How to treat red spider mite?

[MatDz]

[...]
- They are moderately quick moving, certainly significantly slower than a thrip.
- They are all a deep red/purple colour, and the body appears shiny/reflective There are no visible spots on the body.
- I have not found evidence of any webs.
- I tend to find them in the plant pot saucer or on the pot rather than the plant, Certainly they do not seem to congregate around the growing point of plants.

Just want to confirm the first 3 points above, I have seen only one so far, so hard to tell where they exactly reside on plants. To the visual traits I would add the bodies seem to be slightly translucent, at least the "outer shell", so to speak.

[MikeT]

RSM and false spider mites are too small to tell with the naked eye whether the body is reflective or not, and certainly to see any features such as spots. Despite the name, red spider mites are more a brown or yellow colour. You can see that they are moving if you get close and watch carefully for a while. If you can see movement without getting close and watching carefully, then it's moving faster than RSM.
As has been said, red mites obviously moving about are predatory mites = goodies as far as gardeners are concerned.
Webbing is a sign of fairly severe RSM infestation (not false spider mites). If you look carefully at the webbing, you'll see tiny little brown dots, some of which will seem stationary, others will be slowly moving about. In which case you needed to spray a few days ago, there's likely to be some significant damage by this stage.
Spraying with water may help to deter RSM (which like hot dry conditions), but false spider mites are happy with moist conditions, so spaying with plain water, not containing miticide, isn't going to help.

[BarbusBarbus]

I should probably just clarify - the characteristics I have noted were only seen using a high powered magnifying glass, there’s no way you could see this with the naked eye. With the naked eye they appear as just visible brown flecks, I would estimate they are around 0.3-0.4mm in size! A

[MatDz]

I have an 8 seconds video where the fella in question moved by at least 10 mm, so definitely wasn't super slow, but have no idea how to post it on the forum. Anyway, feels like high time to move forward, SBPI applied!

[MikeT]

I have no idea of RSM speed records, but 10mm in 8 seconds seems fast. I think you've just attacked an ally rather than an enemy.

Anyone have any RSM speed details?

[Darren S]

I wonder if they might be Byrobia mites?

Much bigger than RSM, fast moving and can do a lot of damage. See my query on the SRGC forum a while back:

https://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php ... #msg152521

My experience is that I get an influx of these each spring. My very mixed collection has allowed these observations:

They attack fleshy leaved 'bulbs' for preference - Cyclamen and Aroids like Biarum are always worst affected. Some Cape bulbs like Moraea (only certain species), Bulbinella, Massonia (but not Daubenya) also get visited but with less damage.

They always occupy the upper (sunny) surface of the leaf.

My cacti and succulents, in the same greenhouse and even on the same bench, remain untouched with the exception of Pleiospilos for some reason - which sometimes get some scarring.

They disappear in May and I do not see them again until their preferred victims are in growth again the following spring - even though there is no shortage of succulent plants in the greenhouse.

SB plant invigorator sorts them out but I have to be vigilant from the first sunny days in Feb/march.

[Peter]

I have often wondered whether bed bug spray, one of the Raid group of domestic miticides or Avi-mite aviary liquid may be worth trying. Just not got round to trying them.

[williamn]

I'm finding Neem oil fairly effective on then, though it needs regular application over a few weeks. Some plants (including Euphorbias) have a negative reaction to it though resulting in leaf loss.

[habanerocat]

I stumbled across some information that a seaweed based tomato fertilizer is good for the prevention of Red Spider Mites.

A follow up search gave me this:

https://backyardgardengeek.com/11-prove ... der-mites/

Which is as good and comprehensive an article as I've ever seen.

That Garrett Juice recipe looks interesting. I suppose it's just a domestic recipe for SB which is excessively expensive now.
Lots of other interesting stuff as well at the end.

[edds]

Has anyone tried these or similar smoke bomb products?
https://critterkill.co.uk/critterkill-1 ... -bomb.html

I'm terrible at getting into all the nooks and crannies on multi-headed cacti like Rebutia and was hoping, with the lack of a systemic miticide these might be an option? If they killed off the lingering mealybugs too that'd be a bonus!