This is a helpfull piece i found when i found when i had spidermites none of this is my work.
Spider Mites
Young spider mites, adults, and eggs are visible in this photo.
Spider mites cause stippling, small spots, on the top of leaves.
Identify:
The spider mite is the most common pest found on indoor plants and cause the most problems. Spider mites have eight legs and are classified as spiders rather than insects, which have six legs. Find microscopic spider mites on leaf undersides sucking away life-giving fluids. To an untrained naked eye, they are hard to spot. Spider mites appear as tiny specks on leaf undersides; however, their telltale signs of feeding – yellowish-white spots, stippling – on the tops of leaves are easy to see. Careful inspection reveals tiny spider webs – easily seen when misted with water – on stems and under leaves as infestations progress. A magnifying glass or low-power microscope (10-30X) helps to identify the yellow-white, two spotted brown or red mites and their translucent eggs. Indoors, the most common is the two-spotted spider mite. After a single mating, females are fertilized for life and reproduce about 75 percent female and 25 percent male eggs. Females lay about 100 eggs.
Damage:
Mites suck life-giving sap from plants, causing overall vigor loss and stunting. Leaves are pocked with suck-hole marks and yellow from failure to produce chlorophyll. They lose partial to full function, and leaves turn yellow and drop. Once a plant is overrun with spider mites, the infestation progresses rapidly. Severe cases cause plant death.
Control:
Cleanliness! This is the most important first step to spider mite control. Keep the grow room and tools spotless and disinfected. Mother plants often have spider mites. Spray mothers regularly with miticides, including once three days before taking cuttings. Once mite infestations get out of control and miticides work poorly, the entire grow room will have to be cleaned out and disinfected with a pesticide and 5 percent bleach solution. Steam disinfection is also possible but too difficult in most situations.
Cultural and physical:
Spider mites thrive in a dry, 70-80 degrees F climate, and reproduce every five days in temperatures above 80 degrees. Create a hostile environment by lowering the temperature to 60 degrees and spray foliage, especially under leaves, with a jet of cold water. Spraying literally blasts them off the leaves as well as increases humidity. Their reproductive cycle will be slowed, and you will have a chance to kill them before they do much damage. Manual removal works for small populations. Smash all mites in sight between the thumb and index finger, or wash leaves individually in between two sponges. Make sure to not infect other plants with contaminated hands or sponges.
Remove leaves with 50 percent or more damage.Remove leaves with more than 50 percent damage and throw away, making sure insects and eggs do not reenter the garden. If mites have attacked only one or two plants, isolate the infected plants and treat them separately. Take care when removing foliage not to spread mites to other plants. Severely damaged plants should be carefully removed from the garden and destroyed.
Smear a layer of Tanglefoot™ around the lips of containers and at the base of stems to create barriers spider mites cannot cross. This will help isolate them to specific plants. Note: smear a layer of Tanglefoot™ at each end of drying lines when hanging buds to contain spider mites. Once foliage is dead, mites try to migrate down drying lines to find live foliage with fresh, flowing sap.
Biological:
Neoseiulus (Amblyseius) californicus and Mesoseiulus (phytoseiulus) longipes, are the two most common and effective predators. Phytoseiulus persimilis, Neoseiulus (Amblyseius) fallacius, Galendromus (Metaseiulus) occidentalis, Galendromus (Typhlodromus) pyri predators are also available commercially.
Humidity – 60-70 percent
Temperature – 60-70 degreesWhen properly applied and reared, predatory spider mites work very well. There are many things to consider when using the predators. First, predators can eat only a limited number of mites a day; the average predator can eat 20 eggs or 5 adults daily. As soon as the predators’ source of food is gone, some mites die of starvation while others survive on other insects or pollen. Check with suppliers for release instructions of specific species. A general dosage of 20 predators per plant is a good place to start. Predatory mites have a difficult time traveling from plant to plant, so setting them out on each plant is necessary. Temperature and humidity levels are important to control so predators thrive. Both must be at the proper level to give the predators the best possible chance. When spider mites have infested a garden, the predatory mites cannot eat them fast enough to solve the problem. Predatory mites work best when there are only a few spider mites. Introduce predators as soon as spider mites are seen on vegetative growth, and release them every month thereafter. This gives predators a chance to keep up with mites. Before releasing predators, rinse all plants thoroughly to ensure all toxic-spray residues from insecticides and fungicides are gone.
The fungus, Hirsutella thompsonii, trade name Mycar®, kills spider mites.
Sprays: Homemade sprays often lack the strength to kill infestations but work as a deterrent by repelling mites. Popular homemade sprays include Dr. Bonner’s Soap, garlic, hot pepper, citrus oil, and liquid seaweed combinations. If these sprays do not deter spider mites after 4-5 applications, switch to a stronger spray: neem oil, pyrethrum, horticultural oil, or nicotine sulfate, cinnamaldehyde.
Insecticidal soap does a fair job of controlling mites. Usually two or three applications at 5-10 day intervals will do the trick.
Horticultural oil smothers eggs and can be mixed with pyrethrum and homemade sprays to improve extermination.
Pyrethrum (aerosol) is the best natural miticide! Apply 2-3 applications at 5-10 day intervals. Pyrethrum is the best control for spider mite extermination. Spider mites should be gone after 2 or 3 applications at 5-10 day intervals, providing sanitary- preventative conditions are maintained. Eggs hatch in 5-10 days. The second spraying will kill the newly hatched eggs and the remaining adults. The third and subsequent applications will kill any new spider mites, but mites soon develop a resistance to synthetic pyrethrum.
Neem oil works great!
Heavy-duty chemical miticides are available but are not recommended on plants that will be consumed by humans. If using any chemical miticide, be sure it is a contact poison and not systemic. Use StirrupM®, described below, to improve the spider mite kill rate. Cinnamaldehyde extracted from Cinnamonum zeylanicum kills mites. The synthetic hormone – sold under the brand name StirrupM® – attracts spider mites, and is used very successfully to enhance miticides.
Progressive Control Measures for Spider Mites
CleanlinessClean room daily, disinfect tools, do not introduce new pests into the garden on clothes, no animal visits, etc.Create hostile environmentHumidity, temperature, water sprayCreate barriersSmear Tanglefoot™ around pot lips, stems, drying linesDip cuttings and vegetative plantsDip small plants in pyrethrum, horticultural oil, neem oilRemove damaged foliageRemove foliage more than 50 percent damagedIntroduce Predatory mitesRelease predators before infestations grow out of handSprayApply pyrethrum, neem oil, use stronger miticides only if necessary. Rotate sprays so mites do not develop immunity
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