Help diagnosing my problem?

You can use a hand magnifier but without very bright lighting you can miss them.

I use a jewellers loupe that has a built in LED light. Sees everything around 10x mag.
 
Hey guys, took come close ups and a video of a bug I found.
 
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Here is a video of the little guy, it's not the best but at least you can see it move
 
Here are some pics of the bed as well.
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On the plus side. I'm seeing some healthy new growth.
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LocalFart said:
 
I am 99.99% certain that the problem is broad mite infestation now.
 
The bug might be a whitefly... a major vector of broad mite. Bastage broad mites hitch rides on the bastage whitefly.
 
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But yeah, even if the bug is not a whitefly, those tiny tiny tiny white dots to the left of him... gotta be broad mite.
 
Also in the other pic above that one, it looks like the beginning of bronzing and hardening, another telltale sign (as well as more tiny tiny tiny white dots).
 
Out of curiosity... I know it's typically very dry over there in summer but was there a period of high humidity around the time the problem started?
 
Broad mite thrive in the humidity so it's not unusual for outbreaks/explosions to occur during such periods.
 
Yeah there was about a week of some stupid humidity. I think it was before this started to happen though. 
 
But okay I think I may looking into treating mites :/  I may give it a week or two though to see how the new growth goes just in case I have nute burned them. I would hate to nuke my plants if I have just overfed them.
 
I have had leaves go freaky for a while before then new growth comes out fine, so maybe leave them for a bit longer and see how they go..
 
I don't nuke.
 
My weapon of choice: https://bugsforbugs.com.au/product/californicus/
 
Broad mite devouring machines. Most effective form of control I have found.
 
But as I don't grow a huge number of plants these days, I don't even bother with that anymore. I just ride it out now.
 
With cooler weather, things should settle down... but you might still spot the odd little breakout from time to time.
 
Careful with advice, from this point out...  mites can - and usually will - claim a significant amount of your growing season, if not controlled. (even if your plants bounce back, you still lose time) Oh yeah, and then there's that other part...  they go dormant for part of the season.  And when they wake back up, they have even stronger numbers.
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I think I'd be tempted to read up on beneficial mites.  They move a lot faster and farther than the bad mites, and they tend to stay in one general locale, when their job is finished.  You can literally let them go anywhere near your infested plant, and they'll find it - and all of the other infested ones, as well.
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I used the aforementioned predatory mites to treat a spider mite outbreak, and I was very pleased with the results.
 
Yeah I think that the beneficial ones would be something to look into. It would be nice to control this without nuking the plants.
 
Are there any down sides to the predatory mites? Because it sounds like one of those, 'It can't hurt' situations.
 
LocalFart said:
Yeah I think that the beneficial ones would be something to look into. It would be nice to control this without nuking the plants.
 
Are there any down sides to the predatory mites? Because it sounds like one of those, 'It can't hurt' situations.
There is ALWAYS a downside.

In this case, it's probably gonna be the $
 
Okay so checked the plants yesterday arvo. huge infestation of aphids thrips and Mealy Bugs.
 
So i nuked them... considering the season is coming to an end and the other issues I've had I thought I would go for the quick fix to try and rescue the end of the season.
Gave them a treatment of these two
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Fingers crossed
 
Interesting to see how you go after nuking them.

In my experience with aphids Pyrethrum doesn't do shit.. but a quick spray with dish washing detergent with water in the morning and they are destroyed!! I think the detergent stops them from breathing then the sun dries them out. Oh and doesn't leave horrible marks on the foliage so very gentle on the plant.
 
Yeah if it was just aphids I think I would do the same. But because there was a few different types. I thought it wouldn't really help :/
 
The plants aren't looking too bad and I had a look yesterday for any more bugs and they seem to have disappeared. hopefully they aren't just hiding under some other leaves.
 
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