I started 15 various hot pepper seedlings early last year (Marchish). I ended up keeping 11 of them & gave away the other 4. Many of the 11 grew to be beautiful looking plants (some others I selectively removed due to limited space issues). Once the first few started budding then flowering, I got an insane spider mite infestation. Every single bud, as soon as it became even slightly green would be fully covered with them where you couldn't even see the bud anymore. Then also spread to other parts of the plants eventually and then to my other hot pepper plants (hence selective removal I mentioned). Know how many hot peppers I got off all of these beautiful plants? 0...yes, zero. I tried everything from about 4 different pesticides (seven dust, spray, etc.) to organic Neem Oil based pesticide to all different kinds of home-made sprays (Epsom salts, soap, etc.). The only one that worked even slightly was the Neem Oil. I would have to cover the plant several times a day for it to make some of the spider mites go away. Then, the plant would have other issues & still have some spider mites left. I just never came up with any working solution to get rid of them. I had a few threads on GardenWeb about it & every solution proposed was tried and none of them worked. The mites never touched any of my other plants (bell pepper, tomato, chives, basil, cilantro, etc.). Did I just get a bad/infected round of seeds or maybe the soil I used for all my plants had mites that only affected hot peppers? I am lost as to what happened. I have switched seeds this year and am only growing Jalapeno's & Serrano's. I would obviously like to not have the same issue with those, once they're moved outside. Is it maybe because i'm about 1/2 a mile from a lake (Purcy Priest)? Please help! I may have no choice but to order some ladybugs and have them take over the porch so I don't get spider mites this year. I'd rather have an easier solution than that though, as i'm not sure where/how to order ladybugs & certainly don't need 1000's of them. Thanks! =) Picture of one of my hot pepper plants from last year follows. - Steve