Re: Tiny red mites creating webs on my leaves

[bobkiely \(Remove NOSPAM\)]

I had something that sounds very similar to that last year. All my water
hyth (forget what they're called but you know what I mean) had the same
symptoms. I called the nursery where I bought them and they suggested I take
them out of the pond and put them in another container of water, then spray
them with an insecticide, rinse them several times and then put them back in
the pond.

Frankly, I was very leery of spraying them with an insecticide then putting
them back. What if I didn't rinse all the insecticide off and killed all my
fish? I noticed like you did, that if I held the plant under water, the tiny
little bugs would float off the plant and then I noticed the fish eating
them.

I did that for about 3 times a week for about 3 weeks, never did get rid of
all of them and then the season ended and I tossed all the plants (they were
just floating plants anyway) and started with new plants this year.

I've been keeping an eye out for them again this year but (knock on wood)
not seen them yet. My pond btw is small and I can reach all the plants
easily.

Don't know if this helps but at least you've got moral support.
BK

"scs0" > wrote in message
om...
> I'm having a problem with something sealing up the leaves of my plants
> with some sort of a web. The leaves that have this webbing eventually
> die, and whatever it was really damaged my Thalia, Pickerel Rush, and
> a taro-like plant with smooth (not fuzzy&water repellant) leaves.
> Plants that do not have a large leaf sticking out of the water with a
> bowl-like shape, like a water lily, iris, Umbrella Palm, were not
> harmed.
>
> I originally thought it was a caterpiller because the webbing had tiny
> specs in it that I thought were feces, but learned that it was not the
> case. None of the leaves were chewed and the other day I noticed what
> looked like spit hanging from a large leaf which was really a wad of
> webbing filled with those specs: and I finally noticed that those
> specs were moving! They are much smaller than aphids and I think they
> are mites. Naturally, they are attacking plants that are difficult to
> reach.
>
> I've learned that mites hate moisture and saw that in practice as the
> ones that fell off of leaves that I brushed against got stuck in some
> sweat and stopped moving. So I've been spraying the plants with water
> several times a day for about 3 days now. Will this kill them?
>
> The pond is underneath a screened porch and doesn't get exposed to
> much in the way of rain. If water is deadly to them, then this might
> be the reason why they've thrived so well.
>
> But has anyone else experienced this? What are they exactly? What
> causes them to kill the leaf? Are they sucking them dry like an aphid?
> Does their webbing prevent respiration of the leaf?
>
> Thanks for any info

[RED1102]

I have the same thing, my water hyacinths are covered in them and they are
turning brown. I have thinned alot of them out but they are still there. This
is the first year I have ever had them. None of my plants bloomed this year
also.
Carole
NJ

[Anne Lurie]

I had recently seen something that described spraying rose bushes with water
to get rid of spider mites, so I image-googled for "spider mite web."

Take a look at this site & see if it matches what you've got:
http://hortipm.tamu.edu/pestprofiles/other/brcycmit/brcycmit.html. I don't
know whether the spraying will harm the plants themselves, but it has to be
less harmful than the pesticide treatment suggested by a nursery! (in
another post in this thread).

Anne Lurie
Raleigh, NC

"scs0" > wrote in message
om...
> I'm having a problem with something sealing up the leaves of my plants
> with some sort of a web. The leaves that have this webbing eventually
> die, and whatever it was really damaged my Thalia, Pickerel Rush, and
> a taro-like plant with smooth (not fuzzy&water repellant) leaves.
> Plants that do not have a large leaf sticking out of the water with a
> bowl-like shape, like a water lily, iris, Umbrella Palm, were not
> harmed.
>
> I originally thought it was a caterpiller because the webbing had tiny
> specs in it that I thought were feces, but learned that it was not the
> case. None of the leaves were chewed and the other day I noticed what
> looked like spit hanging from a large leaf which was really a wad of
> webbing filled with those specs: and I finally noticed that those
> specs were moving! They are much smaller than aphids and I think they
> are mites. Naturally, they are attacking plants that are difficult to
> reach.
>
> I've learned that mites hate moisture and saw that in practice as the
> ones that fell off of leaves that I brushed against got stuck in some
> sweat and stopped moving. So I've been spraying the plants with water
> several times a day for about 3 days now. Will this kill them?
>
> The pond is underneath a screened porch and doesn't get exposed to
> much in the way of rain. If water is deadly to them, then this might
> be the reason why they've thrived so well.
>
> But has anyone else experienced this? What are they exactly? What
> causes them to kill the leaf? Are they sucking them dry like an aphid?
> Does their webbing prevent respiration of the leaf?
>
> Thanks for any info

[~ jan JJsPond.us]

Water will work on spider mites no doubt, WH has trouble with both mites
and aphids, if you wash the aphids off you'll just spread them to the rest
of your plants. Better is to submerge the plants over night. Aphid aren't
smart enough to let go and thus drown, yet if you wash them off they can do
a pretty mean back stroke to the next plant. ~ jan


>On Thu, 21 Aug 2003 00:09:45 GMT, "Anne Lurie" > wrote:

>I had recently seen something that described spraying rose bushes with water
>to get rid of spider mites, so I image-googled for "spider mite web."
>
>Take a look at this site & see if it matches what you've got:
>http://hortipm.tamu.edu/pestprofiles/other/brcycmit/brcycmit.html. I don't
>know whether the spraying will harm the plants themselves, but it has to be
>less harmful than the pesticide treatment suggested by a nursery! (in
>another post in this thread).
>
>Anne Lurie
>Raleigh, NC
>
>"scs0" > wrote in message
om...
>> I'm having a problem with something sealing up the leaves of my plants
>> with some sort of a web. The leaves that have this webbing eventually
>> die, and whatever it was really damaged my Thalia, Pickerel Rush, and
>> a taro-like plant with smooth (not fuzzy&water repellant) leaves.
>> Plants that do not have a large leaf sticking out of the water with a
>> bowl-like shape, like a water lily, iris, Umbrella Palm, were not
>> harmed.
>>
>> I originally thought it was a caterpiller because the webbing had tiny
>> specs in it that I thought were feces, but learned that it was not the
>> case. None of the leaves were chewed and the other day I noticed what
>> looked like spit hanging from a large leaf which was really a wad of
>> webbing filled with those specs: and I finally noticed that those
>> specs were moving! They are much smaller than aphids and I think they
>> are mites. Naturally, they are attacking plants that are difficult to
>> reach.
>>
>> I've learned that mites hate moisture and saw that in practice as the
>> ones that fell off of leaves that I brushed against got stuck in some
>> sweat and stopped moving. So I've been spraying the plants with water
>> several times a day for about 3 days now. Will this kill them?
>>
>> The pond is underneath a screened porch and doesn't get exposed to
>> much in the way of rain. If water is deadly to them, then this might
>> be the reason why they've thrived so well.
>>
>> But has anyone else experienced this? What are they exactly? What
>> causes them to kill the leaf? Are they sucking them dry like an aphid?
>> Does their webbing prevent respiration of the leaf?
>>
>> Thanks for any info
>


See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

[Karen Mullen]

In article >,
(scs0) writes:

>I'm having a problem with something sealing up the leaves of my plants
>with some sort of a web.

they are red spider mites and I got rid of my with 2 30 gallon (empty cat sand
)buckets. I removed the plants to one bucket and washed them down with Ivory
soap and rinsed them in the second bucket where I watched to see if I got them
all and then returned them to the pond. No sign of them since.

Karen
Zone 5
Ashland, OH
http://hometown.aol.com/kmam1/MyPond/MyPond.html
My Art Studio at
http://members.aol.com/kmmstudios/K.M.Studios/K.M.Studios.html
for email remove the extra extention

[scs0]

> I had recently seen something that described spraying rose bushes with water
> to get rid of spider mites, so I image-googled for "spider mite web."

Yes, that's it exactly! The webbing looks exactly like the web in
that picture. The docs on Spider Mites seems to say they concentrate
on the undersides of leaves, but I find them all over the leaves which
is probably because my leaves are sheltered from the rain. So I've
been hosing the leaves from a distance for about 5 days, since the
lifecycle is 4-10 days I should hopefully damage the population with
this water. They seem to be very, very vulnerable to water. I
thought aphids were bad, but these mites seem even worse.

Thanks

Steve

http://hortipm.tamu.edu/pestprofiles/other/brcycmit/brcycmit.html.

[scs0]

> the tiny
> little bugs would float off the plant and then I noticed the fish eating
> them.

That's a problem with my fish, they're pretty stupid and refuse to eat
bugs on the surface of the water. I had an aphid problem and would
wash them off the leaves, but the fish would ignore them. In a
previous pond, washed off aphids were considered a treat and hunted by
my fish! Not these! So I doubt they'd go after the mites but from
what I understand a mite won't survive a fall into the water anyway.

I love duckweed, but my fish WILL eat that.