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Spider Mites


Question
I have a Venus flytrap that I prune and water every morning. I look under the leaves and check it to make sure everything looks good. This morning I woke up and looked at my plant and it had webs and tiny spider (mites?) all over some of the traps. They were not there yesterday. I don't know what miticides are safe for flytraps. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Answer
Are you sure they're spider mites?  There's no reason to treat a pest that isn't actually there.  Spider mites aren't usually noticed by the unaided eye and, although we have them twice a year most years, I've never seen them actually get to the point of making webs on flytraps.

I normally notice the damage to the plant first and then identify the pest.  Do you see any damage?  It would look like browning on the edge of the traps and leaves.  If not, you don't have spider mites, but probably some sort of small predatory spider that has taken up living in your flytrap pot, which is very common.

If you decide that you do have spider mites, our favorite miticides are Avid, TetraSan and Floramite.  All three work in different ways and it's good to use two of them in combination to completely eradicate mites.  Although one of them sprayed a couple of times a few days apart normally gets the job done.  

Miticides can be expensive, so we offer them in small quantities.  You can read about all three miticides (Avid, TetraSan and Flormaite) and purchase small quantities of them here:
http://www.flytrapcare.com/store/other-items/pest-control-carnivorous-plants

Good growing!
Matt

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