Spider mites- Japanese Maple

[Danial son]

Hi- about two months ago my tree started looking bad and the very top had lost all leaves. I discovered spider mites in a tiny web.

I bought a solution -which is a mixture of non grease soap and water from Amazon because the soap at the local market all said for fighting grease.

Anyways- after one application I saw no more spider mites or web and my tree came back looking great- I saw no mites and everything was fine for over a month.

I noticed the very top started looking bad a few days ago and after looking with a 1000 lumen flashlight once it turned dark out- I noticed a small web and the mites are back.

I am going to apply the soap mixture every 7 days for a month this time.

Does anyone have a better way to get rid of spider mites? Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

 

[Aeast]

Either spray with a miticide like lucid or just blast them off with water, they usually aren't hard to control.

 

[Danial son]

Thanks

 

[humboldtmadness]

My vote is Spinosad. I love that stuff. Systemic, works well and is OMRI certified so it's pretty darn safe even on food crops near harvest time. Active ingredients spinosyn A & D. I use it before anything else more aggressive when I get new bamboo with mites..

 

[zelk]

No such thing as a systemic for mites. The closest thing is a translaminar miticide like Forbid 4F or Avid which have residual protection. Spinosad is an insecticide and will only kill mites by contact. Three days later and you get more eggs hatching and your problem returns. Remember that mites can reproduce asexually to produce more female mites.

Mites are a beast of a different class on their own. Spend some time and arm yourself with good information and you will see the results.

Read labels and practice thorough coverage when spraying.

Every miticide is different,

Here are some differences:

Forbid 4F: kills all life stages including eggs with a 45 day residual effect

Avid: kills adults but not eggs with a 15 day residual effect. Less expensive than Forbid and available at some hydroponic stores and online. Requires reapplication due to the lack of effect against mite eggs. Every 3 days for a week should be very effective, then every 15 days just to play it safe. I recommend reapplying no matter what miticide you use.

Floramite: kills all life stages but by contact only! Great to knock down the initial infestation, I would follow this by either of the two above.

Don’t forget to practice preventative habits and remain persistent, and observant, a 60x loupe or microscope is great for this. Labels recommend alternating with other miticides that function by different methods of action as to not develop resistant strains.

Good luck,

DEATH TO THE BORG!!!

 

[humboldtmadness]

Oops, yeah my bad. I got that all wrong. Long day and not enough forethought on my comment had me missing all my marks. Thank you for the correction and some better info.

 

[zelk]

This stuff is great if you can get it shipped in a small quantity to your state. Otherwise, you will spend $200 for an 8oz bottle. Check amazon for the tiny “sample size” bottles, you need like half a milliliter per gallon of water.

https://www.backedbybayer.com/~/media/BackedByBayer/Product Labels - pdf/Forbid 4F.ashx

 

[humboldtmadness]

To be honest I am kinda glad I blundered so hard on my first comment, it got the ball rolling on some really good options. The follow-up by zelk is great info, not just correcting my error but a great resource for the original post if the milder, more natural methods don't get rid of the little buggers.

 

[zelk]

The reason why systemic insecticides don’t work on mites very well is because they only travel down to the vascular level of plants. This is great for combating scale, mealy bugs, and the relatively innocuous aphid. Mites on the other hand feed at the level of individual plant cells. These systemics hardly if at all, permeate down to the cellular level, posing no threat to mites. Mites also have a different physiology than insects which makes systemic insecticides less suitable since they work on the principle of being designed for insects to ingest.

One surprisingly popular systemic insecticide has been demonstrated in scientific research to accelerate mite reproduction and population count. This systemic is Amidacloprid, commonly sold under the name of Bayer 3-1 Tree and shrub. This is precisely what you shouldn’t do. If you find yourself ping-ponging between insect treatment and mite outbreaks you may want to reevaluate your strategy of using amidacloprid. Please avoid using this if you do. There are better things out there that don’t serve as mite Viagra or hurt the bee population so strongly. As a bee keeper myself I only spray my systemic of choice, Acephate, at night and never on plants in flower or near flowering. This article goes into the subject of mite population explosion due to amidacloprid:

http://www.newsweek.com/2016/11/11/...tics-prompt-spider-mite-outbreaks-515965.html

 

[Fishtank307]

I'm currently dealing with spider mites on all my trees! It started on a hedge in my garden and now they're everywhere! Luckily I'm moving to another place next week! And to combat the spider mites on my trees, I've bought predatory mites, Amblyseius andersoni. They should come out next week and start their biological war.
Hopefully this will work, cause the pesticide I used a couple of weeks ago had no effect!

 

[papymandarin]

for me the best preventative measure against them is to water trees by also watering leaves when weather is hot and dry, they hate humidity

 

[Steven1969s]

Hi everyone. Leave those chemicals alone.
All you need is a soapy solution and spray every other day at night or early in the morning.I believe it's 1/3 of Dawn dish soap to 2/3 water. (Don't quote me on the quantity) the recipe is on the internet.

 

[sorce]

I guess it depends how big and ramified your tree is....

But a hard blast of water daily up under the leaves should prevent any infestation from ever getting to the kill point.

Keeps all the good stuff alive too!

Sorce

 

[Danial son]

I know it has been a while but I treated the tree with a soap and water solution I purchased because everywhere said not to use dish soap made for cutting grease. I don't know if that is true but every dish soap I saw said "CUTS GREASE". Anyways the stuff I bought worked great and my tree was coming back.

Then I noticed a web and leaves dropping. So I started treating the tree once a week no matter what. I thought for sure this time I had won. The tree came back again and was starting to get new growth. Then leaves started dropping and in the dark with a flashlight I saw the biggest web ever with those little bastards. I cut off a couple small branches and got all I could see.

I treated the plant again today. I decided that I am moving the tree outside permanently. I had it inside due to kids that destroy everything that live 2 doors down but I don't see them anymore.

I am going to spray the entire tree when I water it like you guys mentioned. I can't believe these spider mites are so hard to kill for good.

 

[ysrgrathe]

There is your answer: don't keep maples inside.

 

[Danial son]

There is your answer: don't keep maples inside.

 

[GailC]

Always surprises me to see so many people trying to use natural remedies on trees that are held so highly in value.
I've seen plants die from spider mites, those things are the devil. I like forbid, expensive as hell but worth it. You can find small bottles on ebay.

As far as using soap goes, dawn or ivory works well. I've never seen a recommendation to stay away from grease cutting soap.

 

[Dav4]

Always surprises me to see so many people trying to use natural remedies on trees that are held so highly in value.
I've seen plants die from spider mites, those things are the devil. I like forbid, expensive as hell but worth it. You can find small bottles on ebay.

As far as using soap goes, dawn or ivory works well. I've never seen a recommendation to stay away from grease cutting soap.

I'm with you. I've fought mites on my junipers for close to a decade... the little bastards have set back several of my trees significantly, as it can take several years to recover from an infestation. The Borg is right! I treat mites with extreme prejudice now... google Sultan miticide... expensive but a little goes a long way and my trees don't have mites any more.

 

[coh]

You do have to be persistent with water sprays to eliminate mites. Like, several times a day for days and days. It's not one spray and done. I've been fortunate to not have too many mite problems, but when they've cropped up I've always been able to control with water alone. The key is to keep an eye on the plants and not wait until the problem becomes severe. I spray the foliage of my junipers with water almost every day.

Of course, if your environment is such that mites are a persistent problem, it would make sense to invest in some chemical measures...

 

[GGB]

I had a MASSIVE mite infestation last year. I had a lot of trouble keeping them away, partly because I didn't identify them until they had gotten a good foothold. I used dawn with water a couple times and did daily water sprays. helpful hint!! add a little hydrogen peroxide to the water to prevent fungal infections. Anyway I used a dormant oil in fall, winter, and spring. So far so good this year. but i see evidence around so I just spray down daily