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These little pests love hot, dusty, dry conditions

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED MAY 11, 2020

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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Keywords:

gardening Sacramento integrated pest management spider mites vegetables drought roses pesticides irrigation summer weather

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Garden Checklist for week of May 19

Temperatures will be a bit higher than normal in the afternoons this week. Take care of chores early in the day – then enjoy the afternoon. It’s time to smell the roses.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. If you haven’t already, it’s time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters.

* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Don’t forget to water. Seedlings need moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants.

* Add mulch to the garden to help keep that precious water from evaporating. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch to 1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.

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