FlyTrapCare Forums

I have been noticing some damage on random plants in my terrarium, but never saw a culprit. Earlier today I found what appears to be spider mites (photo of one below). Their numbers seem to be increasing since the damage I am finding is appearing faster and more widespread. So, after reading a bit I am still a bit unsure about a good method to get rid of them or just get their numbers down to a point that they aren't a nuisance. I would appreciate any help to narrow down the options while still being safe for the plants .

This is what I have found as options so far. It seems that neem oil can be ineffective against spider mites, but some say it works fine. Acephate 75 sounds like a better route to go to control them, but I'm not sure what the mixture amount would be. I assume the amount would depend on the brand (the only one I am finding is Hi-yield fire ant control with acephate). I also have found using CO2 to control them which seems like a good route to go (I would sublime some dry ice, distribute it throughout the tank and seal it up after), and possibly more effective combined with the acephate 75. If anyone has any other suggestions that would be great as well.

0924142028b by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

That's a great photo and that may be a spider mite, but it's hard for me to say for sure. Do you have any photos of the damage you're seeing? I'm much more familiar with that than I am at identifying the actual insects.

Matt wrote:That's a great photo and that may be a spider mite, but it's hard for me to say for sure. Do you have any photos of the damage you're seeing? I'm much more familiar with that than I am at identifying the actual insects.

Ah, no problem, here is a couple photos of the Stylidium debile that has sustained the most damage so far and shows it the best. They can be found on the top and bottom of the leaves.

IMG_5640 by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

IMG_5643 by chevyguy8893, on Flickr

Yeah, that looks like mite damage. Acephate does work on them a bit (dosage is 0.5 to 0.75 teaspoon per gallon of water), but you're better off using a dedicated miticide to get rid of them.

I've had good luck with Rosemary Oil on VFTs. You might want to look at this:
http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/rosem ... 24836.html

Thank you both for the help! I am going to try the contact spray (rasta bob's) that evenwind listed in their write-up. It seems promising and I will report what I find after the treatment on the plants I spray. I pulled one of my CO2 tanks from one of my aquariums today to try a small experiment with suffocating them, but it did not seem to do much to them other than slow them down.

Anybody ever try no-pest strips? I used to raise reptiles, and used them to eradicate parasitic mites. It would kill any insect or arachnid in the room. It's just a rubber-like strip that contains an insecticide that's delivered via a vapor in the air. Killed a lot of mites for me. I'm going to try it for thrips. I have a couple of African violets that I've seen them on. I'm betting it'll do the job.

In a terrarium, I'd just cut off a 1/4" piece and place it in a corner, or anywhere out of the way.

http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Shot-5580-Uns ... pest+strip

kcbugs wrote:Anybody ever try no-pest strips?

I've never heard of anyone trying them, but it would be worth a shot!

Damn, that sucks man. I just had a bad spider mite infestation on my cephs, which are my favorite plants. I decided to get floramite and avid, both of them are potent miticides designed specifically for killing mites. If you look on ebay a container of each costs around 100-200 dollars each, but there are some people that sell small bottles of each for around $20. It is a good choice, since you need very little to make a gallon of spray. I recommend you get both. Floramite kills both spider mites AND the eggs upon contact, so you need to make sure to cover every square inch of the plants being sprayed. Avid is a systemic miticide, meaning it gets absorbed by the plant, and remains in it for a while. After my first application of floramite, I poked the spider mites after a few seconds of spraying, and they were all dead. I would get both, because mites can build a resistance to chemicals that kill them, so it is a good idea to have both. Avid should only be applied once a month, since it is systemic, and it gets absorbed INTO the plant, so when mites go to feast on the juices of the plant, they suck up the chemicals as well and end up dying. I hope you are able to get rid of them, and make sure to act quickly, because if you give them time, they WILL kill your plants. Good luck!

I don't think avid is systemic as you use it 3 times 3 days apart for best results. Floramite protects for 28 days. Id treat with avid for the 3 days then use floramite on the 4th day.

Dionae wrote:I don't think avid is systemic as you use it 3 times 3 days apart for best results.

Where did you read that Eric? I just re-read the label and it seems that for mites it is only needed as often as necessary to control them. But for aphids, whitefly and other pests, it is best sprayed 7 days apart:

Mix with sufficient water and apply as a foliar spray to obtain uniform coverage. For mites, apply when mites first
appear and repeat as necessary to maintain control. For leafminers, apply as needed and repeat at 7-day intervals
or as necessary to maintain control.

For suppression of aphids, thrips, and whiteflies apply when young, immature stages of these pests are first observed
and repeat every 7 days for 2 or 3 weeks. After which time, rotate to other products that have different modes of
action than Avid for at least 2-3 weeks. Refer to the Resistance Management section for additional comments on
rotation. Aphids, thrips, and whiteflies are killed by direct contact with the Avid 0.15 EC spray.

Residual control of pests may be enhanced with the addition of a horticultural spray oil at 0.5 to 1.0% of the spray
volume on field-grown woody ornamentals, landscape plants, and Christmas trees. Repeat application as necessary,
but no sooner than 7 days to maintain control. Some plants are sensitive to oils and so without prior experience the
user should spray a small number of plants and observe plants for 2 weeks before spraying the remaining plants.
Excessive cold or warm temperatures may increase the chance of plant damage following application with oils.
Carefully read and follow directions on the oil label and do not exceed maximum rates listed on either label.

quoted from page 7 here:
http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/msds/ ... 0Label.pdf

Dionae wrote:Floramite protects for 28 days.

I think both Avid and Floramite protect for about 28 days (enhanced with the use of spray oil as noted in the above quote):
http://www.420magazine.com/forums/probl ... mites.html

I appreciate all of the help from everyone. At the moment I am waiting on the rosemary oil miticide that I ordered. If that doesn't work then I will likely try the avid and floramite (I may use floramite regardless). In the meantime I did a couple things to slow them down until the miticide gets here. It may be helpful to someone, at some point, in the same situation with nothing on hand or available locally.

Obviously the first thing to do is isolate the plant(s). While reading, I found that they are not able to hold onto plants well when they are sprayed with water, but I did not want to spray them onto the soil to only have them climb back onto the plants or migrate somewhere drier. So, I submerged the plant completely in RO water for 4 hours since the pot was small enough. Initially I used a pipette to get rid of any air bubbles that had adhered to the plant, and also used it to "blow" them off of the surface of the leaves. I saturated the air at the water's surface with CO2 and sealed off the container as an added precaution. Once that was all done I placed it back in isolation to wait for the miticide. Fair warning though, I only did this with the Stylidium debile and do not know how it would work with other plants.

I did find that the mites that were floating on the surface of the water were dead, so I used a siphon to remove any that I could see. Currently I do not see any of them on the leaves two days after performing this, but I find it highly unlikely that it had any effect on the eggs. Again, this is just what I did to hold them off and give the plant a better chance of survival, but cannot say the results will be the same for others.

Matt idk where I read that. I thought it was on avids product page but just looked and its not there. Hmmm...maybe I just thought I read it lol.

Dionae wrote:I thought it was on avids product page but just looked and its not there. Hmmm...maybe I just thought I read it lol.

I do that quite frequently myself!

So I am happy to be able to report that I do not have any more spider mites . I did use the rasta bob's death mite as it was directed. It was only used on the Stylidium debile since my other plants have not shown any signs of mites (just some damage that I mistook as mite damage). The healthy leaves were not damaged in any way by the miticide, but the leaves that the mites were on suffered quickly after spraying. After I was sure they were gone I ended up misting the plant to remove some residue that had built up (I just did this yesterday).

Completely unrelated, at the same time I discovered that there are plants starting to grow out of the bottom from the roots underwater, so that put me in an even better mood . Also, the two largest stems that had suffered the most damage have been bouncing back showing new growth. I'll have to get another miticide for the store here to have on hand so I can interchange them if there is a new infestation.