternating soap and neem.

Smokemaster has clearly been there/done that and his approach makes a lot of sense for any serious grower. But I'm only experimenting with 6 plants under a small grow-light set-up during winter, so if my plants get infested, no big loss, I'll trash them.

On a positive note, it's been more than 48 hours since I've found and killed any spider mites in this room, and I've been looking for them pretty intently in areas where they would show up. That might just mean that they have left this room to look for my plants in the next room, but I'd prefer to believe that they have died or gone dormant.

On the downside, I guess if they have found my pepper plants in the next room, it will likely take a few weeks before the mite population builds up enough for them to be obvious. If I don't have an obvious mite infestation by mid-January, I'll start to believe that I dodged a bullet.

Neem. Spray inside plants once a month if you see them or not.

Agreed. An ounce of prevention beats a pound of pain.

Once you have spider mites, you always have spider mites. I've never heard of anyone growing indoors that didn't get them sooner or later, usually sooner. I just take it for granted that they will show up. No worries though, they can be controlled.

Pure cold-pressed Neem Oil (Dynagro makes a good one)- 1 oz per gallon of water, with 2 tsp soap (I use Murphy's Oil Soap, because I have it handy). Put it in a big garden sprayer and spray every side of the leaves, once a week. This knocks some of the mites off, and disrupts the reproductive cycle of the rest. It won't kill them, and they will never go away completely, but it will reduce their numbers enough that they won't hurt a healthy plant. This helps control aphids, too.

Good luck!

Personally I think Neem Oil is the snake oil of pest control. I've tried it on thrips, aphids, mites and my neighbor. It just don't make a difference.

Except for my neighbor, insecticidal soap with a little Isopropyl alcohol added helped get and keep things under control.

Watch out with isoproyl alcohol.
If you use too much it kills your plant REAL fast.
I forget what percentage I tried (mixed with water)but within an hour leaves started falling off.
I think the plant can obsorb the stuff through its leaves.
ALSO at first the mites swimming in it looked dead but after a few min. they snapped out of it like the alcohol didn't faze them.Or at least not much.
One thing that I'm not sure of is whether the alcohol got sucked up by the roots or through the leaves.
Doesn't matter much,you can't spray the plant down without getting run off in the pot....

i tend to agree with ottawapepper on neem oil... it seems much less efective on living insects than many other things and the reproductive cycle of most bugs is so fast (such as mites 3-5 days) that you find yourself needing to spray every few days to make it effective in that fashion. i only use it in conjunction with soaps at this point.

no pest strips (if your plants are in an area where you can use them) kill mites 100%. i use them until plants start to produce flowers and then remove them from the area as i'm not real keen on eating fruit from around them.

I agree with everyone: MITES ARE HORRIBLE! And I have had no luck with Neem Oil. But I don't know if you guys have heard of Azamax? I would have to look it up, to be exact. But, I remember reading something like they isolated what worked in Neem Oil, and made it more powerful. It of course, worked for a little bit. But lately I have been worrying they are getting used to it. But, it would be something to check out. Especially in the primary stages of colonization. You have to get it at specialty stores or the internet. I have never seen it at local garden store or Home depot types.
I usually us that and Doctor Doom bug bombs. But I definitely agree the spider mites must get immune or something. They are freakn horrible little creatures!! Good Luck! -Camille

I think you guys have scared me enough that if I find mites on my plants my best option would be to burn the house down :)

But an update on my original situation -- a bad mite infestation on some winter squash stored in one room, which is next to my pepper growing area under lights in the next room. I asked how long mites can live without food because 10 days after I threw out the squash and anything else the mights could eat I was still finding healthy-looking mites in the squash storage room. It turns out that was the last day I found any mites crawling around. Whether that means they die after about 10 days, or just crawled away looking for greener pastures, I don't know. But the good news is that so far I don't see any indication that they found the pepper plants in the next room, and it has now been 23 days since I last found a live mite in the squash room. I'm hopeful, but I think it will be a few more weeks before I can say whether I truly dodged a bullet.

Good for you Don. Don: 1 Mites: 0

So far so good Don, I truly hope you dodged the mite bullet.

You may want to move a sacrificial plant (if you have one) into the area. If it's unscathed after a week or so you should be good to go.

Keep us posted.

Bill

Thanks. The good part is that the room where the squash were stored is a north-facing basement room so doesn't have good light and isn't used to grow plants. My worry was (is) that live mites would crawl from there into the next room down the hall and find my grow-light setup. If the mites have laid eggs in the room where the squash were stored and the eggs are waiting for a plant to show up that they can infest, the jokes on them!

Healthy plants are often the best defense. I had some mites and aphids on overwintering large pepper plants, which were obviously stressed due to lack of strong light. My healthy young plants under artificial lights have had no issues at all. When I finally gave up on overwintering mature pepper plants, as I didn't have enough light available for them to thrive, then sprayed everything with insecticidal soap, I have had no pest issues since.

It's now been 9.5 weeks since I threw out the squash that were infested with spider mites from the room next to the room where I have my peppers under growlights. And it's been 8 weeks since I last saw a live spider mite in the squash room. I looked over my pepper plants with a magnifying loupe today just to be sure, and I'm confident in saying that the mites never managed to infect my plants. Yay!

Getting back to my original question about how long spider mites can live without food... it's at least 10 days because that's how long I found crawling spider mites in the squash storage room after I had thrown out anything they could eat. If it's longer than that, my gut feeling is it's not too much longer, but I don't really have evidence to back up that gut feeling. So... at least 10 days.

That is some good information to have. But I hope I never have to really consider it personally.
Bruce

Is Sevin dust effective vs spider mites?

Jsschrstrcks,

Is Sevin dust effective vs spider mites?

Probably.

Probably effective against humans too. Sorry, I just don't trust the big Chem/Pharma "safe" marketing claims.

JMHO,

Bill

OH I agree, it would probably kill you if you injest it...

But as pernicious as spider mites are, I'd hate to have to throw away a bunch of pepper plants if I end up having a problem...

Especially since I have a couple shaker bottles of the stuff that came with my house :P.

I have reasonable luck controlling the little fellas with dormant oil spray. The oil drowns them. Just be careful to mix the stuff up as per instructions because too strong a solution will nuke the plants.

I
have a great idea for you guys and it works every time it even kills
termites, wood boring beetles, on and on. Heat the room to 130 F for
several hours. All protein cooks at a little over 120 F everything
that is in there will be dead after 2 hours. If you are going for
something inside the walls like termites it will of course take
longer but pretty much everything dies. Now if the termites are
coming up from the ground where they have a queen type colony going
it will take successive heating but eventually they will die too
through starvation.

This
is a great system and I have used it on entire houses. No chemicals,
no tenting, and they are out of there every time. One of the things
I had to do on large houses was place oven heaters in the window that
I could see from the outside to monitor my progress but it always
worked. One thing you might want to think about is if you have a
large area you can rent a big propane heater that they use to speed
up the mud drying on plaster board jobs.

You
can leave the furniture in the house most of the time but then you
might want to make sure that the paint doesn't bubble.

I don't know how long a spider mite can live without food or water.

I am incredulous that spider mites can feed on squash fruit. But, if you indeed have spider mites and screw around with anything less than Agri-Mek, you deserve an infestation. Both Agri-Mek and Avid have the same active ingredient, Abamectin, but only Agri-Mek is labeled for food crops. Small amounts of Agri-Mek are unavailable, but small amounts of Avid can be bought on Ebay. The usage rate is 1/4 - 1/2 tsp./gal. water, spray every week. Avid has very low phytotoxicity except on ferns which it kills. See

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Free-1-2-OZ-AVID-15-EC-FREE-SHIPPING-Miticide-W-purchase-of-2-Pipettes-/181884237605?hash=item2a59253725:g:lTcAAOSw0HVWBy60

Might be too late-But Spider Mites are EASY!

GOT Rid of them.

BROAD MITES SUCK!

BIG TIME!

They LOVE my Rocoto/Manzano Plants.

The Green Light Fungacide slows them down (Sulfur) big time!

Probably would kill ANY mites,But the sun etc. Causes Sulfur mixed with water to do a Sulfuric Acid thing.

I liked A liquid sulfur thing that I can't buy anymore-OUT OF STOCK.

I can't remember the name-it was a solution pf water soluable Sulfer=A solution of whatever.

Sulfer ISN'T water soluable...

This stuff was sold as a Fert.

Worked great as a Plant spray for mites.

I use the green light stuff now.

A pint costs the same as the Gal. I used way back when.

Sucks...

Any one have any comments on spider mite control in an aquaponics set-up? scared to use any bombs because of the fish.

Also side note, I m moving my aquaponics set-up. So my plan is to bleach everything down and restart with new plants, and new grow media. Though I will have to keep some of the same water so the fish dont have a shock. Any concern with the mites or dormant mites surviving in the water? I dont think that possible but thought Id throw it out there!

Thanks All, good forum.

Mites are not that hard to get rid of these days. If you have a major infestation beat em down till you harvest. If they just showed up or you have small plants you can dip em. The magic is forbid. Should be able to find it on eBay. Worth it's weight in gold. It kills the mite in all stages of its life. One good proper application should do it. But since they are mites do a second 3 days later. Remember to be vigil about bringing any plants into your room! Someone wanted to know how long a spider mite lives. 2 to 4 weeks. In the old days the only way to beat the mite was to clean out your room and leave it empty for a couple of weeks. The mite does need a juicy green leaf to feed on.

The magic is forbid. Should be able to find it on eBay. Worth it's weight in gold.

Yes it is! > Forbid 4F on eBay

It is ILLEGAL to use Forbid 4F on food crops.

Do the mites only survive when they can feed on plants? I ask as I had a table that a plant infested was on. Im nervous to bring the table back into the house thinking that the mites are in the wood grain. I have removed all plants to rid the house of mites.

Either hit it with some good insecticidal spray, all over, under, top, legs, etc.... Or, just leave it outside long enough to ensure that at least one full life cycle has passed. They won't hang around if there is nothing to eat, but there may be eggs laid on the table that will hatch under the right conditions, so you need to ensure that has passed before bringing it in unless you hit the whole table with a good chemical insecticide.

Many of the natural insecticides such as insecticidal soap won't kill the eggs so use a chemical one if you go that route.

https://www.planetnatural.com/pest-problem-solver/houseplant-pests/spider-mite-control/

I've had mites indoors on pepper plants, a lime tree, and a tropical hibiscus. The easiest and more surefire way that I got rid of them was a bath. As in fill the bathtub with hot (not scalding) water, wrap the pot in plastic (so the dirt doesn't wash away) and completely submerge the plant (on its side - a baking rack from the oven works well to keep it under the water). After 45-60 minutes or so, pull the plant out and remove the plastic.

I've tried numerous chemicals, sprays, oils, etc, but thanks to the above I have been completely mite free for over a year. YMMV, but worked for me!

Some links-

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/apply-canola-oil-pesticide-76135.html

http://ipm.ucanr.edu/QT/lesstoxicinsecticidescard.html

U.C. Davis did a study on Canola oil and found it worked on some bad guys better than most other traditional stuff.

I read a couple of the post here. And I think I can help if still needed on spider mites. Washing the plant down with water top and bottom of leaves works but you have to do it for days. (Outside the rain and wind does it for you) and you still may have some come back. I use a product called. Bug B Gone it's a liquid you add to water and spray both sides of the leaf and stems spray every two days for up to a week. Looking on the under side of leafs for movement. By the time you see webs there's a infection problem . Try to get them before that. Leafs tops should show you signs of mites with spots all over them and flip leaf over you'll see movement . I do water and bug b gone spray. And I can keep them bug free or at least at bay. When bringing in new plants. If possible put in other room till you now there's no bugs. Hope I helped. Good luck

I have found that mites are not really bugs and are better treated like an infection with a food grade peroxide

I had a terrible spider mite infestation in my indoor set up a few years back. Everyone said I could never rid of them but I did. 100%

You will need:

• large sprayer
• peroxide
• bleach
• 99% alcohol
• ventilation mask
• gloves
• goggles

step 1: remove all plants and pots in sealed bags and throw out. Sweep out entire room and seal broom and debit in sealed bag.

make sure the room is well ventilated and wear a mask and goggles and gloves. I wore a whole protective suit.

step 2: spray down entire room top to bottom with pure bleach. allow to dry.

step 3: spray down entire room top to bottom with pure peroxide. allow to dry.

step 4: spray down entire room top to bottom with alcohol. allow to dry.

step 5: spray down entire room with H2o and allow to dry.

step 6: repeat steps 2 through 5

some may say this is overkill but spider mites are the borg and this worked for me. I dont like smoking bugs. Cheers

this is obviously for a grow room not your house or living room lol

Ok spiter mites are a pain. Letting my room stay empty for 1-2 months has worked for me. Here is a formula that works for spraying. Green cleaner and I add concentrated parenthanis. read and follow directions, shake green cleaner good. Be thankful you don’t have root aphids, if so you can dip or water weekly with parenthans. Clean out your room , leave empty and start over with bug free cuts. Do not take that great high yielding strain your buddy wants to give you!

Haha Graham I was laughing so hard picturing someone in their living room doing that! Gold. I’m actually considering it. spider mites suck.

It makes sense that since spider mites are in the arachnid family, they are tougher to get rid of...pesticides for most insects don't work on spiders. I did want to comment on a previous statement (jennq) that once you have them you will always have them...not true! I had a room full of houseplants of all kinds, and they (unfortunately) attacked my "maryjane" plant, which was in the center stage (they were all on the same table) with a vengence. I had been away for a few days and came home to the cannabis in a tent web...covered. I took it outside and disposed of it. That was four years ago and I never had another spider mite. So...yesterday my partner finds a huge majesty palm tree at Lowe's for $5. He brought it home and it was completely covered in webbing and mites (he isn't experienced at looking closely). I probably should have tossed it, but I cut off all but one inner leaf, stripped it of all soil and gave it an underwater soapy neem bath, then gave it a hand sanitizer rub, then repotted and have it in my bathroom for a few weeks. Of course, my anxiety over my other plants getting mites may outweigh my dysfunctional rescue urge here. I wonder if anyone has EVER successfully cleared a plant of spider mites...? I understand plants are more susceptible to these critters when the plant is stressed with watering issues (consistancy helps), but this opens me up to a ton of other questions...

Hello all. I highly suggest if yur bringing in plants into yur home, for example strawberry runners into yur hydrophonic system as an example I would do my best first to sterile them. First soak the roots of the runner in a 1 part hydrogen peroxide to 3 parts water solution for couple hours then pour the same solution over theback and front of leafs stem just drench it. Now put them in a bottle of water, the roots that is let them set for a day. Now make sure you put them away from any other sources of spidermites pest in general. next spray them with a solution of isopropyl alcohol 1 part alcohol to 3 parts water but ive done as much as 50 / 50 ratio before. This will kill the spidermite eggs and mites. wait another day and spray with hydrogen peroxide 1 to 3 solution of 3% peroxide. So after about 3 days put into yur hydrophonic system. Mites love stawberry plants and wow even more green pepper plants. Also spray the Alcohol everywhere n your floor, walls over your system and pipes etc to get the critters. If you cant control them then u will have to grow plants they dont bother with and yep there are many. Oh yeah spray the Alcohol after you turn off yur grow lights to prevent excessive drying or burning but dont over spray so u dont dry your plant out just play by ear and observe every day.