Spider mites on mini rose
Spider mite on mini rose
I had a very severe infestation of spider mites on my miniature rosebush. One day I just noticed the plant was totally covered in webs and tiny bugs. I mean, it was really really bad. All of the leaves were turning brown or covered in brown spots. I put it in the shower and sprayed down the plant with a medium pressure spray. This removed all the webs and a lot of the spider mites. Of course it also removed about half of the leaved from the plant, mostly the more damaged ones. A few days later I noticed that there were still a noticeable amount of mites tormenting my plant. I filled a small wastebasket with water and added a few tablespoons of 3% hydrogen peroxide. I submerged the entire plant and soaked it for a few hours in there but I’m not really sure how much that helped, since most arachnids can live up to 24 hours underwater. A few days later there were still signs of the mites eating my plant so I took to mechanical means of removal. I spent about an hour repeatedly flicking the stems with my fingers over a piece of paper and squishing anything I saw moving on the paper. Over time less and less mites were coming off, and I took that as a sign that I had eradicated most of them. I wanted to be sure that they were all gone, so I filled a small cup with 3% hydrogen peroxide straight from the bottle, and individually dipped the remaining leaves in it for a few seconds. This was a pretty easy task because there were only a few clusters of leaves left. After that I sprayed the plant with water to wash away the peroxide and let the plant dry. This whole time my boyfriend (who gave me the plant) was laughing at how much effort I was putting in to saving this little plant that looked like it was about to die anyway. But during the next few days, with the mites completely exterminated, new leaf buds started appearing all over the plant where the leaves had been falling off throughout the infestation. My plant is now re-growing its leaves and starting to look really healthy again.
I know this is a very long story but I know these mini rosebushes are very prone to spider mite infestations so I wanted to share my success and method in treating a very severe infestation. If I had let it go another day before showering it off, it probably would have died, as there were thousands of the little suckers all over my plant.
Don’t give up on your plants! Dana
Spider mite tip
Dana,
Flicking off the mites will definitely remove some of them, but definitely not all of them. They’re so small that you can’t exactly where they are (other than seeing the signs of an infestation, such as mottled leaves).
If you’re looking for a better way to disturb their habitat, they REALLY hate water. They’re used to hanging out in dry areas, which keeps their eggs safe, especially under their webbing. If you spray water on them, you can remove a great deal of them.
However, the best way to get rid of them is to spray them with a miticide. Most insecticides will harm your play, so a miticide like Lavamite is the best solution. It’s non-toxic and will destroy the mites upon contact.
*Spider Mite tip
I have found out that SPIDER MITES HATE wind! Once I learned that,(indoors mind you) I eradicated my mites, similar as mentioned THEN put a small oscilating fan blowing on the plants! You might use a bit more water from evaporation, but I’m telling you, those mites were gone for good. Seems they like stagnent envionments and wind is bad for them. It really works. I also use fans in my hydroponic room and once I added a fan……..no mites! Cheap fix. It works!
But where did they go? I’m scared these things are going to get on my or my clothes lol. Did the fan kill them? Or did they just run off?