Covid year has turned me into a planting fiend. Landscaped all over my property and built a beautiful rock path with all the river rock I dug up planting (ha). Noticed an area where my plants were not thriving so I meticulously went over the worst plant. I noted patchy leaves, webbing and specks all over leaves. Took to the internet and all signs pointed to red spider mites. I never heard of them. So I got an app and turned phone into microscope. Took attached pic.

I suspect its spider mites although colors are different than what I read about and its spread thru most of my property. Conflicting info on web about what to do about mites. Believe it or not, I have gotten bad info on the web before (LOL) and really need some help with this one.

Thank you in advance

The symptoms you describe on your plants certainly sound like spider mites, but the pic is fuzzy, so I can't tell if that is a mite or not. I suspect not, because spider mites are so tiny they are hard to see with the human eye, much less take a pic of. Mites have 8 legs like spiders because they are actually members of the spider family, arachnids. Could you take some pics of the affected plants? I can tell you that spider mites like hot, dry conditions.
Treatment depends on how severe they are. Sometimes just washing off the plants with a strong stream of water will suffice, at other times a miticide is needed. Because spider mites aren't insects, normal insecticides don't kill them.
Yes, sometimes the net can give you erroneous information. But sometimes it is a good place to start concerning plant problems. Having another gardener look at the affected plants or pics of the plants is usually the better way to identify the exact issues plants may have.

gardenfish,
Thanks for the quick reply. The previous picture of bug was taken under extreme magnification. And on my end I can tell it's got 8 legs. So based on your reply it's got to be a spider of some kind, correct? As requested I took more pictures this morning. Unfortunately, I went thru and cut off worst leaves yesterday. Hope these will suffice. I am also getting large holes in leaves. I suspect crickets?? Have seen an unusual amount of them. This year is very hot and dry in SW Washington. Close to drought conditions. My husband and me have separate vegetable gardens. Yearly contest thing. Funny thing, he waters at night and sprays whole plant with water. Told him that's bad for plants. His garden is kicking my butt this year! Another indication its spider mites?

P.S. Per internet, used dead leaves and cuttings to help break up a heavy clay soil while in planting frenzy. Buying soil was getting expensive. It's the reason I suspect this blight has spread throughout.

Wow, something is sure taking big bites out of your leaves! I suspect either caterpillars of some kind or grasshoppers. I'm feeling some stippling that may because by spider mites; get a white piece of paper, place under a leaf and jiggle the leaf. If you see tiny specks crawling around, they're probably mites. I'm going to ask BigBill about this.
@BigBill, what do you think?

I agree, that looks like a type of mite, possibly the two-spotted spider mite, compare to photos here: https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/cre...

edited to add: Mites usually suck the plant juices, the holes in the foliage are likely another type of plant pest.

plantladylin
That's them!! Thank you. Now how do I kill them?

I agree with Lynn that it is a two-spotted spider mite.

Buy a miticide and use according to instructions.

Mites are so tiny and not all those that attack plants are remotely visible.

I agree with the diagnosis. I also think that a miticide is the answer. But the directions need to be followed. Spraying too much or too often won't help. Spraying 100% of the plant is the best idea.

Orchids are what I know the best, how best to treat their issues but if you grow the healthiest plants, the sturdiest plants, logic tells me that those would be the ones suffering the least damage.

Hence my conundrum. Some on Internet say miticide can actually make things worse. It does kill most of them, but the ones that survive increase exponentially. Apparently something in miticide turns them into super breeders. Also suggests DIY spray of apple cider vinegar, baking soda, Dawn and water works better?

Here is photo of bug a insect identifying app says is the speckled bush cricket on a rose plant last month. Also shows beginning of infestation. I have since had to cut this rose to the ground. There are many of these bugs on plants. Could this be large hole culprit? I don't want to kill Jiminy when something else is responsible.


I know I am coming across somewhat jokingly, but I have put a lot of blood, sweat and now, close to tears landscaping. I am starting to loose plants. This corner was three rose bushes and dirt in April. Already battled a severe aphid infestation this year. Now spider mites! Are they really almost impossible to get rid of? Are there any other tools I can be using IE ladybugs to eat them or a plant that repels them?

Thank you all for replying so quickly. I have finally had time to read whole link Plantladylin suggested. So I am going to put the DIY spray aside and try Miticide and use according to directions, BigBill. And figure out where I can buy some bugs to eat spider mites. If anyone has any other suggestions such as plants that repel them or what the heck is taking large bites out of my plants, I would appreciate it.

That's nonsense in my opinion.

Mites are tough to get rid of because they are small, often overlooked and spray coverage has to be complete. Even with that, complete eradication is difficult, if not impossible.

Since I found this site, I come here for any important questions. The internet is full of trolls and well intended morons who think that they have solutions to any and every problem.
But that's my opinion.

BigBill, so much conflicting info on web (all articles by seemingly credentialed people) is why I decided to post a question to this forum. First time ever posting anything on any forum. Figured I would ask people who actually love plants and gardening as much as I now do. Other than a tiny vegetable garden, I have had little interest in gardening until last year. Maybe I moved too fast planting so much. I have a lot to learn! But I am hooked so I will solve a problem at a time and try not to obsess too much about total eradication of this pest.

Margerite, we are all happy that you found us! It is a great place.

But to be truthful, and 100% honest, I gave up houseplants and grow orchids instead. Why? I grew them from 9/72 until 9/75 and the bugs were always an issue. Light was an issue. And then I found orchids. They too are an issue to grow at times but at least I get long lasting and beautiful flowers.

The green insect might be a type of Meadow Katydid which do feed on leaves: https://bugguide.net/node/view...

When starting a new outside garden, or just adding new plants to an existing garden, occasional pests will show up. There are other bugs who eat the bad bugs, but they'll need a bit of time to notice that their dinner is available at your plants. Trying to micro-manage every living thing out there is going to be exhausting and expensive, and likely to harm the good guys as well as the bad. Unless you put screens around your plants, it's impossible to separate them from the wildlife in your area.

Aside from manual removal or trimming, moving plants to more or less sun, other manual measures, I've found that leaving things alone usually has great results eventually, as nature provides the predator for whatever pest. Robust, healthy plants are rarely significantly damaged by insects or other pests. Having a few holes in some leaves is normal, and if it is a plant you are growing for the blooms, the leaf holes shouldn't be cause for any kind of concern. If there is something big enough to threaten to eat your whole plant, you should be able to see it and remove it. In butterfly gardening, some plants are grown to be eaten by the butterfly caterpillars. Before using a 'cide, one can check for caterpillars. They are usually some kind of moth but are often discovered to be a butterfly-in-training. Thinking a little more widely, one can appreciate that moths in general are on the menu for so many birds and other wildlife.

Perfection is an unreasonable goal. If your dinner depends on the plants you are growing, that's a different discussion, but for ornamental plants, it's my preference to not spend $ or time on store-bought packages that could contain stuff that is dangerous to me, the countless appreciated wild visitors, and if a plant can't survive without that kind of stuff, I can find so many other plants that won't need it with the $ I would have spent on some kind of concoction.

BigBill. Between soil consistency and PH, different watering requirements, and as you mentioned, light and pests, there is a lot to this gardening thing. But the rewards are big.

Hmm So you say you know about orchids.. now that you mention it, I have a question about my one and only houseplant which just happens to be an orchid. I will do ask site requests and ask a new question

Oh yes. I am a certified "orchid nut"! I should be in the nut house but so far, no one has bothered to catch me.

Check out the Orchid Forums found on this site.

In my opinion, and also experience, DIY formulas rarely work. A miticide applied properly will not damage your plants or the other insects in your garden, including any butterfly cats you might have. There are times when you have certain infestations of certain insects that you will have to use purchased products, that's all there is to it, or you can lose all the affected plants. This is certainly not about a chewed leaf or two, which I often tolerate myself. Spider mites can, and will kill the plants, or it will weaken them to the point that they are weak and prey to every other insect and disease that comes along. Don't let anyone tell you that your plants weren't healthy and that's why you got spider mites in the first place. That may not be the case. Only you can know if they were healthy, so don't beat yourself up over this! My one, and thankfully only! issue with spider mites happened in a very dry, hot summer, and I can guarantee my plants were very healthy before my plants were attacked. Even after using an approved miticide, as according to directions, I still couldn't rid two Fairy roses of them and ended up cutting them nearly back to the ground, and this in July's 100 degree heat! They did survive, but you get the point.
Sometimes for reasons we just don't know insects can come by the thousands and attack our plants. When that happens, we get rid of the insects; or we get rid of the plants. I much prefer to get rid of the insects.

Bill is certainly not a nut, he's very knowledgeable!