If you have an infestation right now, spray once a day for 4 days, then every other day for a week. Then twice a week for 2 weeks, and finally once a week for maintaining once all signs of live mites and their damage have stopped.

This method also works with plain water if you can put you plants in a bath tub and use a shower to wash under the leaves. Be careful that the stem is fully supported because the water-logged plant will be very heavy. when you've finished just leave the plant for an hour to let the water run off and it will soon return to it's former shape. Late in flowering get a can of air-freshener because this will really stink up your bathroom.

What's happening is you are interrupting their breeding cycle.

When you wash the SMs off the plant within a few hours previously laid eggs will have hatched. The egss cannot be washed off.

SMs that are 1-2 days old are almost impossible to spot with the naked eye.

After ~3 days you can start to see them. By day 4 they are fully mature and have already laid eggs.

eggs can take between 3-10 days to hatch, some will lie dormant for much longer as a bit of long term survival insurance.

In large groups they behave as a colony and will attempt to make a web 'nest' close to the stem of the plant, otherwise they will continue in a solitary mode of eating, breeding and laying eggs until they die at around 9 days. They need to get up to a critical mass of thousands to form a colony.
emmpey Reviewed by emmpey on . STOP Spider Mites with ROSEMARY OIL: TUTORIAL!! How to extract, render and use it! HOW TO CONTROL SPIDER MITES WITH EDIBLE ROSEMARY OIL SPRAY! This is the correct way to control spider mites with Rosemary Oil. I have gigantic rosemary bushes outside my home offering more than a lifetime supply of it so I learned how to make this and mix it properly to get the desired effect. Required Items: 1. Rosemary plants, trees, bushes or Rosemary Oil Rating: 5