Parasites are NOT our friends!
July 11th, 2006
Don’t worry, it’s massively enlarged in that picture. Click the image for more interesting pictures of the bugs and the plant they’re living on.
Our lovely New Guinea impatiens plant (a housewarming gift from Tom and Lindsey – you can see it here) is not doing so well anymore. It appears to be infested with spider mites, and it isn’t much enjoying the experience…
I’m not sure what we can do about it at this point, unfortunately. Most of the remedies I’ve seen online seem more suited to outdoor plants, or large greenhouses. Things like “immerse the entire plant into 110°F water for 20 minutes” just aren’t feasible. Nor are spraying nasty chemicals around our living room, or spending 80$ on carnivorous mites to eat the naughty mites. Most of the flowers have fallen off now though, and many leaves are severely wilted… I hope it can survive!
110 deg F or C?? Mmm boiled impatiens…
Fahrenheit, I hope! They were all silly American sites that suggested such things. I updated the post to read °F now.
Got here via blake’s page, so thank him :)
My wife is big into organics, which is what you want always, but especially when you are living in close proximity :) Here is her researched solution:
‘Hmm, well, one of the reasons for spider mites is that the planted is
stressed. Impatiens like shade, so make sure it’s not in too much sun
and that it is getting the right amount of water.
“Spider-mite infestation is a clear sign that water is not effectively
being pulled up by the roots or moving into the plant. The problem can
be caused by too much or too little water, chemically imbalanced soil,
compacted soil or other environmental issues.
Liquid-seaweed spray is highly effective to rid plants of spider
mites. In fact it works as well as or better than chemicals. Most
mixtures that contain seaweed also will work.
Spraying just about anything every three days for nine days will get
rid of them. Garlic-pepper tea and seaweed mix is one of the best
sprays. Citrus oil sprays are also effective.
However, the mites will reinfest unless you correct the problem that
invited them in the first place.”‘
Those are typically available at organic gardening stores (and even places like Home Depot are starting to carry the standard stuff.) With things like citrus oil you also have to be careful with the concentration so that you don’t burn the plant.
Check out http://www.dirtdoctor.com/, I think that is where she gets lot of her info (there and from his books.)
Good luck, hopefully it isn’t too late!
Thanks for the tips! We’ve been keeping it pretty shady, but I’m sure that we underwatered it a bit when we first got it (probably when the mites were first moving in). It really drinks a huge amount of water! We had some scary moments when the whole thing collapsed overnight, but within an hour of dumping a litre into it, it had perked right up again.
I’ve never heard of seaweed spray before, but I’ll definitely have a look for it soon. We just gave it a good spraying with just plain water – a lot of leaves fell off, but I’m hoping they were the leaves covered in bugs, so the population probably just dropped significantly!
I’ll post again with an update in the next little while – we’ll see if we can’t save the poor plant!