Been growing tomatoes, among other things, for about 8 years. I only learned about spider mite last year, and I was woefully underprepared for the onslaught that came. This year I hoped it would be better, but I saw the tell-tale mottling on the leaves in early Jan, and it's been a battle ever since. I've barely kept it as bay on some plants though neem oil, with it taking over in some parts.
Is it in the soil? How can I prevent it? The home remedy treatments seem ineffective, and I don't love the idea of using more pesticides (I relented on the neem as it is somewhat selective). I have about 25 indeterminate plants, so it's a lot to keep on top of. I don't want to be treating again next year, and I am sick of washing my tomatoes in soapy water when I harvest. It's one thing to lose fruit to birds or the odd plant to disease, but the mites are an infestation and it is so disheartening.
by Possible-Possum
5 Comments
Spider mites are arachnids, you can’t fight them with house remedies. What works best is “miticide” like Abamectin. If you don’t like to use miticides, the only other success is with predatory mites which you need to have from the beginning. A mix of Abamecting and Spinosad will be effective against all types of insects including thrips and are not toxic for edible plants, but of course, can harm bees and other insects.
I would go for predatory mites (Phytoseiulus persimilis), see if you can get any near you.
They hunt, kill and eat spider mites. They can also be used outdoors. When the spider-mites are gone, they will turn cannibalistic and eat each other, so you won’t have a garden full of all kinds of mites. They like 20-28*C and humid temperatures.
I try to stick to non chemical treatments as much as possible myself. Hope it helps.
I used to get these every year when the weather got really hot. Blasting the plants with a hose seemed to help, but also seemed to open them up to fungus. I used various horticultural type oils and they seemed to work too? I think the key was spraying them before they got out of hand.
I have to say though, by the time the mites showed up, usually in august, my plants were always half dead anyways from the extreme hot weather, so I never dealt with them long term. I usually just dug the plants up for the year.
I always get russet mite infestations. Worse every year, because they build up I suppose and my garden is too small to do crop rotations at any meaningful distance. Wettable sulphur is apparently effective. Normally I’d shrug and say the plant doesn’t have genetics compatible with my garden and move on but these are tomatoes and I’m not willing to give them up. Every variety I’ve tried seems susceptible so far.
Oh it’s even worse than them living in the soil my friend, they can go airborne. They’ll hitch rides on the wind to spread from plant to plant. I HATE these things. Good luck, I’m scared to put my plants out this year because the battle will begin and I’m not ready 😔 I still have nightmares from last years war.