FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi

I have been fighting spider mites for a very long time. But I underestimated how resilient these creatures were. While I thought I was saved by the method of immersion in water, I saw that they occupied all my plants. I check my plants every day. And I get help from the macro lens in doing that. I became suspicious after seeing some damage around the traps. When I checked with the macro lens, there was no problem. But when I rubbed a wet cotton around the traps, the truth came out. I'm just going to add photos of what comes out of the perimeter of a small trap. It was very surprising that they managed to hide even from the macro lens. After all this, I will fight a more comprehensive struggle. This will be as follows;

1-I will remove all the plants from their pots. And in the bathroom I will wash it well with the shower head. The reason I do this is to clean some of the eggs and mites on the plant with water cannons.

2-I will immerse it in water for 1 week without planting it in the ground. Because they can survive in the air bubbles that form in the soil.

3-At the end of 1 week I will remove it from the water and put it in a storage container. I'm going to put some sphagnum moss under the storage container. Thanks to this, the roots will remain moist and will not dry out too much. In the process, I will spray insecticide on all the leaves of my plants. I can comfortably squeeze under and on top of the leaves, as they are not in pots or soil. In this way I will leave it for 1-1.5 weeks.

4-Finally, I plan to wash the plants thoroughly with the shower head again and immerse them in water for 4-7 days.

After all this is over, I plan to replant it on the soil and end the process.If anyone is interested, I can share it with the process I mentioned and its results. I hope you can understand what I wrote. I wrote with a number of translation tools. So I'm sorry. Finally, if there's anything you'd like to add, don't hesitate to say so.

@Gary, It is unlikely to get along well with these creatures. Even though I've tried it many times, they still show up somehow.Were you able to get rid of them completely after your last try?

I'd like to do a little update. At the end of 1 week I pulled them out of the water. Unfortunately, the decay began due to excess water. But they are still alive. After removing it from the water, I washed it thoroughly with water cannon a few times. After that, I had to sow in the ground to help them recover a little. Would it be a problem if I follow the plan I mentioned above and soak it in water again after a few days? They're pretty worn out right now. I also wiped the leaves with a damp cotton ball to check them. I saw red-orange dots on cotton. Could it be a spider mite or its eggs? If you think so, I think I should soak it in water again in a few days. The spots remind me of dead spider mites. But I can't be sure. Could it be that after strong water cannon and hand rubbing, they still stuck on the leaves? I'll share pictures of plants and cotton to help. The photo was not very clear because the dots were so small. Thank you so much to everyone who helped.

I don’t think they can handle any more submerging. They are wrinkly and they look like they are about to rot. The leaves are turning translucent too. You said that with all the water blasting and submerging there were still spider mites. So I would advise to wipe every leaf of every plant. Wipe the upper side and the underside. With the traps only the outer parts so you don’t trigger the traps. Do this at least once a day and continue to do it even when there aren’t mites on the cotton balls for a month or 2. This is because you can’t wipe every part of the plant and they can hide there. But eventually they will come out and as you wipe the population slowly decreases until it disappears. But you have to wipe VERY often as they can bounce up again.

@Barlapipas 6, Thank you for your advice. I did as you said and today I washed it again with water cannon and then wiped all the leaves. And I came across the same scene again. I don't know how they can still stay on the leaves even though the water is cannoned. Luckily, I was able to take clearer photos today. After doing a little image improvement, I was able to learn more about what they looked like. Although they resemble spider mites in color, they certainly do not resemble them in shape. I will share the photo for you to see. I want to find out if these are really spider mites or some kind of dirt.

@Gary, I'm glad for you. Unfortunately I had to throw away all my sundews. But I'm not going to let that happen to these plants either. After the lights went out, I caught a spider mite hovering over the leaves. Then I let it run around on my fingertips. And I threw it in a drop of alcohol and set it on fire. This spider mite showed that no matter how bad the plants are, they need to dive into the water a second time. If I don't, I'll be back to the beginning in a few days. So I'm willing to take risks. And I'm going to split my big plants from the rhizome and throw out the ones that have too many leaves. The smaller ones are enough for the continuation of their lineage. At least I can be sure that it is completely cleaned.

@Gary, There were also spider mites that I caught in the dimensions you mentioned. I took the photo above with a macro lens. Without the macro lens, it was very difficult to even appear on my finger. But I can only say that with a little attention there are spider mites of a size that are easily visible. I'll upload a photo of them to help you. Maybe this way you can have a clear idea of what you're seeing. In addition, as far as I researched, the color difference was generally due to the environment or season they were in. It is said that there is no structural difference.

Gary, I also had some kind of white mites on my Sarracenias and they would walk on the new growth. I sprayed with just water 2 times a day for a month and I got rid of them. They surely hated water. Now the mites from the OP are more resistant than cockroaches! They can survive just fine with water cannons and submerging for days! But as I suggested they can’t survive being wiped. So now there are 4 options. The first is to do what she/he said and see what happens, the second is to wipe as much of the plants as possible for at least once a day, the third is insecticides such as Avid or Bioadvanced 3 in 1 (I wouldn’t be that surprised if these exact mites build resistance to it ), the 4 option is natural predators such as predatory mites but they are expensive and difficult to find and also they sometimes don’t like the environment and just crawl away without hunting the spider mites. Good luck

@Barlapipas 6, I agree with what they say. The most effective method is strictly to wipe the leaves. Today I immersed it in water again. And I plan to keep them in the water for an average of 5-7 days. The reason I'm doing this is because maybe I can strangle a few more of them to death. But before immersing it in water, I rubbed all the leaves with my hand with water cannon and cleaned them. Since I removed the plant from the soil, I was able to clean the bottom and top of each leaf comfortably. After removing it from the water, I will do the same process again. This way I can make sure that they are thoroughly cleaned before planting. Avid or Bioadvanced is unfortunately not sold in my country. Usually different poisons suitable for use in agricultural plants are sold. So I ordered canola oil and neem oil, which are natural poisons. I've read about canola oil, in particular, breaking down cell walls and killing insects. And I do not think that spider mites will acquire resistance to these fats. The only drawback of these products is that they do not kill mites at once, like chemical poisons.It can take 1-1.5 months for mites or other insects to literally kill. But it doesn't matter. As you suggest, I will wipe the leaves every day. In this way, I guarantee that the oils I use are evenly distributed on the leaves.