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I was lucky enough to find a Hoya Krimson Princess for a really good… | Anything about plants | Planta community

Steph

I was lucky enough to find a Hoya Krimson Princess for a really good price at a big box store. Unfortunately it had spidermites, and my go-to safe pesticides were not working on eliminating them. I was nervous to try diluted alcohol due to a past experience I had when I used it on a calathea that died after spraying it with 1:3rd 70% alcohol & water so I figured to try the next thing that everyone was suggesting: Dish soap. I picked a gentle newborn dish soap, diluted it well and to my horror it burned some of my Hoya’s leaves. I have since switched to using peppermint oil mixed with hydrogen peroxide and it seems to be doing the trick but I just wanted to put it out there for plant parents- beware of using alcohol and dish soap to get rid of pests. It sucks that it’s the first suggestion when researching how to end a spider mite infestation but they are both toxic to plants + soil even when diluted (and out of bright sun) it sucks to both loose a plant or a handful of leaves in an already stressful situation⚠️hoping my bald Hoya bounces back soon🥲

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7 comments

  1. 9s

    So sorry this happened to you! I absolutely hate dealing with mites and I agree, lots of advice online is bad for the plant. The reason Dawn did so much damage is because dawn is formulated to break down oils. This is great for bugs because it breaks down their outter shell and eventually dehydrates them. In plants, this means that the parts treated with soap will no longer have a protective skin against the sun and it’ll eventually create burn marks. If you’re still dealing with mites, I suggest a mixture of bronners Castile soap, Captain jacks dead bugs brew with spinosad, and water. It will work on most pests, isn’t toxic to large mammals including humans and pets, and it hasn’t been as widespread used as neem and imidacloprid, which I don’t really find effective on mites. The soap is made of vegetable oils so it’s perfectly safe on plants. I mix the two because I depend on the soap to kill the active mites and the spinosad for residual. You want to use two types of control to prevent yourself from building a resistant population. Hope this helps!

    9 likes
    • Steph

      Thank you for your advice! I actually used diluted “dapple” newborn gentle dish soap and it still caused burns. My go to neem oil + captain jacks dead bug didn’t eradicate the mites although I sprayed them separately on different days not as a mixture😕 I will definitely look into Castile soap mixture for future prevention👍🏻

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  2. Adam

    I have good luck with spraying down mites with below 40 degree water. As high pressure as the plant leaves can handle

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    • Steph

      I did spray my Hoya down in my sink on the hardest setting😅 but no matter how hard I tried to cover the soil in plastic the water would still get into the pot, after the 3rd time in 1 week I had to stop to prevent over watering issues since Hoya don’t like constant wet soil☹️ but I will definitely jet it down once it’s watering time again lol thank you!

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  3. Alicejokelly

    Hey! I make a mixture that I use to clean/treat minor pest issues with that has both dish soap and alcohol, as well as neem oil and (mostly) distilled water. If you use only a few drops of dish soap and no more than a few tablespoons of alcohol it’s perfectly safe on plants!! I’ve used it on all 75 of my plants and it’s treated spider mites and mealybugs. Just spray and thoroughly wipe the leaves. Hope this helps :)

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  4. GiGi

    Great comments! I’m curious what you guys would suggest for fungus gnats? I’m going crazy over here…

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    • Steph

      Top water your plants with diluted hydrogen peroxide added into your watering session every other session :) This gets rid of fungus gnats larvae & gnats that are in the soil and you can use yellow sticky tape sold on Amazon to catch the adult gnats flying around.

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