Spider Mite

Gardening tips, stories etc.

Spider Mite

Postby Monika » Wed Sep 27, 2006 1:01 pm

Earlier this year, I had a serious infestation of spider mite in my garden and finished up cutting a great many plants down to ground level.

The trouble with these pests is that you can't see them without a magnifying glass and you don't know you have them until your plants start looking sickly.

I sprayed the remaining plants and seem to have got rid of a lot of it.

However, a couple of weeks ago, my d-i-l gave me some roots of chinese lantern plants which she advised me to plant into a tub because of their invasive habit.

Because they were bare root, it has taken them until a couple of days ago to perk up - which is when I noticed that the leaves were losing their colour. So, I got out the magnifying glass again and lo and behold they are infested.

As the pot is well away from the rest of my plants, it looks very likely that my son and d-i-l have it too.

So, all you keen gardeners - get out your magnifiers and look underneath the leaves of anything which isn't looking as green as it should. Get rid of as much of it as possible because the little blighters hibernate over winter.

This is what you are looking for:

TOP OF THE LEAF:





Image

UNDERNEATH:

Image

They are pale fawn in colour with two dark spots on them but at the moment they are starting to turn red so some of them are orange.

I've highlighted some of them on this leaf with a small mark to the right of them.

Image

If you're not sure if you have them carefully remove a leaf and lay it on a flat surface with the underside turned upwards and they will start moving to try to hide.
If at first you don't succeed, sky diving isn't for you!
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Monika
 
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