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Red Spider Mite in the middle of winter, out of nowhere.


Karsty

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I bought a little Nepenthes sanguinea last year, and watched it languish a little, then recently it seemed to get a rust infection. So finally today, I thought I'd better quarantine it. So I did, and then I looked at the leaves through a magnifier, well I'll be blowed, it was red spider mite! On this little plant, in the middle of a group of others, and seemingly this is the only one affected. And they just seem to have come out of literally nowhere! This spot is not a thoroughfare, and the last new plant put there was a Drosera capensis about 3 months ago.

And the weird thing is the humidity has been 75% all autumn/winter - I have read that red spider mites do not like humidity. However, I must admit that is not my experience in the gardens I work in.

I'll post some photos as soon as I can.

Has anyone else had such an experience? Was it easy to cure? Could you figure out where they came from?

Karsty.

Edited by Karsty
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This is the hapless little Nepenthes sanguinea...

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And no surprise about how they look under a magnifier (I know they are not good images, but the best I could get with the doodars I have!)

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aHmzMgHNp3QqmFAjEeD2gXhhQ9TynQvFC43_aMF_

https://photos.app.goo.gl/kjJvzKUUn1SM4SP73

I'm going to throw this plant out - I'm tempted to burn them up with a blow torch - and then dispatch the rest of them with Provado Ultimate Bug Killer 2.

Edited by Karsty
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3 hours ago, gardenofeden said:

Many populations of spider mite are resistant 

Ok..... and do you know if we have the flat mite, Brevipalpus, here in the UK? I was starting to imagine these beasties look more like that than the regular red spider mite. Also, I didn't see any web on the plant.

In the end, I have ordered this... https://www.greengardener.co.uk/shop/pest-control-underglass/amblyseius-andersonii.html

 

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Hi Karsty

I've had a good look at the one photo I can see on my PC now: they look like brevipalpus to me: I can make out clusters of oval reddish eggs, and the adults look like brevipalpus.

The good news is that they spread very slowly from plant to plant so you may find you can control them fairly efficiently.

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57 minutes ago, Ali Baba said:

Hi Karsty

I've had a good look at the one photo I can see on my PC now: they look like brevipalpus to me: I can make out clusters of oval reddish eggs, and the adults look like brevipalpus.

The good news is that they spread very slowly from plant to plant so you may find you can control them fairly efficiently.

Hey Ali Baba, Have I by any chance encountered you on one bcss forum??

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58 minutes ago, Ali Baba said:

Hi Karsty

I've had a good look at the one photo I can see on my PC now: they look like brevipalpus to me: I can make out clusters of oval reddish eggs, and the adults look like brevipalpus.

The good news is that they spread very slowly from plant to plant so you may find you can control them fairly efficiently.

It makes a lot of sense - I didn't see a trace of webbing, and my flat is very humid, I couldn't understand how true red spider mite would be happy here. The chap at Green Gardener said he had been running the business for many many years and he had never heard of flat mites! And he thought they must be a problem in only far distant countries! It's amazing how you can be involved in a subject for such a long time, and after a certain point stop learning! May that never happen to any of us!

 

Thank you Ali Baba :tu:

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