How To Get Rid Of Spider Mites

Spider mites are quite common garden pests.

If you don’t know how to treat them properly, they can seriously hurt the growth behavior of your plants and can also reduce your overall yields.

Hence, make sure to check out this article since I will show you all the different tips and tricks on how to get rid of spider mites in the most efficient manner.

Spider Mites Overview

Short description	Spider mites are not real insects but are rather relatives to spiders. They live on the underside of leaves and spin protective silk webs.
Scientific name	Tetranychidae.
Lifespan	Two weeks to one month.
What plants do they like?	Beans, peas, melons, tomatoes, strawberries, fruit trees and many more.
Symptoms	Silk webs on your plants.
Distribution	Moderate to subtropical climatic zones.
Potential damage	Spider mites can inhibit the growth behavior and reduce the yields.
Control options	Chemical, biological and cultural.
Treatment difficulty	Intermediate.
Natural predators	Other mites, lacewings, pirate bugs and thrips.

How to get rid of Spider Mites

1. Make sure to separate plants that suffer from spider mites

First of all, you should separate plants that are infested by spider mites from the rest of your plants to avoid that spider mites will also infest your other plants sooner or later.

2. Remove leaves or other parts that are infested

Quite often, not your whole plants will be infested by spider mites.

In most cases, it will only be a certain fraction of your plants that will suffer from spider mites and you should therefore remove those parts if possible to significantly reduce the spider mites problem.

Also make sure to dispose of those parts properly so that no other plants in your garden will get infested.

3. Brush them in your shower

Spider mites don’t like excessive moisture and if you brush them with your showerhead, many of them will lose grip and will be washed away.

This will greatly reduce the number of spider mites on your plants and will help so that your plants can recover.

4. Use neem oil to deter spider mites

Neem oil is a great natural pesticide that can greatly reduce the spider mites problems in your garden or on your balcony.

Spider mites don’t like neem oil at all and most of them will soon be gone.

You just need to mix neem oil with water and spray this mix onto the leaves of your plants on a regular basis.

Pretty soon you will see the positive effects of neem oil. In fact, neem oil is a perfect pesticide since it is fully natural and will not hurt our environment as many other chemical options do.

5. Use insecticidal soap

If neem oil doesn’t do the job, you may also want to try insecticidal soap.

While this is an effective measure to get rid of spider mites, this kind of soap is also not that good for our environment and you should therefore try neem oil first to avoid any unnecessary adverse effects on our planet.

6. Use natural predators

You can also use natural predators to get rid of spider mites.

For instance, you can just go to your local garden center or to a webshop and buy lacewings, ladybugs or other mite species.

However, please keep in mind that you should know what you are doing since you may do more harm than good if you introduce additional insect species to your garden that might explode in population.

7. Horticultural oil

You can also use horticultural oil to get rid of spider mites.

However, please note that this is mainly suitable for fruit trees while you should still rely on neem oil or other natural measures for most other plants.

8. Keep your plants tidy

To prevent infestation with spider mites right from the start, you should take proper care of your plants.

This includes providing the right soil conditions and also the right location.

By doing so, your plants will become much more resistant to spider mites and other pests and an infestation becomes less likely.

9. Fertilize your plants

You should also use natural fertilizer so that your plants can get stronger and will be less vulnerable to spider mites from the beginning.

10. Water your plants properly

To prevent infestation with spider mites, it is also crucial that you water your plants properly.

Too much or too little water can lower the resistance of many plants and pests like spider mites will have an easy time conquering them.

11. Use chemical measures

Even though I am not an advocate of using chemical pesticides since they can be pretty harmful to our environment, this would be the last measure if everything else failed to finally get rid of spider mites.

What’s left to say?

Spider mites can seriously hurt the growth behavior of your plants.

However, with the right treatment, you will be able to keep those annoying little friends under control so that your plants can grow in an optimal manner!

If you want to learn more about growing plants in general, make sure to also check out my grower’s guides and companion plants.

About the Author

My name is Andreas and I’m really passionate about our environment and also about growing plants. In fact, I have grown several different plants over many years. I love to see my plants grow and also always try new things to improve my overall conditions at home.

In my blog posts, I want to share my experiences with you so that you can become successful in growing various different plants and improving your home as well, even though you might still be a beginner right now.