It turns out that even flowers growing in pots and living on the windowsill of a high-rise apartment can pick up different diseases and even parasites. For example, on a houseplant a spider mite can easily settle - a small dirty fish, because of which not one violet, rose, or even a ficus of Benjamin was killed. But do not be scared, with this misfortune you can successfully fight, but how, we'll talk today.
Where does the spider mite appear on indoor plants?
But before talking about how to deal with a spider mite, let's get acquainted with him. The size of this flower pest is very small, only half a poppy seed, only the mite becomes slightly larger in the autumn. It lives on any plants with soft, delicate leaves. Lives in gardens, in meadows and in kitchen gardens, from there with the earth and gets into pots of pets.
Of the indoor plants, a spider mite is most often affected by violets, rosa, mildly carcasses of Benjamin and other similar flowers. But cacti, money or dollar tree and other plants, the leaves of which are covered with dense skin and have a fleshy structure, the parasite is not in the teeth, or rather, not in the proboscis. After all, it is he who sucks out the life-giving juice from the plants, leading the flowers to complete dehydration and drying.
Spider mite on indoor plants: the main signs
Understand that an uninvited visitor has settled in the home oasis, three simple characteristic only for this parasite trait will help. First, if you take a magnifying glass and look closely at the lower surface of the leaves, you can see black or red moving points. This is the tick.
Secondly, on the upper side of the leaf plate, when infected with a plant, there are whitish or silvery spots - the places of attachment of tick-eggs. Well, and finally, thirdly, between the stem and leaves "grows" the thinest barely noticeable web, because of which the mite got its name.
If these signs are not observed or they are weakly expressed, and you still suspect the appearance of infection, do the following. Take a white sheet and shake the plant on it. If there are mites, you will see rapidly moving black or red dots. Just watch carefully, because the insect when hit on paper immediately tends to its edge, taking it for a leaf.
How to deal with a spider mite?
So, the tests are done, the diagnosis is made, and it remains to find out how to fight with a spider mite. There are two basic methods for this. The first, more sparing, is suitable for those cases when the parasite is found on time and has not yet multiplied. The second, more stringent, involves the use of chemical poisons of insecticides, such as actara, dichlafos and the like. Let's talk about each method separately.
- Method 1. Gentle. As mentioned above, it is suitable only if the disease was found at the earliest stages, when the parasite occupies only the lower leaves of the flower. It reduces to the creation of unfavorable conditions for the life and reproduction of the tick. Namely, the affected leaves are ruthlessly removed and burned. And the plant itself every morning is subjected to abundant spraying with cold water from the pulverizer, and once a week it is washed under a thin shower stream, tying the pot with a plastic bag from penetration of water. And the ground in the pot does not hurt to change. The ideal composition is a turf from a meadow, where grassy spiked grasses are mixed, mixed with sifted pine or spruce needles. A cobweb does not like such conditions, and therefore, pots with such contents are not started. By the way, if you plant these most cereal grass in one pot with delicate flowers, then it will be an excellent prophylaxis against spider mites.
- Method 2: Insecticides. They are applied not to the plant itself, but to the inner walls of a large cellophane bag.
Then put a pot of the diseased plant in it, the hole in the bag is tied and left for 1.5-2 hours. The main thing here is that the bag does not touch the leaves, or they can burn. To prevent this from happening, strips of sticks are placed in the bag. Repeat the procedure every 2 weeks, and between them they are fighting in method 1.
Can I get rid of the spider mite and destroy it completely?
But even the application of the two methods described above together does not guarantee full recovery. A logical question arises, is it possible and how to get rid of spider mite permanently. The answer is one - to remove the affected plant from the apartment, no matter how sorry it may be. Well, it's best not to bring the infection into the house at all, and then you will not have to get rid of anything.