#spidermites — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

#Arachtober 3: spider mites (family Tetranychidae)! These tiny herbivorous mites are the bane of gardeners and farmers the world over. Spider mites in the subfamily Tetranychinae leave sheets of a very fine silk they produce, finer than spider silk, over heavily infested plants.

This plant in a nearby park showed the telltale "stippled" look of spider mite feeding on its leaves, and tiny mites could be seen especially on the leaf undersides.

I cannot stress how tiny they are. If you can get a good phone picture of individual mites without magnification, they're probably not spider mites.

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #SpiderMites • #Acari #Acariformes #Tetranychidae #Tetranychinae

#arachtober #dailymitepic #mitestodon #arachnids #mites #spidermites

neville park @[email protected] · 2024-10-03 · 17:51 UTC

#Arachtober 3: spider mites (family Tetranychidae)! These tiny herbivorous mites are the bane of gardeners and farmers the world over. Spider mites in the subfamily Tetranychinae leave sheets of a very fine silk they produce, finer than spider silk, over heavily infested plants.

This plant in a nearby park showed the telltale "stippled" look of spider mite feeding on its leaves, and tiny mites could be seen especially on the leaf undersides.

I cannot stress how tiny they are. If you can get a good phone picture of individual mites without magnification, they're probably not spider mites.

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #SpiderMites • #Acari #Acariformes #Tetranychidae #Tetranychinae

#arachtober #dailymitepic #mitestodon #arachnids #mites #spidermites

neville park @[email protected] · 2024-07-27 · 13:48 UTC

Went for a walk this morning and I found the most amazingly spider mite-infested patch of cosmos!! _Tetranychus_, I think, maybe even _T. urticae_. I noticed the leaves had that speckled look to them and looked closer.

While they're hardly rare, I myself almost never spot them, and this is the first time I've been able to get macro photos of them.

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #SpiderMites #Acari #Tetranychidae #Tetranychinae

#dailymitepic #mitestodon #arachnids #mites #spidermites #acari

neville park @[email protected] · 2024-07-27 · 13:48 UTC

Went for a walk this morning and I found the most amazingly spider mite-infested patch of cosmos!! _Tetranychus_, I think, maybe even _T. urticae_. I noticed the leaves had that speckled look to them and looked closer.

While they're hardly rare, I myself almost never spot them, and this is the first time I've been able to get macro photos of them.

#DailyMitePic #Mitestodon #arachnids #mites #SpiderMites #Acari #Tetranychidae #Tetranychinae

#dailymitepic #mitestodon #arachnids #mites #spidermites #acari

TildalWave (~👋) @[email protected] · 2024-06-07 · 08:57 UTC

I found a really effective and safe method of getting rid of spider mites on your houseplants and seedlings that I want to share with you here:

The agent used is Potassium-based liquid soap (all liquid soaps are made with Potassium Hydroxide or KOH). Ideally, you'd find a "horticultural soap" or "insecticidal soap" that doesn't contain fragrances or other additives, but most plants, even young seedlings, will tolerate a bit of that with the method I'll describe and if you buy the cheapest soap dispenser refills you can find they won't have much of the additives anyway or there wouldn't be any profit in selling it.

Anyway, what you do is make a whole lot of foam out of your liquid soap. Use high pressure water hose or similar over uneven surface that you squirted your liquid soap over. Once you've got your foam nice and thick, start coating your plants with it, also from underneath the leaves and try not to let too much of it fall onto your soil / substrate / growth medium. Thick enough foam should stick to leaves where you applied it. Do this in the shade of course and let your plants remain covered in foam for 5-10 minutes, then gently wash it off with water. Let the plants dry up in shade before moving them back to where you keep them. Do not let the plants sit covered in foam for too long and wash it off while it's still a thick foam. You don't want too much of that to leak into your growth medium (but a bit of it should be fine).

And that's it. You'd have washed off most of the spider mites because liquid soaps are also "surfactants" i.e. they make the water less viscous which will make it reach into the crevasses it otherwise wouldn't and make the surfaces too slippery for insects to cling to. Your plants will now also be covered with a very thin film of KOH-based solution (Potassium is lethal to soft-bodied insects). It will kill both adult spider mites as well as their tiny eggs they deposit underneath the leaves. And the surface of your plants will be too bitter for pests to feed on for a minimum of a week after you've applied the foam, possibly longer. But do inspect your plants on occasion for mite damage and see if you have to apply the soapy foam again. Other, larger insects such as moths, bees and beetles visiting your plants can, involuntarily, carry stowaway spider mites on their bodies back onto your plants as they collected the mites from other plants they visit.

Obviously, this should only be done on plants that you don't intend to eat and/or before they start flowering and developing edible fruits, but your plants should tolerate this treatment well, even seedlings of soft-leaved plants (e.g. pepper, tomato, eggplant,...). I produced so many viable seedlings this year, despite spider mite infestation I was fighting using this simple method of pest control I had to literally beg neighbors to take my seedlings so I won't have to discard them. Happy gardening!

#gardening #seedings #houseplants #pestcontrol #spidermites

Steve Dustcircle 🌹 @[email protected] · 2023-07-08 · 12:41 UTC

Male #spidermites rip off females’ skin to be first to #mate with them
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2381339-male-spider-mites-rip-off-females-skin-to-be-first-to-mate-with-them

#spidermites #mate

SpaceAgeDruid @[email protected] · 2023-02-20 · 17:40 UTC

CW: spider mites close up

I had purchased (through the mail) a beautiful palm from Costa Farms, and had not done enough to isolate it before it came in contact with my home. The plant was absolutely infested with two spot spider mites, and I was new enough not to notice until the webbing was everywhere. I treated with #PredatoryMites #BeneficialInsects as well as washed off plants, and trimmed off areas of heavy infestation. It was a real pain, but the new leaves are looking good so far. Lesson learned. Also, it was cool learning those beneficials were so tiny that they were unobtrusive. Expensive, but I would use again. I do not think they can handle an infestation alone though. #houseplants #spidermites #pests

#predatorymites #beneficialinsects #houseplants #spidermites #pests

SpaceAgeDruid @[email protected] · 2023-02-20 · 17:40 UTC

CW: spider mites close up

I had purchased (through the mail) a beautiful palm from Costa Farms, and had not done enough to isolate it before it came in contact with my home. The plant was absolutely infested with two spot spider mites, and I was new enough not to notice until the webbing was everywhere. I treated with #PredatoryMites #BeneficialInsects as well as washed off plants, and trimmed off areas of heavy infestation. It was a real pain, but the new leaves are looking good so far. Lesson learned. Also, it was cool learning those beneficials were so tiny that they were unobtrusive. Expensive, but I would use again. I do not think they can handle an infestation alone though. #houseplants #spidermites #pests

#predatorymites #beneficialinsects #houseplants #spidermites #pests

Halfdan Reschat @[email protected] · 2022-12-01 · 18:13 UTC

Last summer I learned what spider mites were when one of my houseplants got infected. I tossed the plant - though at least I got this cool animation of all those little critters.

#Plants #Houseplants #SpiderMites #Bugs

#bugs #spidermites #houseplants #plants