Spider mites can be a winter epidemic in the Lower Mainland because our homes are warm and dry. They seem to be a February thing on houseplants and they can do serious damage to anything they infest. They can infest a home very quickly as they have a four-week life cycle: their eggs hatch in three days, become sexually mature in a week and the females will lay 20 eggs a day. They should be called vampire mites because they feed by puncturing and sucking the juices out of a plant, and they don’t like the sunlight. Signs of an infestation include webbing around the leaves and tons of creepy specks moving around. As they suck the cells dry the leaves will droop, drop, and eventually the plant will die. To get rid of them use an insecticidal soap and spray it on the effected plants. If the soapy water still doesn’t work, purchase a pyrethrum based spray and follow the instructions to a tee.
Go Green Pest Control owner Randy Bilesky is a long-time South Delta resident. Trained and certified, Bilesky has first-hand knowledge of the pest problems that local homeowners and business owners encounter.
