Long Lasting Spider Mite Solution! How to Get Rid of Spider Mites

Hey, what's up, garden friends? Jeff here. How's everybody doing? I hope you're good. I am great. My tripod's making cranky noises. That's not gonna be great for the video. Let's talk spider mites. I've been asked a pretty decent amount over the years to talk about what I do with spider mites, and I've never really gotten around to it just because I don't typically have a lot of problems with them, and that's for a few reasons that I will talk about. Spider mites are a really common problem for people to have with their plants. They thrive in warm, dry air, especially air that isn't circulating, so stagnant air inside the house, winter-like conditions. They love that. And they can be tricky to get rid of sometimes, depending on the plants and depending on just habits and what your atmosphere or your climate's like. When dealing with spider mites, there's something that you have to stay on top of because they reproduce very quickly. So when trying to handle them, whatever method you use to try and get rid of them, you'll need to repeat that process every single week for sometimes several weeks. And if you want to use a spray, any spray that's made for indoor use that may contain spinosad or pyrethrin, or there are lots that are made specifically for mites, you wanna be sure to alternate those every other week because they can build up a tolerance or a resistance to those chemicals fairly quickly. Now let's talk about why I got this spray bottle here. This is a solution that I use that most gardeners use. It's a really common breakdown, just a homemade spray that works great for pretty much all pests. Works on contact. Let's break down what's in this bottle. What I do in my spray is a pretty typical spray that a lot of gardeners use. It starts with a one-to-one ratio of water and then rubbing alcohol. I prefer to use a 70% isopropyl, but if I only have a 90%, like I do right now, then I would probably go, let's say, five ounces of water and then maybe just three ounces of that rubbing alcohol. And then it's important to get an oil in there. I like tooth peppermint oil. Neem is probably better, but I just cannot stand the smell. So I use about three to four teaspoons, which I think is a tablespoon, of the oil and then just a little bit of soap, just a dash. Then you take your bottle, shake it up. The point of the soap is to help get the oil dissolved. You can't really dissolve it, but to get it broken down so that it's evenly distributed in there. It also helps make everything stick when you're spraying so that it adheres itself to the insects. There's that peppermint oil. Here's my rubbing alcohol. The soap, I use the rest of it, so no visual aid there, but it's in that bottle. The idea here is to have something that's going to dry out the waxy coating on the surface of the pest. That way, things aren't repelled, like the spray. You want that to be able to actually stick to them. The oil is going to cover the exoskeleton of the insect and that will suffocate them. The soap helps make that stick to them and it helps break down the oil. There are a few different oils you can use. I just prefer peppermint oil because it smells nice. I've used peppermint oil in the past for some other insect problems that it just worked wonderfully, so I pretty much stick with that. Neem oil is probably the way to go if you're outdoors, but I hate the smell of neem, so I don't use it as often, but there are a lot of benefits to using it. When I've been in a pinch and didn't have any peppermint oil or neem, I have just used any basic clean glycerin, like vegetable oil, and that worked fine, too. The benefit of using your own homemade spray is that, well, one, you don't have to worry about the chemicals in the house and you don't really have to worry about any type of resistance being built up because there's nothing in this that they're going to build up a resistance to, the spider mites, that is. This also works really well for mealybugs. Actually, I use this on everything, for mealybugs, scale, all of those things. This has been the breakdown that, like I said, most gardeners use, and it works really well. Use whatever spray that works for you, just be mindful of pets and children and make sure it's safe to use indoors and that you alternate it so that you don't have to worry about the resistance. As of the rubbing alcohol and with peppermint oil, sometimes it can be a bit harsh, so if you're using peppermint oil and a 91% rubbing alcohol, really any alcohol, just to be safe, in general, it's a good idea to perform a patch test. I mean, to take that spray and just put a little squirt on the foliage somewhere, maybe you have a leaf that needs to be pruned off, it still has some green on it, you can see how that's going to affect things. You need to let it sit for several hours, ideally overnight, maybe even a couple of days, depending on the plant. That way you'd know if it's going to be too harsh. While I love this recipe for killing the bugs, there are some plants I wouldn't use it on. If I were doing a really big spray and say I needed to get out here and spray everything in the grow space, then I would go ahead and only use the regular recipe that I just showed you on the plants that I know that can take it. And then for more delicate plants, like ferns, any of the, pretty much anything that's apathetic, those are going to be much more delicate with having a spray on them. Then I would go ahead and dilute this by another 50%, just to be safe. And there are some plants I wouldn't use this on, period. And my really delicate plants, like some of the orchids, I would dilute this down way, like probably by 75%, just to be safe. It has to spray more often, but won't have to deal with all the burning and spots and everything that end up on the foliage. With plants that have nice, big, broad leaves and don't have the most delicate foliage, then I do things differently. I'll first apply the spray and then either use a brush to go through and wipe out those little spider mites or whatever critters are in there, or I'll use my big green gloves, which I've shown in videos before. These right here, I got them from the dollar store, put them on each hand. And with big leaves, it's just, it's easier to do something like this. I'll do that after allowing the spray to sit on the leaves for about, I don't know, half an hour to an hour, something like that. Main thing is that I wanna get back at it before the spray is dried onto everything. So that's when I'll go through, right before it's starting to dry and make sure to remove it. But really, you can do the removal part pretty much as soon as you want to. I just like to let it sit and cook a little while. I also make sure to spray the surface of the soil. Plants with nice, big, sturdy leaves, like say this bird of paradise back here, or I have some windmill palms that I'll be showing you here that I need to spray on my front porch and my adenidia palms. For those, I use the big gloves, makes it a lot easier to wipe everything on and off. And then I apply an anti-transpirant. I prefer Wilproof. I just do it at the one to five ratio that they recommend on the bottle, covering the top of the foliage, the bottom of the foliage until it runs off, allow that to dry. And what this does is it creates a barrier on the surface of the leaf that's too thick for the spider mites to bite through. So they die. It also seems to smother the spider mites really well too, which again, kills them. It's thick enough that once it starts to dry and become tacky, they can't move around in it. For plants that are more delicate, like my hibiscus, or I mean, a lot of the plants that aren't big broadleaf plants, then I dilute that Wilproof as a one to 10 instead of one to five. I do things this way. When I use that Wilproof, I only have to respray about maybe once a month. And I just respray with the Wilproof. I don't go back in with the spray. And once a month is being pretty conservative. There have been times where I've only repeated about every two to three months and it was fine. Without the Wilproof, I would need to be going in at least every five days with the spray and repeating the process for probably, I'd say three weeks with the gloves or with the brush, getting everything cleaned off after it's been sprayed. It's a lot more work. So if you can use an anti-transparent like Wilproof, there are lots of other ones. The main thing is just that you follow the directions so that it's nice, thick, and tacky, but not too much because you don't want to suffocate the plants. You can see in this footage here how well it keeps the spider mites from being able to chew through the foliage because on this particular frond, I sprayed everything except for just that tip because I didn't want it running off on my ground when I got a little bit sloppy. But then they ended up collecting in that one spot and they made this long, terrifying spider mite rope thing that dangled there. So it was terrifying to have to look at that, but also pretty satisfying. The only other thing to mention here is that if you can find a high output chemical sprayer, they work really well. Any spray bottle will work. The high output has a strong enough jet on it that it's going to help break up the webbing that the spider mites are inside of. The webbing repels water, so it can be really difficult to break that up, and that's why it's good to go in with gloves or a brush, sponge, something of the sorts to help break those up. That way, the spray can actually hit them because they live inside of those webs and they end up being protected from the sprays. But if you use one that's high pressure, that does help break them up if you don't feel like going in with gloves or a brush and having to do it manually. The anti-transparent, like the Wilproof, also seals those webs shut, and then they're stuck in there, and then they suffocate and die. Works wonders. I highly suggest anybody give that a try. Again, there are going to be some plants that are kind of delicate. Avoid spraying new growth on plants that are more tender because that can kind of glue them shut. You don't want to do that. And then once spider mites are under control, increasing airflow and humidity are great ways to keep them at bay, and there are spider mite predators, which it's another type of mite that you release onto your plants, and those will eat the spider mites and help keep the population down. Problem with spider mites, though, is that if you just have a couple, within a few weeks you can have hundreds. So I go back and forth on the predators because they need to have that source of food to eat. But if you don't release them early enough, then they're not going to keep up with you having hundreds of thousands of spider mites on your plants. It's kind of a double-edged sword thing. Prevention's always best, though, right? Avoiding having to spray anything, particularly chemicals. If you do use an anti-transpirant in the house, like the Wilt Proof, be very careful. Wipe it up immediately. Don't let it dry on your walls or on glass or on wood because it sticks. Forms a film that's not very fun to try and get off of things. All right, and that's it. There's the spider mite discussion, what I do for them. I swear by the Wilt Proof. Works wonders. It's a total game changer with dealing with spider mites. It makes it so much easier because you don't have to spray relentlessly. So you need to keep an eye on things. May have to go in and spot spray some spots that get messed, but it makes getting rid of them so simple. And it's safe to use, which is great. All of these things are safe to use. You shouldn't be drinking them. That wouldn't be good for you or your pets. But you know, it's better than the things that you buy at the store. That's what I mean. Okay, comment down below. Tips, tricks, suggestions, always appreciated. People have so many recipes and formulas and ways that they deal with spider mites. It's a good idea to check out the comments section to see what other people have to say. Oh, and pardon the mess. Been doing a lot of repotting over here right before I started filming this. I got a bunch of it cleaned off and then the table dried and then it was just like magically more dirt appeared. All right, hope everybody's doing well. Having a great day and a great life and everything's just going beautifully for you. And of course, as always, and most importantly, everybody, keep on growing. Bye, bye.