White mites are extremely tiny clear bugs, which may show up indoors & around yard plants.
These mites reproduce very swiftly & if left untreated, they can multiply in huge numbers & can massively hamper garden plants & ornamental bushes.
Before you carry out the treatment program, ensure that it is white mites that you are facing and no other species. It is because misidentification of the species can result in opting for incorrect treatment products and substances that ultimately result in a waste of money and time.
We are listing a few of the information concerning white mites, which help you identify them:
- White mites are even called spider mites as they share a typical very basic feature/characteristic with spiders – 8 legs. White mites also ticks & are arachnids & having eight legs is one of the most common features among arachnid species.
- White mites may come in distinct colors. However, a specific species called 2 Spotted Spider Mites are even white.
- Even called wood mites, white mites are minute translucent bugs highly known to infest moisture-ridden, old, or damp wood articles.
- White mites are even very tiny and measure just 0.5mm or 1/50th of the inch in length in the course of their adulthood phase. They can be easily identified through fine silken thread production, leaving on plants or any other substance.
- White mites are harmless as they do not bite or create structural harm. However, the long hairs that they frequently shed are harmful. Their airborne hairs are incredibly dangerous as they carry allergens & cause allergic reactions at home.
- In case these white mites get fortunate to find their way into your yard, then your plants might be at high risk—these mites like feeding on plants, particularly in springtime.
Take the help of images & descriptions to present online to help you recognize white mites on any of your property.
Table of Contents
Inspection
Inspecting mites can be tricky as they are minute species. But there are undoubtedly particular and prime regions where you can discover and treat them.
Where Can You Inspect Them?
White mites are found in gardens, greenhouses, shrubs, and other house plants. In case they get indoors, they may get concentrated on your house furniture.
Thus, ensure to check their indoor perimeter, that is, along baseboards, behind electrical plating, around plumbing, etc. & at your outdoor perimeter along with any points of entry that white mites might use to gain accessibility into your house.
What Should You Look For?
You must look for cast skins, leaf damage, webbing, or white mites themselves. As they are small precise species, their appearance in plants might be a tiny white speck. The next thing to look for is the silken thread that they often leave behind that appears similar to white cobweb hairs.
Prevention
Once you have treated white mite infestation, make sure they do not again come back. Take some preventive steps to stop their come back.
Clear excess foliage 2 feet away from the structure to keep the host plants away. Jam those entry points by placing screens on the doors & windows & utilizing caulk for sealing the crevices and cracks.
Ensure to water your outdoor area as this helps keep away white mites. Every week ensure to water at a rate of up to 1.5 inches. However, ensure not to overwater because this might invite unwanted pest activity into your yard.
Lastly, conduct preventative applications called reclaim IT in and around your yard & at the perimeter every quarter. Doing so would ensure total control of the white mites & other pests around the year.
White Mites: Everything You Need To Know
- White mites are small minute species, also called spider mites, known to attack outdoor gardens & even your house plants. Note that they can infest home areas too.
- White mites are even called wood mites, a special variant of mites that frequently damps wood.
- While these mites are thoroughly harmless to humans, they can be highly damaging to the host plants when they are in huge numbers.
How to Get Rid of White Mites?
- In your area, apply for reclaiming IT if you have found white mite infestation in your home and outdoors to prevent any damage to plants & create strong barriers that will help keep them away.
- Reclaim IT must be mixed in pump sprayer between 0.25 and 0.5 fl. oz, per 1,000 square feet rate & sprayed on plants & shrubs to wet.
How to Prevent White Mite Re-Infestation?
You can prevent any future mite infestation by effectively sealing up all the entry points, watering your home yard regularly & applying regular follow-up treatments of the reclaim IT every three months.
How to Identify White Mites?
Most species of mites usually live in gardens. Spider mites are tiny, and you will require a 10X lens to recognize them accurately.
Moreover, you will more likely find few damages before identifying these white mites by randomly assessing leaves. Conducting frequent examinations is necessary as you will find them early and control these mites.
Mites are oval in appearance; they are little bristled & pale green when juveniles. And they grow a distinct dark green spot as they grow into adults. The green dots present are their guts’ contents & what endows the two-spotted spider mites with this name.
Spider mites feed via piercing or sucking action that leaves white pin prick marks. For those with individual plants, the initial sign of an infestation is to find such marks in huge numbers in specific areas.
It might take some hunting; however, you can easily figure out the damage from a distance away with practice. As the population rises, feeding regions get larger, resulting in the entire leaf’s yellowing & causing it to fall. White mites move to the top from bottom, and thus, it is likely you will figure out initial damage on plants towards their lower growth as their leaves become more spotted as they grow in number and the mite steadily moves up towards the plant. In dire situations, the whole plant may turn yellow or collapse.
What Type of Garden and Plants Are Prone to White Mites Infestation?
While white mites are widespread pests that are succulent, they even have no issue spreading or disseminating to other kinds such as flowers, houseplants & vegetables. White mites even are common in evergreen and deciduous trees.
Why Are They Harmful?
Mites are found in ornamental, landscape, or houseplants. They are versatile little species with lower plant strength and even transmit a few dangerous diseases & viruses.
White mites feed by thoroughly piercing plant cells & feeding on moisture inside. Such activity leaves yellowing or necrotic spots.
Do White Mites Bite Humans?
White mites prey on insects. Species such as straw itch mite usually infest the stored products. Humans get bitten when they encounter hay, straw, leaves, grasses, seeds, or any other similar component harbored by mites.
The next species, called P. herfsi, even attacks those insects residing in completely sheltered areas, involving midges larvae in leaf galls & eggs of the cicadas underneath the tree bark. When they get separated from their prey, white mites might contact & bite various other animals, including humans.
You may not easily see white mites and not feel their bites. However, they leave an itchy red mark, which resembles some kind of skin rash. Luckily, the white mites cannot live on humans, & they do not survive for a long time when indoors thus do not transmit any disease.
Getting Rid of White Mites
Once you are certain about the existence of white mites & have knowledge about their major location, you should start the treatment. Follow the listed measures below, and you would notice a drastic reduction in your white mite issue.
However, before you proceed with the treatment, ensure your protective machine is placed on & keep people & pets away from the already treated regions till the application gets dried.
Measure No. 1: Apply the Reclaim IT Outdoors
Please note that, Reclaim IT outdoor is a form of bifenthrin kind of insecticide concentrate used to control white mites and over seventy different types of pests such as termites, cockroaches, fleas & others. Also, you can safely spray the reclaim IT both on the outdoors and indoors & it is sure to stay effective for nearly three months.
Begin by calculating the target region’s square footage to know how much Reclaim IT you require. Mix the apt amount of the reclaim IT in the gallon hand pump sprayer and water. Ensure to spray a typical amount from 0.25 to 0.5 fl oz every 1000 square feet in the water of 1 gallon. Also, mix Reclaim IT insecticide with a surfactant to ensure that it effectively sticks well to the existing surface area.
Agitate sprayer once water and product are poured till entirely mixed, then ensure to pump effectively with a sprayer a few times. Spray on the entry areas around the home structure like windows, doors, vent openings & various other voids in the wall. Even perform a perimeter treatment beginning at 1 point of your house & spray along the foundation.
Once You Are Done:
- Spray Reclaim IT on the treat trunks, bushes, ornamental plants between low and medium pressure & preferably mist set up.
- Ensure to crucially coat the leaves from bottom to tip with this solution.
- Treat the leaves underside region.
- Note that the spraying work is done on a calm day and not when the wind speeds are high.
Spray the Reclaim IT in your home around cabinets, baseboard, doors, window & other crevice and crack regions. When outdoors, you can use it as a broadcast spray on lawn & vegetation or around your windows, structure foundation, eaves, doors & electrical/plumbing penetrations.
Measure No. 2: Spray the Reclaim IT Indoors
When indoors, you must perform spot treatment of regions you suspect of white mite concentration. Restrict Reclaim IT application to crevices & cracks & infested house plants.
Before spraying your household plants, ensure to clean all your outside plants with water & soap for removing all traces of any white mite activity. Once done, treat it with the Reclaim IT.
After this, treat the indoor crevices and cracks, only in those regions you suspect white mites have harbored.
Getting Rid of White Mites Naturally
Once you have recognized the white mites infesting your cacti and succulents, it is time to end this issue.
There are different ways of treating this issue, so you require deciding which method would work best for your plants and indoor articles.
Most of the highly experienced gardeners discourage reaching for harsh pesticides to treat white mites. Any exposure to ingredients in pesticides can hamper your family and pets’ health as these are toxic chemicals that put health at high risk.
Thus, before proceeding with pesticides, ensure to try a natural way out to eliminate these beasts.
Water
While water will not get you rid of white mites, it is a good place to begin no matter what measure of treatment you plan to use. It is thoroughly natural & will not hamper plants. It will not impact your selected method or any treatment either.
Before using any natural techniques, spray your plant with a high-pressure water blast. This may mean utilizing a spray bottle & adjusting the bottle’s nozzle for single streaming the water for those very delicate plants. For those plants that are hardy in nature, particularly the outdoor plants, use a hose if you would like.
Spray those regions of the plant that white mites may impact to knock them out. Water will eliminate the maximum of the webbing, which would make the treatment method a lot more effective.
Can Vinegar Kill Mites?
Cleaning home with vinegar is a great way to eliminate dust mites. Such microscopic, small species are linked to spiders and feed on dust in a home. Keeping your home areas dust-free can assist keep the home free from mites.
Dentification
Vinegar is nothing but an acidic element, which can kill dust mites, as per the Wise Bread site. Usage of vinegar to mop your floor and dust your furniture can rid you of dust particles & even eradicate dust mites.
Homemade Cleaning Solution
It is recommended for a straightforward vinegar-based home cleaning solution to mix one part of vinegar & one part of vegetable glycerin.
Cleaning with Vinegar
You may utilize the solution to wipe off floors, woodwork, walls, & ceiling. Dip in a cloth into the homemade vinegar solution till the liquid gets absorbed completely. Wring out an excess solution & cover standard mop with a cloth.
Other Natural Remedies
Neem Oil
Neem oil is one of the best choices for getting rid of various pests’ gardens as it is thoroughly a natural element. Neem oil is present in the neem tree seeds. It is a yellowish-brown tone and smells a little like sulfur or garlic.
It is a naturally occurring pesticide. However, it can be highly irritating for eyes and skins; thus, being cautious when using it is crucial. Use gloves when applying the neem solution on plants. Also, it is toxic to cats, so ensure to keep pets away when treating your plants or other articles.
Neem oil is particularly helpful for mite infestation as it impacts arachnids’ potential to reproduce and grow. It can help slow down the reproduction rate of mites and permit you to get a better hand over infestation control. Moreover, neem oil impacts mites’ ability to feed upon succulents as it assists in slowing down the destruction of those plants close to you.
One of the drawbacks of neem oil is that you require to reapply it every 2 to 3 days till you are sure the white mites are eliminated. As you will be dealing with numerous generations of white mites, it can take many weeks of treatment to eradicate them.
Insecticidal Soap
Effective and popular pest control measures might seem outdated to few gardeners, but it works well on white mites & is even gentle on cacti and succulents.
It is nothing but a simple solution prepared with soap diluted into the water for those who are not familiar with insecticidal soap. It is a non-toxic substance to both animals and humans. Thus, it is perfect for homes with pets and kids.
Insecticidal soap kills the mites by drying off their bodies to the core. It easily penetrates the white mites’ cuticles & creates their cells to dry out and then collapse.
However, it is not a very fast procedure; you will need to be patient if you utilize insecticidal soap to treat mite infestation. Insecticidal soap can be found easily in a local nursery or even on online retail platforms. Usually, it is not costly.
Conclusion
Though white mites are tough to see, they are not completely invisible; it is just that they are very small, which makes them untraceable.
In case they find their way into your home, you are sure to see them on your carpets, furniture, bed linen & other house furnishings.