The white spider on garden plants can become quite a formidable pest. And it is that the heat arrives, the spring, the summer and the pests that reproduce very easily due to these environmental conditions. There are also aphids, red spiderwhitefly… but we will focus on the white spider when it attacks plants.
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What is the white spider?
The white spider mite is a small mite that affects many crops such as:
It is very difficult to see with the naked eye, but if you look closely you can see some small, whitish, rounded “bugs” under the leaves. We can also observe the small webs they make, not to capture prey but to be able to move and protect themselves better.
White spider mites can be carried onto plants by wind or other pests.
White spider on plants: how to detect them
To find out if we have white spider mites on the plants, we must turn the leaf over and look carefully to see if there are colonies of these mites, although to be sure we can also see the most common symptoms that they usually occur in plants. , such as the following:
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- Deformation of leaves and stems as they prefer to feed on young shoots.
- The leaves are rolled up
- The base of the leaves with brown discoloration along the edge
- The apical buds are also deformed
- the flowers are fading
- deformed fruit
In tomatoes, the upper leaves burn and the shoots dry out. However, in potatoes, young leaves turn blackish, and in peppers this prevents flowering and even the flowers fall off.
In these images you can see the symptoms of leaf curl, discoloration and stunted growth on young shoots.
Methods to prevent this scourge
There are a number of things we can do to prevent white spider mites on our plants:
- Remove affected plants from the garden, discard them to prevent them from spreading.
- control a little weeds to prevent the transfer of pests to crops.
- Affected leaves and branches should be removed, along with the entire plant if we see no improvement.
- Plants should be properly watered as water stress causes mites to appear.
- Don’t overpay as it will attract more pests.
The white spider is present all year round in tropical areas, however in areas where it is colder they hibernate and can emerge in greenhouses when spring arrives.
How to fight the white spider
There are different methods to control this pest.
- Sprinkled sulfur: It is sold at agricultural sites and can be dusted by hand. In South America, it is difficult to find because apparently they are in the form of stone. In such a case, you can opt for the following method. (Get it here )
- Wettable sulfur: It is diluted in water and applied to plants by spraying.
- neem oil: Dose recommended by the manufacturer. (Get it here )
- ivy extract: It can be done at home, and in the post dedicated to it we explain how.
- apichi: This is a method that is also generally effective, In the dedicated post you can consult it and the steps to prepare it.
- potassium soap: The ideal would be to mix it with neem oil as we explained, but otherwise it can be applied alone. (Get it here )
- Biological control : There are companies that sell insects that feed on white spiders. A mass release can control the population. Here are some species: Encarsia formosa, Amblyseius swirskii, Eretmocerus eremicus, Eretmocerus mundus.
The red and white spider fight each other the same way.
White cobwebs on plants: home remedies
White cobwebs, as we explained, are the ones they use to move around, so any of the aforementioned home remedies will help you kill the plague and clear the cobwebs.
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