If you wanna see in depth spider mite talk and control look at cannabis growers and how they handle it. Low humidity helps them reproduce. Up humidity and then take a sponge to wash under the leafs the sponge will pick up the eggs. Then use neem oil to take care of the rest.
Thank you for saying spider mites are a part of life! They always make me feel like I failed as a plantmom and made me want to give up gardening entirely! Hope you make videos for other plant pests 🤞🏼😅 PS I use a sponge to treat my plants 😊
I noticed I had them when I touched the back of a leaf and felt something sticky!!! Not sure how you can do this with your bare hands, I swear I went in with a hazmat suit before touching it again
If you're feeling stickiness, it's more likely to be mealybugs, scale or aphids. Fortunately, this alcohol spray works very well against those too. You'll need at least 50% alcohol spray to work against scale or mealybugs, due to their protective waxy coating.
This is my first time going up against pests (other than fugnus gnats) and I'm literally crying. I've quarantined what seems to be a third of my collection and I'm freaking out that the infestation has gotten out of hand. I've been so desperate, trying to find every possible solution until I came across your video. THANK YOU can't wait to try it out, luckily I have the perfect brush for it fingers crossed it works and my babies will be saved. Bless you
Girl same here. I have so many of my plants in my bathroom quarantining until I know how I'm gonna tackle these stupid bugs. I threw 3 beautiful lush, large plants away because they had way too many leaves and it made me sick to my stomach even thinking about how I'd tackle it! I hope you got everything under control!
@@mandidc9975 I'm so sad to hear that, totally feel you though. some are lost in the battle unfortunately although the brush method helps a lot and I managed to save some of my babies. I've heard neem oil also works wonders, mostly as preventive but it does take care of some pests. hope everything works out for you 💚🌿
Same! Just solved the gnats problem and started to enjoy my plants again, then found these stupid pests on my ivy (in the kitchen), string of dolphins and string of hearts (in my bedroom). The string of something has so many small leaves. I don't even know how I could brush every single one... I don't care about the ivy, but the dolphins was one of the first few plants I got when I started my plant journey this year. 😭I love my string of hearts too. It has grown so much and long. I am just devastated thinking about it.
@@LapineTingTing ughhh damn pests at it again. I'm no expert but in your case I'd shower my plants everytime I'd water them and spray some neem solution afterwards. can't imagine getting into every leaf in an ivy with a brush, but hopefully that would do the trick for you. Crossing my fingers your babies come out from this stronger
@@SenoritaVinaM Awww thank you so much for responding to me! The Ivy is small, so not many leaves and actually not too hard to clean, but it's the heaviest infested. :( Worse case I might just throw the ivy away to keep my other plants safe. She is quarantining in the bathroom now, and guess what, I saw two gnats flew out of her when I picked her up and checked yesterday. 🤦🏻♀️🤣 SOD and SOH are quarantining in the guest bedroom. I am going to spray them with the alcohol and dosh soap mixture and see. I am not giving up yet! 💪🏼 Thank you again for the moral support!
Those white bits are actually the eggs the mites are kinda red and you'll see them moving trying to get away from the spray awesome video I'm fighting the same monster!
all of my plants in my greenhouse (very sentimental and expensive plants) all have spider mites. I spent 7 hours rinsing them all off, sobbing, and rubbing and spraying neem oil into all their soil and leaves🥲 After having a very long freak out, i found your video
Nice vid. My first year or so of planting was stress free and this second year has been straight whiteflies, scales, and now spidermites. If not treated pests can definitely take the fun out of planting
Agreed. Best video on spider mites hands down. Can’t believe it took so long for TH-cam’s algorithm to recommend this for me. Thank you so much for this great content.
A word of caution: this method worked very well on one of my plants but immediately killed my other plant. I don't think this is mentioned in the video, but it is very important to not get ANY of the alcohol solution in the soil of the plant. One of my plants has very vertical leaves that slope down into the soil, and the alcohol mixture trickled down the leaves because of gravity and started to soak in the soil. My plant absorbed the alcohol solution through its roots because of this, and by the next day every leaf on the plant was covered in brown spots and completely limp. It's been about two weeks since this happened and the plant hasn't recovered at all, I will likely have to throw it away which really sucks since I've had this plant at least 3 years. Just something to keep in mind!
I just spent two freaking hours doing this treatment on 11 of my plants.. I have a book shelf with close to 20 maranta/calathea/ctenanthe on it and OF COURSE they're all touching. I haven't checked the third shelf yet to see if its affected, I didn't have the heart to look after treating so many plants, I'll have to address it tomorrow.. Now I have them all quarantined awaiting their next treatment. Thank you for this video, I have had lame experiences with neem oil in my garden and wasn't looking forward to using it on my indoor plants. (PS I'm a relatively new fan and I love your videos.. I used to think Begonias belonged in the garden but after watching all your videos you've converted me, I just bought my first begonias from Gabriella Plants and Steves Leaves!)
I believe I read today that they don’t really burry themselves- so just take off the very top layer where the webbing is and a little under and it should be fine.
communal care is sharing this video with your plant friends, and for them to then share it with their friends. This is true communal knowledge. OP is a sage, bless you
This video got rid of spider mites for me!!!!! Against all odds it worked. I had to keep up the treatment about once a week for 3 weeks and it did the trick.
I had a TON of spider mites on my giant Musa Basjoo banana tree. I only noticed something was wrong when I saw these weird looking brown spots all over the bottoms of all the leaves. I used this method and It got everything under control. Thank you so much!
Thank you for this video! I recently purchased a GORGEOUS Burle Marx Philodendron from a local and after one day I realized it was infested. I quarantined it and followed your instructions to the letter. You saved my baby! YAY! Thank you!
Excellent video! I do something similar. But I add some baby-oil to the spray mix because it suffocates the little bastards on contact. The soap dissolves the exoskeletons and eggs. The oil remains after the soap/alcohol solution dries and provides protection after treatment. Eventually the mineral oil goes away too. Vegetable oil will leave a sticky mess.
This is the most helpful video I’ve watched so far, I just found out yesterday that one of my California ivys has spider mites and while I’m still itchy and traumatized by the discovery this makes me feel confident about getting rid of them
Thank you! I like this technique. This gives you an alternative to the neem oil spray as well. As we know, not all plants take well to neem oil. Thank you for the tip on treating alocasias. I don't typically treat them for spider mites unless I see them. Great video!
You're saving my life over here! That brush is genius!!! I just found mites on some of my plants. I usually get predator mites delivered but you know, the mail is backed up right now. I wasn't feeling very faithful in trying to spray down every inch of my plants, but the brush should make it worth the effort! Thank you!
I threw away my Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree before I found this video. It was so infested and they got on two of my other plants. Wishing I found this before I gave up on my Fiddle. 😭
YES. I know someone who got rid of a collection of once beautiful plants after not knowing how to destroy these monsters. Thankyou for being real, and dealing with this situation on camera for us. People need to know that this happens, and how to homewreck the jerks. So much love.
I am so glad someone addressed "the elephant in the room." Soooo many plant posters on here show off their HUGE collections and their plants are all jammed together to "make room." Some of them are even under the bigger plants, making one wonder how they even survive. These plant tours make me cringe. If there is any kind of disease or pest outbreak, all those plants are touching each other and it will spread like wildfire! I also don't understand what the use is of having beautiful plants if you can't see them! Such situations look more like hoarding than having a nice collection of plants. Messy and dangerous for all the plants involved. My plants are displayed nicely together in groups and I NEVER let them or their pots touch.
I agree, I like to keep space between my plants but the reason some sit their plants close to each other is to create humidity, which some plants - such as these calatheas - need to thrive and they likely avoid infestation by spraying them with insecticidal soap and/or neem oil on a regular basis.
Agreed, i keep all my plants from touching and its helped others from not getting bugs from ones that do have them. But plants touch each other in nature.. it really shouldn't be this stressful to own plants, u shouldnt have to watch every branch that moves and nit pick about whos touching who. Plant keeping should be fun, and whatever makes someone happy is all that matters, so if someone wants to keep 100+ plants in their home and have them all touching, thats up to them.
@@bkrbkrl yea ur right about that first half.. but theres no "wrong" reason to collect plants. I mean i have plants because i love plants & nature, and always have.. but you have to love plants in order to fill ur house with them, right? And yes, whatever makes someone happy *IS* all that matters, *as long* as it isnt harming anyone else. In this case its harming the plants yea, but they arent sentient beings. All im saying is let people do whatever tf they want with their life.. if they wanna make things harder on themselves by grouping 100 plants together and letting them all get bugs, thats on them. Why waste ur time & energy on what other people are doing?
Samatha mother of cats. True that period. Nothing else to be said mother of cats.Nature is Nature yes.. Let's keep it Real and positive.Be U nobody else.😊✌🌹🌹🌹
Thank you so much for this. One of the best I've watched in dealing with spider mites. I actually use your mix with few drops of baby oil or coconut oil to clean the leaves of my orchids and houseplants. I spray then wipe it dry with cloth. Thank you for showing your technique. Now I know how to wipe it down properly because of you. I enjoyed hearing the voice of Winston supporting you. He's a keeper - lucky you!!!
Just did this technique to my Maui Queen Calathea. She was MADLY infested - they were matured mites, I could actually see them crawling, and the back of the leaves was just plain white - lol. Got some gloves on, an old toothbrush (it was a bit too harsh I think :( ) and made this solution. The leaves don't have webs/ eggs on them anymore, but I will repeat the process two more times, as instructed. I have also used some insecticide spray prior to this technique. I'd say the spray killed the matured ones, but not the eggs. I really hope I can bring the plant back to life. It's my first plant and it crushed me when I saw it infected - and I am so grossed out by bugs too! :( Thank you for sharing this, I hope my plant will recover soon! Much love from Romania.
Update: I probably scrubbed too hard because most of my leaves are now super curled up and look dehydrated. :( I cut the worst ones off but I think this plant is a goner 😭😭
Just found them on my string of dolphins and string of hearts. I am devastated. Couldn't see the mites and didn't find webbing, but from the bites on some leaves as well as the amount of leaves dried out on the dolphins, should be them... I just sprayed them with the alcohol and dish soap mixture. 😞Can't really brush and clean every leaf because they are tiny and too many... 😭
What would you do if the spider mites also lived in your soil 😭 I love this new technique so much! I’ve used I don’t know how much neem oil concentrate on plants and have no luck. This brush method is GENIUS. You are a real hero for this video!!
This was SUPER helpful. I tried neem oil and learned the hard way that I am very allergic to it! All I was over here thinking is "Ok, now what??" Thanks for the tips!
I have spider mites on my bonsai plant. I also use this same mixture to clean my plants but with an old toothbrush- the makeup brush seems a whole lot better though so ty for that tip!! Cleaning all those tiny leaves is a few hour process. I was growing an arugula plant that was a bit too close to the bonsai and it became VERY VERY badly infested. It’s now outside. May the gods be in its favor lol! Many of my plants have small leaves. Why do I do this to myself. 😅
Absolutely worked for me! I think I managed to catch the mites early in their infestation, that after a week of doing this, I didn't see any more, and now 6 months later, I haven't seen any since! Definitely saving this recipe for the future in case I need it 😁
My 9 year old daughter who is into plants like momma. We watched this video. We were talking about plant pests. She asked have you ever had spider mites? I said no thankfully I have only dealt with aphids my whole life owning plants. The very next morning her and I went to check the veggie plants that were in the house. Omg!!!!!! The pepper plants were loaded 😱!!!! Now I had just checked on them 3 days prior! Haven't been feeling well so her and I had been watching Harli G, Kaylee Ellen and of course Rachel and Casey on Heart Shaped Leaves. All my favs! I feel like they teleported through the internet! No I'm just kidding. 🤣 All the veggie plants went outside. We have been inspecting all 50 something houseplants every morning and night. So far so good. 🤘🏼.
I will treat the soil ONLY after treating 3 or 4 times with no resolution. First I will use peroxide, then I will use Houseplant systemic pesticides to protect the plants💯👌
Question for you...after you do the treatment you said you spray them down one more time is that with a water shower to get the soap mix off or is it with another soap treatment? Please help! Thank you
Came back to this video just to say you are truly a genius for the makeup brush. I just did it and I feel so confident I killed every home they ever thought of having LMAO
Thank you for this video!! The shower trick didn't work for me, I hate using neem oil on plants in my bedroom, and using tape to get all the mites I could see off of both of my birds of paradise was taking hours (and I still wasn't getting even close to all of them). Followed your video and finished both plants in about an hour and I don't see ANY mites today, but I'll still repeat the treatment for a few more weeks. I was so sad about losing both of my big gals after I lost my prized calathea makoyana to mites last year--now I have hope that they'll pull through!
Re-consulted this video after finding them starting up o my fiddle leaf. First time I havent completely panicked because I knew I could toss this video on and fight them with your guidance 😭 you're the best. May they suffer for eternity.
@@autumnkeebaugh9958 no! I have used it on all my plants except the fuzzy ones like my african violets. Id suggest doing it evening so it can dry all night.
LOL, at my middle school they called it the "daylight rule". You had to be able to see daylight in between you! hahaha... I'm with you girl, I do my best to make sure that my plants are close but not touching. I thought maybe I was a bit of a freak... lol, glad to know I'm not the only one! Thanks for putting this out. I am definitely going to try this. I have a Medallion that my beneficial bugs didn't take care of so, I gotta do something else! I thought about throwing it away but I'm glad I saw this before I did that!
I have tried your method and I like it. I think neem oil isn't as instant as alcohol. It is more like a systemic kind of pest control oil. Just finished treatment on my Alocasia Yucatan princess and happy to report that I have yet to find anymore spidermites on it after a 2 week treatment. However, I'll do another week just because I'm paranoid. I also spray the top soil and all around and under the pot too. Thank you for showing the whole process.
I've just discovered I have a spider mite infestation so this is going to be how I'm spending my whole afternoon 😭😭 thank you for making this video it's super helpful! My only question is do you rinse of the spray from the leaves or do you left the treatment dry on the leaves without rinsing?
Get rid of every home they ever thought about 😂 I love how thorough you are!!! I’m up against thrips and spider mites and so grateful that I found this video
I performed this treatment on multiple calatheas and a stromanthe triostar. I haven't seen spider mites return but it has also killed 40-80% of the leaves on all my plants (still counting). So be careful with this treatment. Maybe dilute with more water. I do love the make up brush tip though.
Use horticultural soap. I can't stress that enough. Detergent based soaps burn and kill precious plant tissue. Now, don't get me wrong, some strong willed plants can handle it. But, delicate type plants, or badly stressed plants, it will definitely damage them. And remember, keep your plants out of light for a while after spraying isopropyl alcohol. Personally, I prefer a Neem/horticultural soap mix to spray.
While some of this info will just add needless work, the part about mites not infecting other plants unless they're touching is erroneous. As she stated, they travel on air, they can travel to any other plant in the room, or even the house. Ask me how I know.
I managed to do this treatment on my Ficus Benjamina which has fairly small and dainty leaves. I used a much smaller makeup brush. Took me about an hour just to do the one plant though because of all the foliage. So far so good. :)
You are my favorite person right now; these pernicious little pests have been wreaking havoc on my plants and I am overjoyed to have a method to counteract their destruction!
Just started watching your channel!! New sub here!! You really are the best at showing exactly what to do!! I have been a plant lover and collector for years!! Everyone else either tells you to spray with the same ingredients that you mentioned or that terrible need oil and I thought that is all you had to do!! I love how you went into this detail and showed everything!! I am so paranoid about bugs that I almost killed a few plants last summer spraying them with need!! I have a dislike and so does my hubby for that terrible sh*t!! So I will continue to use the alcohol dish soap. I have also sprayed with the captain jack spray that nick recommended and tolerated it better and I have put the systemic stuff in the top of most of my plants soil!! I am a freak about bugs!!
You are brave for keeping that video in the same room as other plants, even just for a video. They are the WORST! Only ever had one plant survive an infestation myself, but I caught that one really quickly.
Spider mites are not a given. I have 50 houseplants and some of them near a decade, and have NEVER had spider mites. My best advice is when you bring a new plant home, quarantine it away from all your other plants for a couple of weeks. Better yet, do a real good inspection before purchase!
Great post. Loved information. Always watch your channel as informative and good fun humour. You remind me of a double act my mum used to talk about. Sadly not with us anymore so can't ask her but she loved them and I know she'd find you two hilarious. That's a Complement by the way ! All the best 😄😼🌱🇬🇧👍🕊
I'm so glad I found this video.. I just treated my monstera today and also my stingray I just received 2 days ago in the mail was crawling with spider mites! :/ Thank you for this video!
I don’t know much about the mites but I do know the chemistry of the hydrophobic webs! Soap is an emulsifier, so it will break down the web. That is how it works with disinfecting actually, it breaks down the hydrophobic cell walls of bacteria, killing it! I’m sure the brushing does a much more thorough job (just followed your instructions myself). Just thought I’d jump in with how all this is a sure “double-tap” of killing those mites lol.
OMG What a great video! Why I never thought 💭 of this I don’t know 🤷🏼♀️. You guys are not only informative but entertaining too! Love your channel. 💕💕💕
I'm so new at this I thought the dots on my plant was normal till I watched this video. I did how ever follow the rule of no touching so no other kids were harmed. My palms leaves were all yellowing and it was much worse than the video. I thought I wasn't watering right. Now I know what to look for, the little webs where deep in the leaves and I had to really spread the plant out to see them. Thank You for the video, who knows when I would have figured it out otherwise.
Thanks for this, it was so helpful and easy to follow. I'm a complete novice to all this and my lovely calathea had taken a real hammering before I'd realised what was going on. just spent a therapeutic couple of hours trimming cleaning and brushing!
Such a great video! So informative! My spider infestation was so bad I literally cut all the leaves off of my calathea ornata and medallion 😭. But if, I mean when, haha I get spider mites I know how to tackle them. I would love an update in the future for this plant 😊
Thank you! I was able to spot spider mites on my white fusion i thought my calathea was just acting like calathea but this vid was so well done I caught it early! I can see why people dont usually see these tell its heavily infested they're so hard to spot I had to use a magnify glass to be able to confirm it was spider mite
I’ve been using a paintbrush. Just ordered a flat top and a powder brush from wet & wild so they should be rough haha. Maybe I should have went with a foundation brush
This is an amazing vid on getting rid of those little jerks. I have a calathea that's got these guys (can't see them, but the tops of some of the leaves are sticky, with a sap-like stickiness which likely means they're there) and I was looking for a pet-safe way to get rid of them. This ticks all the boxes. Very thorough as well, thank you!
This was perfect timing for me as I just got an Elephant Ear and even the cutting in water has them. It's not super bad but I'm definitely trying your technique. What woman doesn't have a few funky makeup brushes lying around? Haha. Thanks for the great content!
is there an updated video? did your calathea survive? I have the same plant with the same issue and trying to decide if i am going to just compost it or save it
Thanks! Great video. I’ve been nervous to put that mixture on my plants but you tipped me over the edge today. Got in there and blew the little buggers up. Very comprehensive video!
WOW, definitely the most informative spider mite video I've seen. Thank you so much for sharing this technique, especially about the makeup brush. Do you ever find the rubbing alcohol burns your leaves? That's my only fear! Once again great video 👍
Hands down, 100% the best and most thorough spider mites video ever.
You are too kind! Thank you so much!❤️💯
Love you
Burn their houses downnnnnn
Yes! Thank you so much. My olive tree just got spider mites and there are many webs
If you wanna see in depth spider mite talk and control look at cannabis growers and how they handle it. Low humidity helps them reproduce. Up humidity and then take a sponge to wash under the leafs the sponge will pick up the eggs. Then use neem oil to take care of the rest.
“This is where spider mites love to have parties, they like to barbecue, they invite cousins over” 😂😂😂😂😂
They bug me:(
and they never leave room for Jesus :-D hahaha
I’m dying 😂
social distance my houseplants🙄
do the mites have keg parties on our plants🙄
Thank you for saying spider mites are a part of life! They always make me feel like I failed as a plantmom and made me want to give up gardening entirely! Hope you make videos for other plant pests 🤞🏼😅
PS I use a sponge to treat my plants 😊
Same here as a plant dad 😢😢😢
I noticed I had them when I touched the back of a leaf and felt something sticky!!! Not sure how you can do this with your bare hands, I swear I went in with a hazmat suit before touching it again
I feel traumatized after reading that. Sorry you had to experience that 🥴
If you're feeling stickiness, it's more likely to be mealybugs, scale or aphids. Fortunately, this alcohol spray works very well against those too. You'll need at least 50% alcohol spray to work against scale or mealybugs, due to their protective waxy coating.
This is my first time going up against pests (other than fugnus gnats) and I'm literally crying. I've quarantined what seems to be a third of my collection and I'm freaking out that the infestation has gotten out of hand. I've been so desperate, trying to find every possible solution until I came across your video. THANK YOU can't wait to try it out, luckily I have the perfect brush for it fingers crossed it works and my babies will be saved. Bless you
Girl same here. I have so many of my plants in my bathroom quarantining until I know how I'm gonna tackle these stupid bugs. I threw 3 beautiful lush, large plants away because they had way too many leaves and it made me sick to my stomach even thinking about how I'd tackle it! I hope you got everything under control!
@@mandidc9975 I'm so sad to hear that, totally feel you though. some are lost in the battle unfortunately although the brush method helps a lot and I managed to save some of my babies. I've heard neem oil also works wonders, mostly as preventive but it does take care of some pests. hope everything works out for you 💚🌿
Same! Just solved the gnats problem and started to enjoy my plants again, then found these stupid pests on my ivy (in the kitchen), string of dolphins and string of hearts (in my bedroom). The string of something has so many small leaves. I don't even know how I could brush every single one... I don't care about the ivy, but the dolphins was one of the first few plants I got when I started my plant journey this year. 😭I love my string of hearts too. It has grown so much and long. I am just devastated thinking about it.
@@LapineTingTing ughhh damn pests at it again. I'm no expert but in your case I'd shower my plants everytime I'd water them and spray some neem solution afterwards. can't imagine getting into every leaf in an ivy with a brush, but hopefully that would do the trick for you. Crossing my fingers your babies come out from this stronger
@@SenoritaVinaM Awww thank you so much for responding to me! The Ivy is small, so not many leaves and actually not too hard to clean, but it's the heaviest infested. :(
Worse case I might just throw the ivy away to keep my other plants safe. She is quarantining in the bathroom now, and guess what, I saw two gnats flew out of her when I picked her up and checked yesterday. 🤦🏻♀️🤣
SOD and SOH are quarantining in the guest bedroom. I am going to spray them with the alcohol and dosh soap mixture and see. I am not giving up yet! 💪🏼 Thank you again for the moral support!
Those white bits are actually the eggs the mites are kinda red and you'll see them moving trying to get away from the spray awesome video I'm fighting the same monster!
all of my plants in my greenhouse (very sentimental and expensive plants) all have spider mites. I spent 7 hours rinsing them all off, sobbing, and rubbing and spraying neem oil into all their soil and leaves🥲
After having a very long freak out, i found your video
Nice vid. My first year or so of planting was stress free and this second year has been straight whiteflies, scales, and now spidermites. If not treated pests can definitely take the fun out of planting
Agreed. Best video on spider mites hands down. Can’t believe it took so long for TH-cam’s algorithm to recommend this for me. Thank you so much for this great content.
Thank you!!❤️🙌🙌
The only step I want to do is step #1 get emotional support from Winston! ❤️
No kidding right!! 🙏❤️ We can get through the apocalypse with Winston,.......he a good boy❤️❤️❤️✊
A word of caution: this method worked very well on one of my plants but immediately killed my other plant. I don't think this is mentioned in the video, but it is very important to not get ANY of the alcohol solution in the soil of the plant. One of my plants has very vertical leaves that slope down into the soil, and the alcohol mixture trickled down the leaves because of gravity and started to soak in the soil. My plant absorbed the alcohol solution through its roots because of this, and by the next day every leaf on the plant was covered in brown spots and completely limp. It's been about two weeks since this happened and the plant hasn't recovered at all, I will likely have to throw it away which really sucks since I've had this plant at least 3 years. Just something to keep in mind!
This just happened to my plant as well 😢
Have you tried putting a plastic bag around your pot to cover the soil?
Just a little alcohol will kill them?
Room for jesus lol
Ahahahahaha yeah girl!😂😂❤️☕️
I haven't heard that for long, long time. 😀👍
Lls
Damn nearly choked on my pb sammich. 🤣
literally brought me back to catholic school days, this was my favorite part 😂
I just spent two freaking hours doing this treatment on 11 of my plants.. I have a book shelf with close to 20 maranta/calathea/ctenanthe on it and OF COURSE they're all touching. I haven't checked the third shelf yet to see if its affected, I didn't have the heart to look after treating so many plants, I'll have to address it tomorrow..
Now I have them all quarantined awaiting their next treatment. Thank you for this video, I have had lame experiences with neem oil in my garden and wasn't looking forward to using it on my indoor plants.
(PS I'm a relatively new fan and I love your videos.. I used to think Begonias belonged in the garden but after watching all your videos you've converted me, I just bought my first begonias from Gabriella Plants and Steves Leaves!)
I’m about over maranta and calatheas! Spider mites love them for parties.
Should the soil be treated as well? I always notice webbing across the top of the soil and it makes me want to change out the soil completely!
I believe I read today that they don’t really burry themselves- so just take off the very top layer where the webbing is and a little under and it should be fine.
@@nickybee800 diatomaceous earth
communal care is sharing this video with your plant friends, and for them to then share it with their friends. This is true communal knowledge. OP is a sage, bless you
This video got rid of spider mites for me!!!!! Against all odds it worked. I had to keep up the treatment about once a week for 3 weeks and it did the trick.
Do you rinse it off after at all after treating it?
I had a TON of spider mites on my giant Musa Basjoo banana tree. I only noticed something was wrong when I saw these weird looking brown spots all over the bottoms of all the leaves. I used this method and It got everything under control. Thank you so much!
Thank you for this video! I recently purchased a GORGEOUS Burle Marx Philodendron from a local and after one day I realized it was infested. I quarantined it and followed your instructions to the letter. You saved my baby! YAY! Thank you!
Excellent video! I do something similar. But I add some baby-oil to the spray mix because it suffocates the little bastards on contact. The soap dissolves the exoskeletons and eggs. The oil remains after the soap/alcohol solution dries and provides protection after treatment. Eventually the mineral oil goes away too. Vegetable oil will leave a sticky mess.
That is a super great idea!! Thank you!!🙌🙌💚
How to say you're an American without saying you're an American.
"There should be room for Jesus between plants."
This is the most helpful video I’ve watched so far, I just found out yesterday that one of my California ivys has spider mites and while I’m still itchy and traumatized by the discovery this makes me feel confident about getting rid of them
Thank you! I like this technique. This gives you an alternative to the neem oil spray as well. As we know, not all plants take well to neem oil. Thank you for the tip on treating alocasias. I don't typically treat them for spider mites unless I see them. Great video!
Thank you so much! I am so glad that you liked it!🙏💚
You're saving my life over here! That brush is genius!!! I just found mites on some of my plants. I usually get predator mites delivered but you know, the mail is backed up right now. I wasn't feeling very faithful in trying to spray down every inch of my plants, but the brush should make it worth the effort! Thank you!
I threw away my Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree before I found this video. It was so infested and they got on two of my other plants. Wishing I found this before I gave up on my Fiddle. 😭
YES. I know someone who got rid of a collection of once beautiful plants after not knowing how to destroy these monsters. Thankyou for being real, and dealing with this situation on camera for us. People need to know that this happens, and how to homewreck the jerks. So much love.
Thank you!!!🙌🙌😭❤️
The Best Spider mite video ever! You are killing the game Boo!!
Thank you so much Reagan!!💚✊ So glad that you like the video!!👑🔥
I am so glad someone addressed "the elephant in the room." Soooo many plant posters on here show off their HUGE collections and their plants are all jammed together to "make room." Some of them are even under the bigger plants, making one wonder how they even survive. These plant tours make me cringe. If there is any kind of disease or pest outbreak, all those plants are touching each other and it will spread like wildfire! I also don't understand what the use is of having beautiful plants if you can't see them!
Such situations look more like hoarding than having a nice collection of plants. Messy and dangerous for all the plants involved. My plants are displayed nicely together in groups and I NEVER let them or their pots touch.
bkrbkrl ,I agree it's acceptable hoarding it seems😓
I agree, I like to keep space between my plants but the reason some sit their plants close to each other is to create humidity, which some plants - such as these calatheas - need to thrive and they likely avoid infestation by spraying them with insecticidal soap and/or neem oil on a regular basis.
Agreed, i keep all my plants from touching and its helped others from not getting bugs from ones that do have them. But plants touch each other in nature.. it really shouldn't be this stressful to own plants, u shouldnt have to watch every branch that moves and nit pick about whos touching who. Plant keeping should be fun, and whatever makes someone happy is all that matters, so if someone wants to keep 100+ plants in their home and have them all touching, thats up to them.
@@bkrbkrl yea ur right about that first half.. but theres no "wrong" reason to collect plants. I mean i have plants because i love plants & nature, and always have.. but you have to love plants in order to fill ur house with them, right?
And yes, whatever makes someone happy *IS* all that matters, *as long* as it isnt harming anyone else. In this case its harming the plants yea, but they arent sentient beings.
All im saying is let people do whatever tf they want with their life.. if they wanna make things harder on themselves by grouping 100 plants together and letting them all get bugs, thats on them. Why waste ur time & energy on what other people are doing?
Samatha mother of cats. True that period. Nothing else to be said mother of cats.Nature is Nature yes.. Let's keep it Real and positive.Be U nobody else.😊✌🌹🌹🌹
Thank you so much for this. One of the best I've watched in dealing with spider mites. I actually use your mix with few drops of baby oil or coconut oil to clean the leaves of my orchids and houseplants. I spray then wipe it dry with cloth. Thank you for showing your technique. Now I know how to wipe it down properly because of you. I enjoyed hearing the voice of Winston supporting you. He's a keeper - lucky you!!!
The plant at the beginning is calathea medallion
I have NO IDEA why I said that. I didn’t even catch it in EDITING!!😂😂💚 My bad thanks for catching that!😂
I was scratching my head thinking 🤔?!?! ☺️
Lol ok I thought I was losing it. Yep not ornata
Just did this technique to my Maui Queen Calathea. She was MADLY infested - they were matured mites, I could actually see them crawling, and the back of the leaves was just plain white - lol. Got some gloves on, an old toothbrush (it was a bit too harsh I think :( ) and made this solution. The leaves don't have webs/ eggs on them anymore, but I will repeat the process two more times, as instructed. I have also used some insecticide spray prior to this technique. I'd say the spray killed the matured ones, but not the eggs. I really hope I can bring the plant back to life. It's my first plant and it crushed me when I saw it infected - and I am so grossed out by bugs too! :( Thank you for sharing this, I hope my plant will recover soon! Much love from Romania.
Update: I probably scrubbed too hard because most of my leaves are now super curled up and look dehydrated. :( I cut the worst ones off but I think this plant is a goner 😭😭
The makeup brush is genius!
Thank you so much!🙏❤️
Bless you for bare hand touching the plant with spider mites!
What would you do for like a pothos or something with A MILLION leaves?
Get a tub full of soapy water with some and stick it in there upside down 😂
Just found them on my string of dolphins and string of hearts. I am devastated. Couldn't see the mites and didn't find webbing, but from the bites on some leaves as well as the amount of leaves dried out on the dolphins, should be them... I just sprayed them with the alcohol and dish soap mixture. 😞Can't really brush and clean every leaf because they are tiny and too many... 😭
What would you do if the spider mites also lived in your soil 😭 I love this new technique so much! I’ve used I don’t know how much neem oil concentrate on plants and have no luck. This brush method is GENIUS. You are a real hero for this video!!
This is THE most helpful and informative and CLEAR (and entertaining) video about this that I have seen. Thank you!
oh my god my calathea has been starting to look like this and i was wondering what was going on!!! now i know. thank you for this video
Thank you for sacrificing your plant for us. Good advice
Thank you for appreciating that love!🙏❤️✊
06:15 Video starts.
The treatment makes the leaves very clean and shiny.
Yes maam!🙏❤️
5:10 "leave room for jesus" LMAO 🤣🤣🤣
This was SUPER helpful. I tried neem oil and learned the hard way that I am very allergic to it! All I was over here thinking is "Ok, now what??" Thanks for the tips!
Thank you so much! I am so glad that you liked it!💚🙏
I have spider mites on my bonsai plant. I also use this same mixture to clean my plants but with an old toothbrush- the makeup brush seems a whole lot better though so ty for that tip!! Cleaning all those tiny leaves is a few hour process. I was growing an arugula plant that was a bit too close to the bonsai and it became VERY VERY badly infested. It’s now outside. May the gods be in its favor lol! Many of my plants have small leaves. Why do I do this to myself. 😅
Absolutely worked for me! I think I managed to catch the mites early in their infestation, that after a week of doing this, I didn't see any more, and now 6 months later, I haven't seen any since! Definitely saving this recipe for the future in case I need it 😁
My 9 year old daughter who is into plants like momma. We watched this video. We were talking about plant pests. She asked have you ever had spider mites? I said no thankfully I have only dealt with aphids my whole life owning plants. The very next morning her and I went to check the veggie plants that were in the house. Omg!!!!!! The pepper plants were loaded 😱!!!! Now I had just checked on them 3 days prior! Haven't been feeling well so her and I had been watching Harli G, Kaylee Ellen and of course Rachel and Casey on Heart Shaped Leaves. All my favs! I feel like they teleported through the internet! No I'm just kidding. 🤣 All the veggie plants went outside. We have been inspecting all 50 something houseplants every morning and night. So far so good. 🤘🏼.
Do you ever treat the soil?
I will treat the soil ONLY after treating 3 or 4 times with no resolution. First I will use peroxide, then I will use Houseplant systemic pesticides to protect the plants💯👌
Question for you...after you do the treatment you said you spray them down one more time is that with a water shower to get the soap mix off or is it with another soap treatment? Please help! Thank you
I have the same question! LOL
Came back to this video just to say you are truly a genius for the makeup brush. I just did it and I feel so confident I killed every home they ever thought of having LMAO
Finally a good tutorial, this looks really thorough. How would you go about velvety leaf-plants, like a Alocasia Micholitziana?
Thank you calathea for your sacrifice.
Thank you for this video!! The shower trick didn't work for me, I hate using neem oil on plants in my bedroom, and using tape to get all the mites I could see off of both of my birds of paradise was taking hours (and I still wasn't getting even close to all of them). Followed your video and finished both plants in about an hour and I don't see ANY mites today, but I'll still repeat the treatment for a few more weeks. I was so sad about losing both of my big gals after I lost my prized calathea makoyana to mites last year--now I have hope that they'll pull through!
This worked so well! Only did it once, and haven't seen any spider mites on my fiddle leaf fig for 2 months now!
I was wondering if this was safe to do on fiddleleaf figs! ♥️
Step one was already admitted the moment I clicked on this video
Re-consulted this video after finding them starting up o my fiddle leaf. First time I havent completely panicked because I knew I could toss this video on and fight them with your guidance 😭 you're the best. May they suffer for eternity.
Did this technique hurt the fiddle leaf fig at all? I just discovered them today while checking on the baby leaves that are growing.
@@autumnkeebaugh9958 no! I have used it on all my plants except the fuzzy ones like my african violets. Id suggest doing it evening so it can dry all night.
Thank you so much for this step by step tutorial! Love your sense of humor and how much you care for your plants!! Happy Holidays
Rubbing alcohol is hard to get during quarantine. Is there something else we can use? Vodka or vinegar?
Yellow Listerine.
I’ve been using hydrogen peroxide
Soojin Sou - Hi. Does the hydrogen peroxide burn the plant leaves? I have more of that then alcohol. Thanks.
I love this video. You should do a lot more of these!!!
Thank you so much! I am so glad that you liked it. 💚🙏💯
This just gelped me SO MUCH! I found a pretty bad infestation on my alocasia. Luckily it only has 3 leaves :)
this video cured my anxiety. ive been battling spider mites on my calatheas for 2 weeks now & i want to cry. i felt like such a failure.
LOL, at my middle school they called it the "daylight rule". You had to be able to see daylight in between you! hahaha...
I'm with you girl, I do my best to make sure that my plants are close but not touching. I thought maybe I was a bit of a freak... lol, glad to know I'm not the only one! Thanks for putting this out. I am definitely going to try this. I have a Medallion that my beneficial bugs didn't take care of so, I gotta do something else! I thought about throwing it away but I'm glad I saw this before I did that!
Let me know how it goes!🙏🌿 Be sure and do a second a thrid follow up treatment👌💯
Right, off to check every single leaf now! Thanks so much, this is a brilliant tutorial!!
I have tried your method and I like it. I think neem oil isn't as instant as alcohol. It is more like a systemic kind of pest control oil. Just finished treatment on my Alocasia Yucatan princess and happy to report that I have yet to find anymore spidermites on it after a 2 week treatment. However, I'll do another week just because I'm paranoid. I also spray the top soil and all around and under the pot too. Thank you for showing the whole process.
I've just discovered I have a spider mite infestation so this is going to be how I'm spending my whole afternoon 😭😭 thank you for making this video it's super helpful! My only question is do you rinse of the spray from the leaves or do you left the treatment dry on the leaves without rinsing?
I want to know this also!
Me too! It sounds like she leaves it on, but I'm not completely sure
Seen where you should use alcohol only 70%, tea tree oil, peppermint, and peroxide. Not dawn dish soap because the degreaser can kill the leaves.
Get rid of every home they ever thought about 😂 I love how thorough you are!!! I’m up against thrips and spider mites and so grateful that I found this video
I performed this treatment on multiple calatheas and a stromanthe triostar. I haven't seen spider mites return but it has also killed 40-80% of the leaves on all my plants (still counting). So be careful with this treatment. Maybe dilute with more water. I do love the make up brush tip though.
Use horticultural soap. I can't stress that enough. Detergent based soaps burn and kill precious plant tissue. Now, don't get me wrong, some strong willed plants can handle it. But, delicate type plants, or badly stressed plants, it will definitely damage them. And remember, keep your plants out of light for a while after spraying isopropyl alcohol. Personally, I prefer a Neem/horticultural soap mix to spray.
While some of this info will just add needless work, the part about mites not infecting other plants unless they're touching is erroneous. As she stated, they travel on air, they can travel to any other plant in the room, or even the house. Ask me how I know.
I managed to do this treatment on my Ficus Benjamina which has fairly small and dainty leaves. I used a much smaller makeup brush. Took me about an hour just to do the one plant though because of all the foliage. So far so good. :)
Omg I hope it helps!!👏👏❤️
It can be so frustrating with spidermites💯
I am going to try this! Do you clean the brush between leaves? Or just after before you treat another plant?!
You are my favorite person right now; these pernicious little pests have been wreaking havoc on my plants and I am overjoyed to have a method to counteract their destruction!
Just started watching your channel!! New sub here!! You really are the best at showing exactly what to do!! I have been a plant lover and collector for years!! Everyone else either tells you to spray with the same ingredients that you mentioned or that terrible need oil and I thought that is all you had to do!! I love how you went into this detail and showed everything!! I am so paranoid about bugs that I almost killed a few plants last summer spraying them with need!! I have a dislike and so does my hubby for that terrible sh*t!! So I will continue to use the alcohol dish soap. I have also sprayed with the captain jack spray that nick recommended and tolerated it better and I have put the systemic stuff in the top of most of my plants soil!! I am a freak about bugs!!
You are brave for keeping that video in the same room as other plants, even just for a video. They are the WORST! Only ever had one plant survive an infestation myself, but I caught that one really quickly.
Spider mites are not a given. I have 50 houseplants and some of them near a decade, and have NEVER had spider mites. My best advice is when you bring a new plant home, quarantine it away from all your other plants for a couple of weeks. Better yet, do a real good inspection before purchase!
I just looked at my plant and the ENTIRE plant was covered in webs and mites :(
Great post. Loved information. Always watch your channel as informative and good fun humour. You remind me of a double act my mum used to talk about. Sadly not with us anymore so can't ask her but she loved them and I know she'd find you two hilarious. That's a Complement by the way ! All the best 😄😼🌱🇬🇧👍🕊
Awww thank you so much for that reference!💚🙏Much love from Arkansas!🌿💚💚🙏
Brush idea is genius
I’m a new plant mom with herbs and I saw mites and I was terrified! I’m happy to see such a helpful video that didnt require need oil😆
I'm so glad I found this video.. I just treated my monstera today and also my stingray I just received 2 days ago in the mail was crawling with spider mites! :/ Thank you for this video!
I don’t know much about the mites but I do know the chemistry of the hydrophobic webs! Soap is an emulsifier, so it will break down the web. That is how it works with disinfecting actually, it breaks down the hydrophobic cell walls of bacteria, killing it! I’m sure the brushing does a much more thorough job (just followed your instructions myself). Just thought I’d jump in with how all this is a sure “double-tap” of killing those mites lol.
OMG What a great video! Why I never thought 💭 of this I don’t know 🤷🏼♀️. You guys are not only informative but entertaining too! Love your channel. 💕💕💕
Thank you so much! I am so glad that you liked it!!🙏🙏🙏💚
I've always said I don't do well with Calatheas but after seeing this I might have to try again...thank you!
I'm so new at this I thought the dots on my plant was normal till I watched this video. I did how ever follow the rule of no touching so no other kids were harmed. My palms leaves were all yellowing and it was much worse than the video. I thought I wasn't watering right. Now I know what to look for, the little webs where deep in the leaves and I had to really spread the plant out to see them. Thank You for the video, who knows when I would have figured it out otherwise.
This is the very same exact method I use on my plants when/if I get mites and it works! But I use a microfiber cloth, lol. Still works tho! ✊🙌🙌
Yes girl!! Gotta get in there and get em!!😂😂👌💚
@@HeartShapedLeaves kill them bugs DED!!
Thanks for this, it was so helpful and easy to follow. I'm a complete novice to all this and my lovely calathea had taken a real hammering before I'd realised what was going on. just spent a therapeutic couple of hours trimming cleaning and brushing!
Hi there! I'm currently dealing with spider mites. What was the percentage of the rubbing alcohol? Like is it 99%, 70%, etc.?
Judging by the bottle color, she is using 71%
Such a great video! So informative! My spider infestation was so bad I literally cut all the leaves off of my calathea ornata and medallion 😭. But if, I mean when, haha I get spider mites I know how to tackle them.
I would love an update in the future for this plant 😊
I definitely plan to do one in the future!! Thank you so much for watching!!🙏❤️
Should we rinse off the alcohol+ soap from the leaves ?? Great video!(:
You should if your alcohol ratio was really high.... if not, then I wouldn’t worry about it because soap in itself isn’t harmful to the plants💯
I don't think I have ever laughed so hard while fretting over a plant 😂 Thank you
The editing and the jokes are hilarious! Talent.
Ok... Now I'm glad my elephant ear only puts out 2 leafs at a time 😂
THANK YOU!! I'm sorry for yelling, but you're saving my plants with this information! 😭
Thank you so much! I am so glad that you liked it!!😂😂😂✊💚
Great idea with the makeup brush to destroy the webs! Now i just have to make sure I don't use the same brush for my foundation.
Does anyone know how you would deal with spider mites on a plant with velvety leaves?
I’d love to know as well.. I’m looking at my new micans and giving it the side eye.. not feeling great about it.
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This was SO helpful. Thank you so much!! The makeup brush trick is awesome!
Thank you so much! I am so glad that you liked it. 🙌🙌❤️
Thank you! I was able to spot spider mites on my white fusion i thought my calathea was just acting like calathea but this vid was so well done I caught it early! I can see why people dont usually see these tell its heavily infested they're so hard to spot I had to use a magnify glass to be able to confirm it was spider mite
I’ve been using a paintbrush. Just ordered a flat top and a powder brush from wet & wild so they should be rough haha. Maybe I should have went with a foundation brush
This is an amazing vid on getting rid of those little jerks. I have a calathea that's got these guys (can't see them, but the tops of some of the leaves are sticky, with a sap-like stickiness which likely means they're there) and I was looking for a pet-safe way to get rid of them. This ticks all the boxes. Very thorough as well, thank you!
This was perfect timing for me as I just got an Elephant Ear and even the cutting in water has them. It's not super bad but I'm definitely trying your technique. What woman doesn't have a few funky makeup brushes lying around? Haha. Thanks for the great content!
Thank you so much for the best most informative spider mite video ever!!!!! 💚💚💚
Thank you so much! I am so glad that you liked it. 🙏🙏💚
is there an updated video? did your calathea survive? I have the same plant with the same issue and trying to decide if i am going to just compost it or save it
An update on this video would be fantastic ! 😊
Thanks! Great video. I’ve been nervous to put that mixture on my plants but you tipped me over the edge today. Got in there and blew the little buggers up. Very comprehensive video!
WOW, definitely the most informative spider mite video I've seen. Thank you so much for sharing this technique, especially about the makeup brush. Do you ever find the rubbing alcohol burns your leaves? That's my only fear! Once again great video 👍
I have never had it happen and I have used this solution on verrucosum, and melanochrysum as well👌💚 Always test your plant first!✊💚