SPIDER MITES!!!!!

[Sue_CT]

Well between my lack of care from my illness, the drought and high temps, I went out out to water today and found an advanced case of spider mite damage throughtout the tomato plants. I am not sure I am up for the extensive treatment this would require which might not even work. I will see if I have neem oil, but probably not. I will have to order some. I might go back out and try to give them a good water spray tonight but I am already tired. Temps expected to be 89 tomorrow, then back to 90 and keep going up next week with 98 degrees predicted by Thursday. Will the oil kill the plants as effectively as the mites in those temps? I didn't think you were supposed to use oil in high temperatures. I will probably try if it is worth trying but I don't want to spend all that time not to mention the money on the neem oil if it will likely just cause more damage. Looks like it is going to be a very short year for me. Just hit prime harvest time in my garden this week.

[Sue_CT]

I can pick up the neem oil at HD tomorrow. I have never used it before, I believe you need to add some dish detergent as a wetting agent, hopefully there are directions for how/when to add the oil and detergent so that it mixes correctly. Now if anyone can tell me if it is safe to use it in these temps before I go pick it up I would appreciate it. Thanks.

[pepperhead212]

Sorry to hear about this! If you have a few days before it gets up to those super high temps, you will probably be safe to spray it tomorrow. And do put a few drops of dawn in to emulsify it.

If you happen to have some of these herbs, you could also add some rosemary, a few stalks of lemongrass, a sprig of peppermint, a few cloves, and couple cloves of garlic in some water in a blender, blend a minute, then strain through a very fine strainer. Add this to a gallon of water, and maybe use just one tb neem oil, instead of 2.

[Sue_CT]

I have some but not all of those. SHould I only spray the undersides of the leaves?

[pepperhead212]

I wouldn't only spray the undersides, but I always try to be sure to hit them, when I'm spraying.

[Sue_CT]

Nice day expected tomorrow most of the day, high of 88, 90 on Monday and Tuesday, 93 Weds., and 98 Thurs, 95 Friday. So no, don't really have a few days before it goes back to 90 or above, the most intense heat yes. Is it safe to use when it is 90 degrees out? I thought just spraying the undersdies might give me some time until the heat wave is over since the mites and webs seems to hang out on the undersides of the leaves and maybe not burn as bad from the sun on the oil. I have quite a few unripened fruit and I would like to give them time to ripen at the very least, but it is a pretty severe infestation. All leaves are mottled. Only a couple of plants have much yellow/brown dying foliage and I removed that although did not get out there to pick up and dispose of it, it is nearby but not in the garden. I saw some visible webbing starting under some leaves. So which is more likely to kill them the mites or the neem oil in the 90 temps? Do I apply it heavily even on the top sides of leaves? We are also supposed to have some spotty showers Sunday evening into Monday morning. Not expecting heavy rain. Do I have reapply daily, weekly, after rain? Sorry, never have had to deal much with spider mites before.

[Sue_CT]

OK, just finished. Just so I have a record of what I did, I mixed up a cup of water with 2 garlic cloves, a 4-5" sprig of rosemary and about a 6" sprig of mint in the blender, put back in the measuring cup through a fine strainer, filled a sprayer with slightly less than 2 gallons of water, added the one cup into the sprayer through the strainer again, added 3 tablespoons of Neem oil max and shook it good. Instructions said no detergent necessary, just water. Hope they are right. I used a little more 1.5 gallons on 16 plants and emptied the rest by spraying the ground around the plants. Instructions said it could also be used as a drench, but I just sprayed lightly until it was gone. When I did one plant I saw regular spiders and some red backed bugs scurrying out of hiding as fast as they could go so they didn't like it at all. Then I removed as much bad foliage as I could. It is 82 degrees right now, hopefully it won't get above 90 for the next 2 days, the predicted high both days is 90 degrees. Instructions said do not use in temps above 90.

Now we wait. Hope I didn't do anything wrong. I already know I should have added the neem before filling it up fully with water so I could use the water to agitate it and mix it. Next time.

Now, assuming they are not killed by what I just did, how long do I wait to reapply?

[pepperhead212]

Wait and see...depends on how soon that heat wave ends, and how well this works. Good luck!

[Sue_CT]

Thank you for your help!

[Cole_Robbie]

I just now saw this thread. If you put some dawn dish soap in a bucket and squirt it with a hose to make foam, that foam is instant death to any bug, including mites. The foam is easier to work under leaves. It only takes a moment to work. Spray it off with water right after application.

The problem with mites is their time release eggs. The soap is like a nuke to the current adult population, which helps, but then the eggs start hatching. Predator mites might get you through a season by managing the spider mite population.

[karstopography]

Read hydrogen peroxide kills adult spider mites. One part water, one part 3% Hydrogen peroxide, the drug store kind.

[mama_lor]

Mix sTme DE with the neem oil, if you have any on hand. Definitely helps.

The first year I got spider mites, it was a hard battle, but I lost it, and my neighbors were looking funny at me, with all the spraying.

Then I got some Amblyseius californicus, definitely helps if you get them before they establish, early on. They still live on my balcony, see them from time to time, so they can survive a mild-ish winter.

Then the russet mites came, and I had to go chemical, it's simply a death sentence when you see the first signs. i spray very localized though, just the stems, since I know that's where they move the most, and I can get a good crop without any direct fruit spraying.

[Wildcat82]

I've seen a million posts on Tomatoville and this forum and elsewhere, that mention pyrethrins, neem oil, insecticidal soap, horticultural oil, diatamaceous earth, blasting plants with water, sulfur, hydrogen peroxide, clove/cinnamon/habanero/cottonseed oil/peppermint/garlic, spinosad, rubbing alcohol, predator mites, etc. Over the past 18 months, I've grown out over 60 plants during spring, summer and fall utilizing most of the above mentioned cures to see what, if anything, will help. All 60 plants have succumbed to mites despite spraying twice weekly with various integrated miticide control approaches. I've come to the conclusion all of these probably help a little but not enough to matter if you have a bad infestation.

According to Plant Answers (Dr. Calvin Finch, Dr. Jerry Parsons)
Question: What should you do if you have spider mites on your tomatoes?
Answer: NOTHING works when populations are dense and weather is hot and dry. The best control is destruction of infested plant materials when identified---DEFINITELY eliminate ALL infested plants before planting a fall garden.
https://www.plantanswers.com/articles/spidermites.asp

Kansas State University on Spider mites
"Spider mites are one of the most difficult insect pests to control," said McMahon, who explained that there isn´t a good insecticide that will kill them.
https://kansashealthyyards.org/all-vide ... n-tomatoes

If you have a bad infestation of mites, your best bet is to use what commercial growers use. Out of the dozen or so miticides they use, Grandevo, Venerate, Met52, Abamectin, are the least expensive. Buy 2-3 of these miticides and utilize an integrated pest management strategy by rotation spraying with some of the items I mentioned in my first paragraph.

For example:
week 1: Spray Grandevo on Sunday and Pyrethrins on Thursday
week 2: Spray Venerate on Sunday and neem oil on Thursday

Good luck!!

[Sue_CT]

Well they look better, or at least not worse. The scarring of course is not going away, but the leaves generally look perkier. I turned over a few leaves and saw what looked like maybe some white aphids or white fly but no more webbing. Don't know if you can enlarge these enough to see the damage on the leaves, but I think so. Plant size is stunted, usually much larger than this at this time of year, from lack of water and probably the infestation, and likely won't put out any more flowers or polinate until the heat is over, if at all.

Spider mites

Spider mites

This one is the worst:
Spider mites

Spider mites

Spider mites

Spider mites

[Sue_CT]

Sad, those plants are about 3 feet tall. This was the same garden 3 years ago today, in 2019.

image.png

[MissS]

@Sue_CT Looking closely at those leaves I can see that you had a massive infestation. I'm glad to see that your plants survived treatment and are looking better. When I get mites I spray my plants with Dawn or Hartz Flea and Tick Shampoo every other day for a 10 day stretch so that I get all of the new hatch's that occur. As you have seen they can get out of control pretty darned fast and can do massive damage. Hopefully your plants will pick up and take off after the heatwave so that you get a nice late crop.

[Sue_CT]

I just need them to hold off until this heatwave breaks so I can re-treat. Not sure they would survive an oil spray with 90+ degree temps or a massive new infection. Wondering if I should pull and sacrifice that pant that was the worst under the assumption a new infection would likely start there first.

[Sue_CT]

Do either of your treatments work in high heat? Tomorrow it will be a week on Sunday so I think I need to retreat soon with something, I don't think they would make through a second large infestation. I need to keep up with it now. But temps are not forecast to go below 90 until Wednesday. 90 tomorrow, my only window although we might get rain in the afternoon, then 95 on Sunday, 96 on Monday and 93 on Tuesday. Finally mid 80s next Wednesday. If you have any suggestions for keeping on top of these mites until this breaks I am all ears, lol. I just read eggs hatch in 3-4 days at 90 degree temps, so I likely already have a new population and I have convinced myself to respray tomorrow. I don't know what else to do. How long after spraying Neem I wonder are the plants safe from high temp damage from the NEEM? Looks like I will likely only have 24 hours or less, since they say you should to evening to apply it. So I spray tomorrow evening, temps with will reach mid 90s 18-24 hours later. Once again, any suggestions appreciated.

[MissS]

@Sue_CT I do remember doing this when it was hot but I really don't remember if it was really hot. What I would do would be to spray them later in the day (no full high sun) and allow the soap spray to sit on the plant for about 5-10 minutes so that the bugs would suffocate. If it was dry out and the plants would dry to quickly I would spray them again to keep them wet. After 5-10 minutes I would hose them down with plain water to wash the soap off. I really don't think that temperature plays that much of a role, I think what would hurt the plants the most would be to spray them with soap in the intense high sunlight of a bright mid day. Doing that could easily burn them.

[Sue_CT]

I was going to use the same neem oil and herbs mixture I used before because it seemed to work so well on the heavy infestation, and I read that soap and neem could both cause damage in high temps, so why mess with what worked, lol? Plus I have to carry around an oxygen tank in the heat while I do this so washing it off after is doubling the amount of work. But I guess if I had too, I could manage it.

It mentions neem and soap under organic controls, but not sure if they are talking about mixture of the two or either one:

https://www.growingproduce.com/crop-pro ... ato-crops/