---
title: "Can anyone relate? I have this constant conundrum. Out of my 250…"
description: "Can anyone relate? I have this constant conundrum. Out of my 250 plants, about 2/3 of them are outside. I am practically on a daily basis, trying to assess if…"
url: "https://getplanta.com/community/lZ7uAE3pQ86jnFGxrCwLrg/64a1ba8c42bea23b76128dcc"
community: "Anything about plants"
author: "Danika"
published: "2023-07-02T17:57:32.447Z"
language: "en"
image: "https://images.getplanta.com/v2/cloudinary/global_data/communities/everythingHousePlants.jpg"
---

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# Can anyone relate? I have this constant conundrum. Out of my 250…

_Posted by Danika on 2023-07-02_

Can anyone relate?  
I have this constant conundrum. Out of my 250 plants, about 2/3 of them are outside. I am practically on a daily basis, trying to assess if my plants have spider mites, or just have been blessed by a friendly spider of a million varieties making a web near my plant leaves and beneficially eating the bad bugs. Every single time I see the webbing I freak out and think it’s spider mites but upon closer inspection and assessment realize 99% of the time that it’s a different type of fine webbing that looks very similar to spider mites, but isn’t. Do you all experienced this and is there a good way to determine the difference between the types of webbing? I have yet to see a single actual spider mite bug on any of my plants and have been doing preventative care for some of them (specifically, indoor Calathea’s and Alocasia’s) but still just don’t know if I’ve actually ever had them. Maybe I have it everywhere and just think it’s other spiders or maybe I’ve just never had them and I’m paranoid. 🤷🏻‍♀️  
PS I LOVE spiders. So i’m not into killing them. I will however break there webs up cause i know they can rebuild.

## 4 comments

### Gigglzngreenz commented on 2023-07-02

I can definitely relate. Every time i go outside to look at my flowers and see webs i panic. A couple times initially i gave them a good spray and killed everything before realizing when i saw one of the actual tiny spiders that they weren't spider mites. I felt bad but i take more care now.

### Mariah commented on 2023-07-02

I feel you 💯… my string of pearls had some webs on her so I went at it with neem oil. After seeing your post, had the thought of “are spider mites even a problem in my area?” The answer is potentially- twospotted spider mites… that seem to go target bigger crops of not-strings-of-pearls from my reading. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I’m just wired to think everything is worst case scenario. Learning as I go… 🙃

### Mullein commented on 2023-07-03

The spider mites I’ve seen on my plants have a very close webbing that you can’t really see individual strands of. And they always seem to target where new growth is coming out of the stem. At least in my experience. Spiders on the other hand seem to have webs with more visible strand and they tend to be in less obvious places. Then again, there are some really tiny spiders who might go straight to to source of the food and end up in the same place you’d find spider mites

#### Danika replied on 2023-07-03

Yes exactly! I found one just this morning (luckily saw the actual spider) that had nested itself deep in inner base of a sansiveria i have, right where new shoots would come out.., the spider was a tunnel or funnel web weaver, so she was hiding deep in there and her web was quite dense.  
But yeah, i try to keep reminding myself that spider mite webs are even more compact. There is also the thought that because outside, any spider mites that do show up on plants will probably be taken care of by nature. But i still freak out, lol.

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