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I am FREAKING out but it’s all going to be fine 🥹😭😫🥲 so some of… | Pests, diseases and problems | Planta community

Jasneedshelp

I am FREAKING out but it’s all going to be fine 🥹😭😫🥲 so some of these plants I got with patterns I thought were previous pest control, I’ve had a majority of my plants in quarantine since late August lol then my collection grew and total quarantine number of plants grew. Soooo being that they come from a few different places and now they’re altogether sucks. Because I’ve discovered I now have a mite problem. 😩 I hate this. I’m starting my treatment regime tomorrow for the next few weeks. Wish me luck and I’m open to ur shared experiences bc I feel so shameful this is happening. But I can do it! So one question I have over 250 planties n I want to make this process a smooth rollercoaster. How have u treated this amount efficiently? How much time during the day does it take? ( I realize I’m having to invest A ton) I’m trying to mentally prepare needing to do this and be a mom to a 1yo with high needs at the same time. I’m not really cool with challenges like this but there’s only one way out now Thanks a lot 🙏

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6 comments

  1. Tom

    Hate spider mites, I’ve tried spraying with things like neem oil, castor soak peppermint oil, rubbing alcohol even a spider mite spray, find they do a lot of damage, but slows them down, I also mist more as they hate moisture. But considering you have a lot of plants you’d probably be best getting Spider Mite predators: Phytoseiulus persimilis, these are the fast release ones, then in a week or 2 after depending on there life cycle, get the slow release predators, can purchase on Amazon. Only thing is they recommend not to use chemicals or pot toppers as it can kill the predators . I’ve not personally used these yet, but will one day if they get out of hand. The predator mites don’t have a very long life but should help and they also attack other pests like thrips and mealy bugs, just wipe away any of they webs with a small amount of rubbing alcohol or neem oil, but water it down

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    • Jasneedshelp

      I have beneficial nematodes! Will that work? After I rinse them?

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  2. Snail Diva

    I have 250 ish as well. My recommendation is bag up the one you do not like that much and can tolerate high humidity. Humidity is the #1 enemy to mites and that will reduce considerably the amount you have to treat. Here would be my game plan in your place (did the same when I had trips): 1. Inspect everything. Sort in categories: severe, mild, potential, none 2. Severe and mild will get showered+ treatment, the rest just get showered. If you can’t shower, full plant wipe down. I highly recommend shower for highly vining plants as you can’t and won’t have time to wipe everything individually. 3. If you are planning to bag some of the plants you don’t like as much, make sure you don’t drench the soil. You can come back from mites, more difficult from mold and rot. 4. Also avoid the soil if the plant is not ready to be watered. Again, rot is more difficult to comeback from. 5. For your severe, while mites don’t really live in the soil, their eggs can fall in there. Refresh the top inch of soil (you don’t want to further stress the plant) 6. Leave your plant separated in categories and increase your humidity overall if you can. Remember, slight worst conditions will have less consequences than the mites. 7. Repeat treatment and monitor. Don’t hesitate to switch sever to mild but be cautious about potential. 8. Don’t over do soap, it damages the integrity of the leaves long term. Especially on waxy plants. And that impacts the way the plant reacts to light, the gutation process and you might end up blaming your conditions rather than the actual treatment. 9.Don’t forget to rince as well if in the recommendation, dried soap just clogs the leaves and is no longer active. Most products kill on contact only. 10. If you do not have the energy, it’s ok to take cuttings and let go of some plants. I see your other comment about nematodes, as they are in the soil and the mites are on the leaf, this is not really effective. You got this, while unpleasant, mites are highly manageable in my opinion. They get easily knocked down by the shower, making the treatment way less time consuming than most pests. 💚

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    • Snail Diva

      Let me know if you have any questions. With over 50 alocasias, I have a fair bit of knowledge on mites from when I started keeping them. And moving forward, prevention is best. If you don’t have a place to properly isolate, but them in a clear storage bin or a bag that you air up. You will save yourself a lot of heartache.

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    • Tom

      I thought the predators / nematodes you hang on plants and the scurry and hunt the whole plant not just soil !! , will have to do more research on them as would like to try them at some point if I get bad infestation, humidity does help, the bag idea sounds good, how many days would you normally leave it on for, and would you spray some sort of pest prevention on before hand

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    • Snail Diva

      Some of them do. That’s why it’s important to select the right one otherwise, it’s like throwing money away as they end up starving since the pest you have isn’t their food source. That’s why several websites will recommend getting a combination of nematodes and mites to get all stages of the pest you’re trying to eliminate. As for the bagging, life cycle is 1-2 weeks depending on temperature, humidity level etc While I never had to bag specifically for spider mites, it’s similar enough of a life cycle and conditions to thrips that I feel comfortable giving advice. My spider mites issues were always on a few plants only so a shower and treatment usually did the trick. But thrips was across my full collection and made me reconsider the hobby. I safely bagged in the past up to a month and a half with twice a week to weekly airing of the bags. And when airing, i removed the excess water from the leaves as well to avoid any damage/rot. In order, I applied the insecticide, rinsed once dried (recommended on the instructions), let my plants air dry. All while carefully not wetting the soil as I don’t bag them if they are freshly watered or with water on their leaves. I’ve personally even used the bag trick to improve the rooting of water propagation into soil with great success as well so I always have bags on hand. Of course, high variegation is more susceptible for high humidity so keep that in mind and monitor if needed be. Also, you may end up with air roots activating, which i ended using to my advantage and chopped and propped them. I hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions!

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