Spider mites

Trouble shoot problems you are having with your cactus.
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Salazar
Posts: 279
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2016 8:02 am
Location: Philippines

Spider mites

Post by Salazar »

While admiring the flowers on my G. mihanovichii I noticed a little red speck on one of the petals. I poked at it and it moved. I had found a spider mite.

This has never happened before so I'm pretty clueless as to what to do. I've checked the surrounding plants and found no signs of them. It seems to be localized to just the flowers of this one plant. I've isolated it for now and sprayed it with alcohol to hopefully kill the ones on the flowers.

I've recently applied a systemic pesticide to all my plants cause once while repotting I found a few root mealies. Would that be enough of a preventative measure to stave of the spider mites?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
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greenknight
Posts: 4813
Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 4:18 am
Location: SW Washington State zone 8b

Re: Spider mites

Post by greenknight »

That doesn't sound like a spider mite - you don't normally see spider mites, you see their damage and tiny webbing. It usually takes close inspection with a strong magnifier to see the mites themselves. There are predatory mites which are larger, redder, and more mobile - these are often mistaken for spider mites (which they prey on).

Don't know if your systemic works on spider mites, is it labeled to kill them? Anyway, alcohol does kill them. Also, they thrive only in dry conditions - in a humid climate you're unlikely to have a problem with them.
Spence :mrgreen:
Salazar
Posts: 279
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2016 8:02 am
Location: Philippines

Re: Spider mites

Post by Salazar »

Now that you mentioned that they're larger and redder and it did seem to move quick a bit after poking. It might've been a predatory mite.

This one looks similar to little red mites all over an eggplant bush here last year. And those eggplants got little white dots on the leaves. Not enough damage to kill the plant but it was still concerning and they were relentless. But that's just a correlation as I never confirmed what caused those white dots.

Maybe it was just a stray one that got blown onto my plant? Idk

Thank you Spence! Greatly appreciate the input.
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