Robin, what do the leaves look like? If you have spidermites, the leaves will start to yellow in tiny patches which shows up on the surface of the leaves, but the little buggers are on the underside of the leaves.
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If the infestation is really bad, you will see little spider webs going from leaf to leaf. To check for spidermites, look at the underside of a leaf or take a white sheet of paper and hold it underneath a leaf. Tap the leaf so that they will drop onto the paper if they are there. Their color varies, but many of the spider mites that attack Brugs are reddish.
Some Brugs are more susceptible than others or perhaps they are more stressed. If the Brugs have not been fertilized during their winter stay indoors or if the humidity is very low, they fall prey to spidermites very easily.
If the infestation is very light, or only a few Brugs are affected, you can use a hard spray of water to knock them off. This doesn't remove them all. This only controls the majority for a short time. If the infestation is bad, you want better control or hope to eliminate them, the best thing to do first is to remove all but the small leaves found at the tips of the branches. Bag the leaves and throw them away. This allows you to spray the plants thoroughly with a miticide. There are both inorganic and organic miticides. One that is organic and very safe to both humans and pets is 100% Neem Oil. The mites don't develop a resistance to it because it kills by smothering them. It does kill other beneficials as well. So spray when those others are not around. If the temperatures are above 80 - 85ºF, spray early in the morning or late in the afternoon, because neem can burn the leaves in hot weather. You will have to repeat the spraying a week later to get the hatched eggs, but before they mature and lay another generation. Use the recommended rate of dilution to avoid leaf burn.
Removing the leaves will not hurt the Brugs. Fertilize the plants to encourage development of new leaves.
