put it in the shower.. and just spray them off.. top and bottom .... as hard as you can.. just short of pulverizing it ... [i might put the pot in a baggie.. just to not interfere with proper watering ... we arent washing the media...]

repeat in a week or two.. and see if you can control it that way ..

if not.. start over...

ken

ps: you are sure on the SM diagnosis ...??? .. and do you have other plants????

I'm fairly certain it's spider mites. There are webs on the infected leaves with yellow spots. I have 11 other plants, all of which seem healthy which is why I'm hesitant to keep the infected prayer plant around if it's infested.

SM's like the dry conditions often found in homes for winter. As the humidity and temps increase, they should be less threatening. If showering is difficult, you can wipe the leaves with a cotton ball dampened with rubbing alcohol. The bottoms of the leaves are probably where most of them are. SM's aren't usually cause for alarm, since they are easily controlled manually and rarely kill healthy plants in acceptable cultural conditions. They seem to prefer certain plants, so your other plants may not be in any danger.

and after you clean up this one.. check all the rest ...

and keep this one as far away as possible.. in your one room ...

ken

My two cents is that spider mites cÃÂ n travel around a room on air currents, on our hands and clothes. Be sure to inspect your other plants carefully....do you have an inexpensive magnifying lens of some kind? The mites can be present without webs. That should be the first thing you do.

A good shower is terrific advice though I would do it more often than ken suggested. You could also wipe down the bottom of ONE leaf with the alcohol as a tolerance test. Some plants (none in my personal experience) are sensitive to alcohol and you'll see leaf burning in a day or so. My favorite mite and other pest spray for house plants is one part alcohol to three parts water....stronger is ok. Keep the solution in a little spray bottle and use every couple of days. The mist allows you to get into little nooks and crannies where pests like to hide. I've never had a plant that had a problem with the alcohol

Be sure to wash your hands after handling the prayer plant so that you don't contaminate the others. I'd be pleasantly surprised if the mites haven't already set up little villages elsewhere.

Thanks that sounds like solid advice. I'll give it a try!

i just pictured the whole group.. huddled around one window ...

even across the room is better than nothing.. just for a while ...

ken

Ken,
It's a 750 square foot room with five ceiling to floor windows. It's a small loft and apparentlt bigger than you are imagining. But I can't really isolate one plant from the others and have it get light since all the windows are on the same wall. I can put the infected plant on the other side of the apartment but my understanding is the mites could still infect the other plants.

Spider mites and Marantha/ Calathea go hand in hand. I feel you're going to have an ongoing battle c them:(