i have a basic indoor setup with seven plants. I had a gnat and aphid problem, used neem oil and gnat control a three days ago. now im noticing little spider mites i think crawling on the top of the soil. should i repot all of my stuff, or another round of neem oil? or is there some ancient chinese secret? i really dont want these guys screw with my little ones. thanks for your help!
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soil Spider mites in soil. What do i do?
- Thread starter coach2222
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you sure they are spider mites? spidermites live in the foliage. there are LOTS of species of mites and there are some that livei n soil that are actually good and feed on decaying stuffin the soil and not your roots.
are they leaving a web? there are predatory mites along with a whole host of other beneficial soil dwellers you may be seeing bugs that clean up the rotting flesh left behind. I have mistaken baby spiders for mites on my plants before.
look underneath the leaves and make sure you see them crawling around ... check when lights first come on if using a night cycle. as long as they truly are spider mites the neem oil will work. just spray daily for a few more days.
they were in all seven pots in the soil, havent caught them on the leaves yet and there arent any eggs underneath the plants . they are only munching on the outside leaves of my hab. plants the Serrano, cay., roasters, jala. all seem to be unaffected. I keep a 40W 6500k flo. light on them almost 24 hours a day. so not much night cycle. It may just be damage from when i had the gnat and aphid problem. thanks again for all the info. p.s. should they get a break on the lights?
If the mites your talking about cruise around real fast and hyper, weaving in and out of the small air-holes and pocks at the surface of your soil, those are certainly not the malicious spider mites that attack plant structures. The ones I'm mentioning may be called spider mites by some, but are decomposers of organic matter and should be welcome in potted plants, I've even seen them gang up on gnats and other small invertebrates that I've flicked down into their domain. As long as they don't seem to venture up into the plant structure, I wouldn't worry too much. Also, if the leaves appear to be truly "munched" then its something else, true spider mites live off the glucose and sugar compounds and water of the plant, kinda like aphids and pierce the tissue with a micro proboscis. The leaf will usually begin to look crappy, yellow and then brown from the outside in, they usually begin to curl, the mites can be seen (better with a jewelers loupe) particularly between nodes from stem to leaf.
Oh yeah, give your plants some night juice man! How would you like to be kept under 6500k for 24 hrs? They need that crucial metabolic, respiration period. I'm sure they are not very happy right now, your robbing them of their healing time. No more than 18 hrs is what I usually end up with, particularly with seedling starting, then I wean them out and let da sol take care of the rest.