Question
QUESTION: i recently bought two brooms for my main entrance.  I didn't transplant, I just placed them inside two planters.  After just 2 weeks of buying them, they are all infested with this tiny spiders.  I suspect they are spider mites.  What can I do to help them?  One of them is now almost completely dry.  I have used an organic fungicide, but it is not working that well. Do you think they still have a chance to survive?

ANSWER: 'Organic Fungicide?' Yikes!

Hate to say it, Alejandra, but if you treated your Broom with a fungicide, you caused this Spider Mite problem.

But of course, that抯 IF you have a Spider Mite problem.  Let's get that out of the way first.

Tetranychus urticae -- Spider Mites -- are a really common problem indoors and out.  You have not told me your location, so I can only guess at the season and the hemisphere.  Here's a black and white photo of an afflicted leaf at the Virginia Extension Entomology website:

www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/entomology/444-221/444-221.html

If it's truly Tetranychus you抮e dealing with, welcome to the club.  Because the Virginia Cooperative Extension people warn us that YOUR GARDEN is at the TOP of the list for dinner reservations for the Two-Spotted Spider Mite:  'More than 180 host plants have been recorded for this species.'  Including Broom.

How's the weather been lately in your neck of the planet?  Let's head to the URL for my article about these evil, dust-sized, sap-sucking specks:

www.helium.com/items/1313330-spider-mite-control

'Indoors and outdoors, invisible and ubiquitous, these tiny, destructive pests creep around your house and garden, sucking the life out of all things green. It's not a matter of IF your plants get Spidermites. It's a matter of WHEN...'

That 慦HEN?usually arrives during the crescendo of a blistering heat wave in the middle of a drought.  Location, location, location Alejandra -- where are you growing the Broom?

Let's look at Tetranychus's modus operandi: Leaves turn pale as the Mites suck out all the Chlorophyll and plant juices.  Their favorite seat at this restaurant is the table next to the Amino Acids, set up between leaf midrib and veins.  Spider Mite damage goes into high gear temps rise, because Mites get REALLY hungry in the heat.  Dry air increases the evaporation of their excreta, which means it's processed super-quickly.  Drought and heat concentrate juices in the leaf, among other things, making the plants more delicious and nutritious.  Colorado's Cooperative Extension explains everything on its website:

'High temperatures (up to 100 degrees F) decrease the lifecycle from three weeks to a mere 5 days and low humidity allows the Mites to more easily remove waste products from their bodies via evaporation, thus enhancing feeding and reproduction.'

Here it is online:

www.colostate.edu/Depts/CoopExt/4DMG/Pests/spidmite.htm

Under normal conditions, your Garden is packed with plenty of mite-munching Predators and FRIENDLY Fungi (R.I.P.) that are hostile to these pests.  

Let's go back to your 'organic fungicide'.  What exactly is that, Alejandra?  Because this is an oxymoron -- an old, impossible figure of speech that combines two opposites that cannot by definition be together.  'Dry pond.'  'Giant ant.' 'Long Island Expressway.'  This is more important than you can imagine.  Why:  Because the MOST EFFECTIVE NATURAL CONTROL of Spider Mites in the Garden happens to be... a Fungus.

Let's read that again: The MOST EFFECTIVE NATURAL CONTROL of Spider Mites in the Garden happens to be... a Fungus.

Which means, if you used a Fungicide anywhere near your Broom, you can rest assured you have erased the SPIDER MITE's worst enemy.  And now you are stuck with a major offensive.  All Hell breaks loose.

Please pass the Kleenex.

Virginia Cooperative Extension makes some interesting points about why and how we wake up one day to a population explosion of these pests.  They note that Ladybeetles, predatory Thrips, and Mite-eating Mites offer 憇ome?control, but they cannot keep up with the pace.  Next thing you know, Mites are everywhere.

That's SO important.  

Why?

Yes, even if your entire Garden is organic -- and God I hope it is ?Ladybugs and fellow predators CANNOT eat these Bad Bugs fast enough when the air is hot and dry.  The Spider Mites just multiply way too fast. Like if you were making pancakes for breakfast and the kids were talking, you would just be piling up all those pancakes until there was no room to sit down.

Same problem with Spider Mites and the Ladybugs that love to eat them.

Spider Mites start building families when the temperature hits 80 degrees F.  It takes 5 days for a baby Mite to grow up.  FIVE DAYS!  And then they live for a whole month!  Along the way, this Mite lays 300 eggs... Poof!  And ALL IT HAS TO DO for this to happen is that it gets HOT and stops RAINING!

That's a LOT of pancakes, Alejandra.

Watering is a critical part of the battle against these Mites.  And if you're thinking of treating your Broom to a chemical snack to help it recover, forget it.  Fertilizing at this point just sweetens the deal for the Mites -- especially with Nitrogen formulas -- by generating more of the delicious Amino Acids that make up the green plant cells.

You could get begin to get rid of these Mites with a few containers of Ladybugs and Lacewings, which if you were here on Long Island you could pick up at Hick's Nursery on Jericho Turnpike in Westbury.  The Colorado Fact Sheet on Spider Mites states that 'small, dark-colored Lady Beetles known as Spider Mite Destroyers (Stethorus species) are specialized predators of Spider Mites.'  Pirate Bugs, Bigeyed Bugs and predatory Thrips are touted as 'important natural enemies.'  

If you抮e having second thoughts about Organic Living, think again.  Spider Mite epidemics erupt when pesticides are heavily used.  That抯 because predatory Mite populations are annihilated first.  And when you stop, experts note that it can take up to 3 years to build up the good-bugs population again.  Meantime, you抮e on your own.

Now, if the weatherman in your region is forecasting rain -- April showers in the Northern Hemisphere often bring May flowers and higher humidity -- that抯 good.  Spray your Broom several times a day with the garden hose.  Keep leaves moist and raise the comfort level of the delicate predator babies and their eggs long enough for them to search and destroy LOTs of Tetranychus.  And keep in mind that you can wash Spider Mites away with H2O.  Rinse them 2x or 3x a day.  Wash the undersides as well as the oversides. You will wash all the Spider Mites and their children right off the leaves.  Then rush back inside and let your fingers do the walking -- order some biological control agents.

Alejandra, lay off the Fungicides, lay off the pesticides, and take some action here.  Start spraying -- WATER only.  Then stock up on good bugs and make your world a better place:

Buglogical Control Systems
www.buglogical.com

Worm's Way
www.wormsway.com

Kuida Agricultural Supply Company
Salinas, CA 93902 - 408-758-9914

Growquest
www.growquest.com/phytoseiulus_persimilis.htm

Futuregarden
www.futuregarden.com/environmental

There are lots of others.  Any questions?

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you very, very much.  Your answer was very helpful and super knowledgable (and funny to read, too).
I live in Austin TX (78738), and after our days of winter, the temperature suddenly raised to the 90s.  We've had some rain, but my brooms are in two planters where no rain can reach there.

I will look for a place to buy the ladybugs and lace bugs here in Austin.  


Thanks again and I will definitely nominate you as Volunteer of the Month

Answer
You can order Ladybugs and Lacewings as a package from Gardens Alive.  Retailers are loath to carry insects like these - short shelf life and high associated costs.  The overnight deliveries on mail order make them expensive, but you get an excellent product and they are very effective.

Broom is a lovely shrub.  I hope you get this under control soon.  Enjoy the spring,

L.I.G.