The Spider mites are tetranychid mites that feed on plants and are also very harmful pests on various crops worldwide. High temperatures and a dry environment are the most optimal conditions for a spider mite population to develop rapidly.
Although it is commonly known as the Spider mites, this species receives more than 50 different names, this being the most common. It is a species that the vast majority of farmers hated since they cause the harvest to be negatively affected. If you want to know more about the red spider, we give you all the information in detail below.
What are the Spider Mites?
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It is a pest that causes a lot of damage to a large number of crops worldwide. They have a great reproductive capacity, making them a terrible pest for you and the entire farming community. They have an oval body and become round on the outer rear. Its hue can vary between orange, light yellow, sober green, or brown, almost black.
Nymphs and adults can cause a lot of damage to your crop host plants because they feed on the sap. They pierce cells to suck your plants’ contents in a destructive way that you will feel like your hands are tied to solve this pest. The destruction of cells eliminates photosynthesis and accelerates the transpiration of your plants.
You have several options to get rid of this annoying pest, among which some insects act as predators, exterminators and thus you can completely eradicate the problem.
Signs of Spider Miter Infestation
This pest bites the leaf to feed constantly, causing damage at the base or cellular level and stress in a less noticeable way. The rest of the pests, such as Spider Mites, aphids, whiteflies, and thrips, affect growth and flowering and feed the plants’ malformation. Once your plants enter the growth phase, it stops, and the leaf becomes malformed.
All the leaf edges are bent from the root to the tips. Others are twisted up to the midrib. The leaves turn a yellowish color if the pest has spread a lot. You will see how the leaves change the hue that shows chlorophyll’s loss, giving the green color to all plants.
Life Cycle
You should know that a spider mite’s life cycle is egg, larva, protonymph, deutonymph, and adult. In the larval and nymphal stages, an active period and a quiescent period are distinguished, the duration of which is practically the same.
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Spider Mites And Flowering
This pest reproduces very quickly; in turn, they are weaving cobwebs around the flowers, so you will want to eliminate it permanently and immediately. Spider Mites has a capacity for development that worries any grower like you. They prefer dry and warm conditions are black or red. They lay transparent eggs that can hatch in as little as three days.
At five days of birth, the young are sexually active and can live up to two to four weeks laying up to 30 eggs per day. This pest bites the leaf to feed constantly, causing damage at the base or cellular level and stress in a less perceptible way than the rest of the pests.
How To Eliminate Spider Mites During Flowering
For you to get rid of mites during flowering, you must do the following:
Use tapes to detect mites
Prevention is your best ally against this pest. To avoid the infestation of these mites, so that you can take care of your crop in an effective way. A method is the yellow and blue tapes that serve to monitor these mites’ presence.
Fight them with their predators.
You should know that with the biological control method, there is the predatory mite Amblyseius Californicus. This predator feeds on the red spider and other types of mites. You have to consider that if you use predatory mites as a preventive method, you will also have a double plague.
Keep the crop clean.
Another method you have to prevent mite infestation is to maintain cleanliness in your outdoor and greenhouse crops. Some mites species can take refuge in bark during the winter, waiting for some of the good weather to come out and wreak havoc on your crop.
Clean your clothes after the outings
If you go outside and return to your crop, change your clothes to secure the perimeter of this type of pests. If you have orchards and gardens, you must have host plants so that the enemies can take root, and when there is an absence of microRNA, feed on pollen thrips, etc.
How To Prevent Spider Mites
Now that you know how to repel these insects, you should know how to prevent an infestation in your crops:
Use low temperatures
Keep temperatures low; mites will always be more comfortable in a warm and dry environment. So if you have an indoor crop, you can also regulate the temperature without causing damage to your plants, which also needs heat. You could lower the temperature to less than 20 degrees centigrade.
Apply walnut oil
Neem nut oil prevents the appearance of Spider Mites and other mites. This oil is composed of biological way.
Use natural products
If you see that your crop has already started the flowering stage, it is best to use natural origin products not to harm the plants. There is also potassium soap, and it is a wonderful way to combat this pest. It is born from the fusion of fats of vegetable origin mixed with an alkaline one.
Place mite predators
Biological control will always be the best method for you to combat mites or Spider Mites. The inclusion of natural predators in the crop is completely harmless to plants and feeds on this insect.
Use chemicals against mites
Chemical insecticides for these types of cases work, but such products do not serve for prevention. These products are known in the commercial world under the name of miticides or miticides. They should be applied before flowering, which will make it much easier for you to fight the pest.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does your plant recover from the spider mites?
Plants with mites harm to just a couple of leaves will recover very fast and without any special care, but all those with far more significant harm becomes stressed as well as need additional attention. And the earlier you find the spider mites on the plants of yours, the faster the issue could be resolved.
Precisely why do the spider mites keep going back?
Spider mites like the dusty foliage on your plants which are affected by water stress. A great method to dissuade them is by wiping grimy leaves periodically and also ensuring the watering schedule of yours is appropriate for the plant of yours. You are also able to use a leaf shine occasionally.
Exactly how long do the spider mites live?
Under optimum conditions (approximately twenty-seven °C), the spider mite can easily hatch in three days, as well as be sexually mature in five days. And, one female is able to lay as many as twenty eggs each day and will live for two to four weeks, laying thousands of eggs.
Where do the spider mites lay the eggs?
Adult spider mites lay the eggs of theirs on the underside of foliage. An adult is able to lay as many as a hundred eggs throughout a three week time. If the spider mite eggs are Unfertilized, they are going to become male. And fertilized eggs start to be female, and it is generally about a ratio of three males to one female.
Do the spider mites die in the winter?
The spider mites overwinter in the ground, so actually the winter weather will not kill them. And the spider mites are bothersome to gardeners since they suck chlorophyll outside of the vegetation and infect them with toxic compounds.
