I wish I could post the pics from my microscope. I was checking the plants this morning and saw a bunch of fat little bugs (smaller that an average speck of sand) crawling around the soil. I took a teaspoon of sand, put it on a plate, isolated one of the buggers from the sand particles, put the plate in the toaster oven until it stopped crawling, then put him under the scope. What I found made me think spider mite. I threw some loose leaf tobacco on top of the soil (actually on top of the 1/2" of sand I used to get rid of my fungus gnats), and sprayed with enough rubbing alcohol to saturate the top 1/2" of sand. I took one more of the buggers that was a little more mature, and decided that maybe it looked more like Amblyseius fallacis, a predator of spider mites. They all look so alike, though. I hate to do this, but I think the only way to be sure before I take further action is to wait till I see webs.

So whats the opinion, folks? Do you think I should wait till I see webs, or start with the tobacco juice, suds, pepper spray, neem oil, etc. pronto?
sinky Reviewed by sinky on . Spider Mites or Amblyseius Fallacis? I wish I could post the pics from my microscope. I was checking the plants this morning and saw a bunch of fat little bugs (smaller that an average speck of sand) crawling around the soil. I took a teaspoon of sand, put it on a plate, isolated one of the buggers from the sand particles, put the plate in the toaster oven until it stopped crawling, then put him under the scope. What I found made me think spider mite. I threw some loose leaf tobacco on top of the soil (actually on top of the 1/2" Rating: 5