Today I will show you how to get rid of spider mites. In my last video, I discovered I had spider mites.
I will use leaf stripping to facilitate spraying and physically remove most of the spider mites. It is a controversial technique but it works. Here is my video:
How To Get Rid of Spider Mites by Leaf Stripping
Key Takeaways
Discovery and Identification: Spider mites can appear suddenly, even in environments that seemed previously clear. Identifying them involves looking for signs like webbing under the leaves, stippling from sap extraction, and leaf curling.
Effective Treatment Strategy: Leaf stripping is recommended to physically remove mites and improve spray coverage. This involves removing affected leaves to expose the pests and their habitats.
Choice of Treatment: Use organic options like neem oil or insecticidal soap for treating spider mites. These solutions require direct contact with the pests, as they have no residual effects.
Application Techniques: Ensure thorough application by stripping leaves to reduce foliage density, enabling complete coverage of remaining plant parts.
Composting Warning: Do not compost removed leaves as they contain pests and eggs, potentially spreading the infestation.
Post-Treatment Cleaning: After leaf stripping and spraying, clean the area thoroughly to remove any residual leaves or debris that could harbor mites.
Reapplication Necessity: Since mites reproduce quickly, reapplication of the treatment in 5 to 7 days is crucial to catch any newly hatched mites.
Precautionary Measures: Avoid using conventional insecticides as spider mites are not insects; they require specific miticides if chemical treatments are chosen.
Additional Maintenance: Consider using an ozone generator to sterilize the grow space post-harvest, although it’s harmful to live plants and must be used in an unoccupied, enclosed area.
Plant Recovery: Leaf stripping can initially stunt plant growth, but healthy plants typically recover and may even thrive after treatment.
Discovering Spider Mites – It Can Happen to Anyone
Well howdy everyone. In my last video, I discovered that I had spider mites and I don’t know exactly where they came from because they are everywhere outdoors and somehow they got in here.
I had a grow of sweet potatoes in here before this and they were in there for over 6 months and I never saw a sign of a spider mite.
But these peppers have been in since December and I never saw a sign of spider mites until just the other day when I saw their tents.
Usually, you’ll see webbing on the underside of leaves I never saw that. You’ll see stippling on the leaves from them sucking out the sap.
The only symptom I saw was the edges of the leaves curling and I thought that was due to low humidity.
They prefer to stay under the leaves and feed but often they will come up and make webbed tents later. They prefer younger leaves to feed on.
Actually spider mites come in all sizes and different colors. Some of them you actually cannot see unless you use a magnifier of some kind.
The thing is we need to spray these and if you’re organic you can use neem oil you can also use insecticidal soap.
The main thing about that is you must make contact with them to kill them.
These products don’t have any residual effects so if you don’t hit the bug or hit the eggs you’re going to be starting all over again.
So what I do is I like to Leaf strip because you’re not going to get 100% coverage in foliage like this.
So the best thing is to take off the offending leaves. I’ve done this with cannabis where I’ve actually taken off everything but the top few leaves and they come back.
It does stunt them a little bit but then they flower harder than ever This is a little different I have to admit I’ve never leaf stripped vegetables but I am going to do it.
Why Use Leaf Stripping?
We are going to have to spray these plants. Since we will use neem oil or insecticidal soap we need to make direct contact with spider mites or their eggs.
Neither product is systemic so direct contact is essential and reapplying will be needed in 5-7 days. It is incredibly difficult to totally cover all of a bushy plant through all the leaves.
So by leaf stripping, we remove the foliage that will get in the way. This lets us get full coverage of the plant when we spray.
More importantly by leaf stripping, we remove the pests and their eggs and decrease the infestation substantially. This is a key step to control.
How To Leaf Strip
So basically what you can do is get the leaf at the stem and pinch it off with your thumb and first finger. It’s faster than using scissors and using both hands can speed up the process.
Little by little you’ll start to open up the plant to where you can get in there and spray because like I said you need to be able to get to every stem and leaf.
I won’t lie leaf stripping is labor intensive and time consuming.
Do Not Compost the Leaves!
Because these leaves are diseased and have bugs on them you don’t want to put them in your compost pile because you’re just going to be spreading the problem.
I think you want to remove as much of the trash from the bottom of the pot as you possibly can because you don’t want to give spider mites anywhere to hide.
Before Leaf Stripping
You can see the dense leaf canopy. Not a chance of getting the whole plant covered.
After Leaf Stripping
I know it looks awful but these plants will recover quickly and we can spray the entire plant easily.
You may think I’ve killed myplants but I assure you I have not.
If you take a look at these stems and all the nodes these plants are going to come back like gangbusters.
I probably could have just cut all the branches back and they would have been fine.
Tackling the Tomato Plant
Well as you can see I was merciless with this tomato. There was just too much there to consider a leaf strip.
If it grows back and I’m pretty sure it will that’ll be great. But if it doesn’t I have a tomato plant in my kitchen Garden so no big deal.
I know it will grow back and I know these Peppers will grow back and you can see it’s pretty easy to get at all of it when you spray.
The Results of Leaf Stripping
I removed a lot of foliage from the peppers. The tomatoes were different and I removed all vines and quite a few tomatoes.
I need to clean this up after leaf stripping. There are leaves all over inside the tray and I want to get all the leaves out as much as I can. So hello shopvac.
You might consider vacuuming around your plants too because anything that’s left is debris bugs can hide in or live on.
About Spraying
In the life cycle of spider mites, they lay eggs and the eggs hatch in 5 to 7 days. So they can quickly get out of hand if you don’t deal with them.
So you need to get back in there after your first spray in about 5 days and no later than a week after your first spray to make sure you got everything.
Now I do want to mention if you use neem oil it can sometimes damage the foliage, especially with repeat applications.
So don’t be surprised by that and you’ll need to spray these at least two times maybe even three.
It doesn’t matter whether you use neem oil or insecticidal soap.
You don’t want to use an insecticide because spider mites are not insects they’re more closely related to spiders they’re arachnids and a lot of insecticides won’t kill them.
So unless you want to spend $250 – $500 a gallon for a commercial miticide, which I don’t recommend these are your options.
You can spray them and hope you get everything or you can strip them first and have an easier time sprayingÂ
Hopefully, the little buggers will be gone by the time your plants come back.
Spraying
You need to be able to spray your plants with a fine mist and cover everything. Ideally, a fogger is best but they can be pricey.
What I used to do when I was growing cannabis, after the grow was done I would bring an ozone generator in my closet and cleanse it.
You can’t do that with live plants it will kill them but if you use a closed space like a closet and put an ozone generator in there it will kill anything alive even eggs.
Because it’s a gas it can get into crevices you couldn’t possibly get into to clean. So I used to do that and then when I planted my sweet potatoes I gassed the closet.
I didn’t do it after they were done and I planted the peppers. I don’t know if it would have mattered because I think these spider mites came in from somewhere else.
A Tactic To Sterilize a Grow Space Is Using an Ozone Generator.
You can get one on Amazon for about 65 bucks at this time. I don’t know if that’s worth it for you but I already have it so when this grows done you can bet your bottom dollar I will be running it.
I run it in a space like this 3×6 foot closet for about an hour. You don’t want to breathe it so do it in an enclosed space.
If you do it in your house you want to leave and make sure that you don’t have any plants or any pets that are in there because it can harm them.
Regrowth
How To Get Rid of Spider Mites: Conclusion
So that’s about it for this week about leaf stripping. Now you can see that it’s pretty easy to get in there and spray every leaf.
I do want to mention don’t do this unless your plants are healthy. This will not help sickly plants.
You need to have healthy plants to strip the leaves because they need to be able to grow back.
This will stunt your plant. They will probably sit there for about a week before they decide to grow.
The tomatoes have got to come back from scratch so it might take a bit longer.
I will come back in and I will document when these things start to regrow.
Now I have to give them a spray and then I’ll come back in about 5 days later and spray them again and we should be off to a clean start.
All righty so that’s it for now. Take good care of yourselves and happy gardening! Don’t forget to keep it green!
