Tips for dealing with spider mites (PLEASE HELP!!):_(

[Jerry Delaney]

About a life time ago, there was a product I believe was called Pentac which was fairly effective in controlling many of the mites. I doubt if you could find anyone today who still has any and if so, it might be too old to be effective. Talstar ,(bifinthrin), used to be labeled for control of mites but I'm not sure it is any longer (it really didn't work). I am not sure if malathion is effective on plant mites. It is used for the mites that get on various birds to good effect. Ironically, probably the most effective treatment is to use another mite for control! Once the plant mites are gone, the predatory mites will dissapear as they will not eat plants and thus starve to death. There are a number of predatory mites available from any number of biological control companies. The already made recommendations of the use of oil and insecticidal soap can also be used effectively. The mite population can really explode at high temps and low humidity. Some claim that an effective solution is to take the plants outside and just hose them off. I have not tried that but I guess it really sounds good!!