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These little pests love hot, dusty, dry conditions


Spider mites can quickly turn a green leaf into a speckled mess. Fight them with water! (Photos courtesy UC Integrated
Pest Management)

To fight spider mites, use water, not pesticides



These itsy-bitsy spider cousins are making a mess.

Recent hot weather has brought out the spider mites, tiny arachnids that attack a wide range of edible and ornamental plants. Right now, they’re really going after roses, covering the underside of leaves with white webs and sucking the life out of foliage.

According to the UC Cooperative Extension master gardeners, spider mites also attack many fruit trees, vines, berries, vegetables and other ornamental plants. Look for the telltale webbing.

The spider mites themselves are teeny-tiny, no bigger than the period at the end of this sentence. When shaken from a leaf onto a sheet of paper, they look like fast-moving dots.

They love hot, dry, dusty conditions. May’s early heat wave brought them out in force. They can multiply quickly, producing a whole generation in a week. If left undisturbed, they can overwhelm plants. They’re especially bad during drought conditions and can do the most harm to water-stressed plants.

The key to their control? Water. By keeping plants well hydrated and dust down, spider mites are a lot more manageable. In addition, they have many natural predators in the garden. By August, the good guys usually can keep the spider mite population in check.

Unless you apply a broad spectrum pesticide. That kills the good bugs while leaving the spider mites free to weave their webs of destruction.
This is an advanced case of spider mite damage.

Besides attacking roses, spider mites can cause fruit trees to lose their leaves in spring and early summer. The damage at first looks a little like peach leaf curl with foliage developing stipples and turning yellow or red before falling off. Except spider mites attack a lot more than peaches and the fallen leaves usually show signs of that white webbing.

In the vegetable garden, they attack the leaves of squash and melons, potentially leading to sunburn. They also like beans, munching the pods as well as leaves.

Early signs of spider mite damage are stippling and yellowing of leaves. Turn a suspect leaf over and look for the white webbing. Remove and dispose of that infested leaf. Then, spray the bush with water, washing dust off leaves (along with some spider mites, too).

Insecticidal soap also can be effective in nipping a spider mite infestation in the bud. Make sure to spray the underside of leaves.

For more tips and details, see the UC IPM pest notes on spider mites:
http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7405.html

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Garden Checklist for week of June 15

Make the most of this “average” weather; your garden is growing fast! (So are the weeds!)

* Warm weather brings rapid growth in the vegetable garden, with tomatoes and squash enjoying the heat. Deep-water, then feed with a balanced fertilizer. Bone meal can spur the bloom cycle and help set fruit.

* Generally, tomatoes need deep watering two to three times a week, but don’t let them dry out completely. That can encourage blossom-end rot.

* From seed, plant corn, melons, pumpkins, radishes, squash and sunflowers.

* Plant basil to go with your tomatoes.

* Transplant summer annuals such as petunias, marigolds and zinnias. It’s also a good time to transplant perennial flowers including astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia, salvia and verbena.

* Pull weeds before they go to seed.

* Let the grass grow longer. Set the mower blades high to reduce stress on your lawn during summer heat. To cut down on evaporation, water your lawn deeply during the wee hours of the morning, between 2 and 8 a.m.

* Tie up vines and stake tall plants such as gladiolus and lilies. That gives their heavy flowers some support.

* Dig and divide crowded bulbs after the tops have died down.

* Feed summer flowers with a slow-release fertilizer.

* Mulch, mulch, mulch! This “blanket” keeps moisture in the soil longer and helps your plants cope during hot weather. It also helps smother weeds.

* Thin grapes on the vine for bigger, better clusters later this summer.

* Cut back fruit-bearing canes on berries.

* Feed camellias, azaleas and other acid-loving plants. Mulch to conserve moisture and reduce heat stress.

* Cut back Shasta daisies after flowering to encourage a second bloom in the fall.

* Trim off dead flowers from rose bushes to keep them blooming through the summer. Roses also benefit from deep watering and feeding now. A top dressing of aged compost will keep them happy. It feeds as well as keeps roots moist.

* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushier plants with many more flowers in September.

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