Attack of the Spider Mites!

So the rains have let up a bit, and I decided to take advantage of the dry weather by mowing the lawn. I even told Drew this morning that there wasn't much to do in the garden today, but as I was putting the grass trimmings in the compost bin I caught a glimpse of our hops. It seems that possibly over night our beautiful hop plants have become infested with spider mites. :(

Spider mites yellow-green, and their larvae look like little tiny white/grey flecks. These guys are one of the most common pests for hops.

They really love to hide out on the underside of the leaves as this is where plants store their water and nutrients. Ewww...

Spider mites also like dry arid weather and sunny conditions, so I think the recent sunshine brought these guys on. They are especially scary because they seem to like ALL plants, and therefore can really devastate an entire garden. It's super important to isolate the plants that are infected from other plants as soon as you notice the spider mites. I quickly moved the nearby containers and sprayed the sides with cold water from the hose. The mites don't appear to have migrated to the peppers or eggplant (fingers crossed).

Spider mites don't like moist conditions so spraying the plants with water helps to dislodge them from the leaves, but also prevents them from being able to reproduce. I had Drew take over and spray down the tops of the plants that I couldn't reach.

Once the leaves dry I'll spray them using a homemade insecticidal soap.

Recipe: 1 gallon of water, 2 tablespoons of Dr. Bronner's soap, and 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. The vegetable oil helps the soap stick to the bugs better.

I didn't spot any mite webbing on the plants, so hopefully we caught them early enough that this will work. If not, I may need to invest in some more lady bugs or other predatory mites. We don't have any cones on the plants yet, and spider mites do the most damage to the hop cones, so hopefully these little guys will be dead and gone before then.