Just need to vent a little, but I am so tired of spider mites devouring my garden. I keep them down using a water spray, but this is of course not enough to get entirely rid of them, and with the heat wave they are multiplying fast. I spend a lot of time doing this. I’ve tried some various oil concoctions (not neem oil, as that has been a little hard to source where I am, but canola oil was one I found recommended) without much luck, and they left a sticky residue on the foliage, so I stopped doing it.
This is the second year I’ve had problems with this. I suspect they have overwintered on some indoor plants, as the initial chilies were infected before being moved outside. Next season I will ensure a complete plant free environment for some weeks before I sow my crops indoors from seed, and will also look at finally finding neem oil or predatory mites to keep these guys in check.
This year I’ve also for the first time had some issues with inchworms eating my plants. The worst seems to be behind me now, but there was a period of time where I would find and pick off several each evening that I somehow had missed the day before (fat buggers!).
My indoor plants are also suffering from fungus gnats. I’ve not done anything to combat them, and will need to look into nematodes or other helpers. I am not sure about the effect on my herbs, as they seem to be doing fine regardless.
It’s a learning experience, and steadily getting better at this for each season is nice - but I can’t help but long for a proper garden where I imagine keeping a more balanced ecosystem is easier (but at least I don’t have to deal with slugs on my balcony…). Maybe I am deluding myself.
I struggled with spider mites every season for a few years, until I built up a latent population of ladybugs, initally bought at my local nursery. My balcony garden (between 40 and 100 plants depending on the season) has been big enough to support this, not sure if this will be applicable to yours but I’ll share what worked for me.
The key for me was not using any pesticides and letting the population of mites and aphids swell so there was plenty for the ladybugs to eat - it’s all about getting them to lay eggs, because it’s the ladybug larvae that stick around (can’t fly yet!) and do the most eating, and ladybugs lay eggs where they think there will be enough food for their babies to eat. You want to start a multi-generational war on those mites.
Water the garden heavily at sunset and mist all the foliage so the ladybugs have plenty to drink as well as eat. Make sure it’s dark so they are less likely to fly away. Release them all over the garden, let them eat and lay eggs and begin the war, and keep an eye out for the larvae after a week or so. Don’t use pesticides, and hopefully the cycle continues on and on and keeps all your soft-bodied pests in check indefinitely.
Interesting - I always considered that they would run off immediately, so I have kinda discarded the idea of releasing winged helpers. But if they have sufficient food, that might not be the case. The scale of my balcony is a bit smaller than yours - I’m at about 20-25 plants now mid-Summer.
Do you restart the population every year, or do they overwinter?
Did you ever try predatory mites?
I’ve been lucky to have them overwinter, and I see larvae throughout the year. Haven’t had to bring new ones in since the first couple of releases, but I’d imagine that might have a lot to do with the climate here.
I haven’t tried predatory mites yet but I’m planning to soon, since my new nemesis is thrips, and the ladybugs can’t control those. Tough spot though, since I assume the ladybugs will eat the predatory mites…