Is this from spider mites?

Inflorescence said:
I still am not convinced it is spider mites. 🙂 BUT, I’ve had good success using just enzymatic soap on them. Seemed to get rid of them in one or two applications. I prefer that over neem on young plants.
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I’m not convinced either. I’m hoping on the pocket microscope today, but regardless I’m thinking that treatment can’t make it worse so best to be prudent and isolate and apply something
 
TorontoJoe said:
I have this rooted layer Pellegrino a few months back. It was dormant and I've been growing it in a south window. It's been doing great and up to maybe 2 weeks ago the leaves looked great. I thought at first I left it too close to the furnace vent but I have a few other figs there and they look fine. I've never had a spider mite problem before. I also can't get a leaf to sit properly under my kits microscope to get a good look. I really need a loupe.

I've seen some of those "strands" around but not many. I can't tell if it's webbing or cat hair.

If you've had spider mites... is this what the damage looks like?

View attachment 4700
View attachment 4701
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I've had it now and then on a plant, never seen it that bad though.
 
Took me a while to find, but here are some of the pics of my spider mite damaged fig leaves.
figs-813.jpg

figs-812.jpg


What I noticed:
1 - tiny spider webs
2 - yellowing with black spots on the leaves
3 - yellowing veins
4 - yellowing starts at the bottom of tree
5- by the time you see yellowing at the top, bottom leaves begin or will have dropped
6 - uneven yellowing on leaves and across multiple leaves... some are yellow, some are not... mite don't attack all leaves equally at the same time.

Your leaves seem equally affected at the same time - that's likely not fig mite damage... and the damage doesn't look like mine.
 
Figless said:
Oh what the heck I'm on a roll. If you're propagation Center is in your basement or in your house then that's inside, and dipping with abermectin, or avid is a great place to start with spider mites. But if it's your super thrip again it won't be helpful.
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You dip the entire canopy in abermectin?
 
Figgin' A said:
Took me a while to find, but here are some of the pics of my spider mite damaged fig leaves.
figs-813.jpg

figs-812.jpg


What I noticed:
1 - tiny spider webs
2 - yellowing with black spots on the leaves
3 - yellowing veins
4 - yellowing starts at the bottom of tree
5- by the time you see yellowing at the top, bottom leaves begin or will have dropped
6 - uneven yellowing on leaves and across multiple leaves... some are yellow, some are not... mite don't attack all leaves equally at the same time.

Your leaves seem equally affected at the same time - that's likely not fig mite damage... and the damage doesn't look like mine.
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Were you able to identify the actual mites with magnification? The pocket microscope doesn't show up until tomorrow. I want to get a close look.
 
@TorontoJoe If it's hard (or expensive) to acquire some CO2 -> If you can find a store that would sell you a few pounds of dry-ice (which is solid CO2, as you probably know), you should be good: put it in a small, padded box with holes, and stick it in a bag (with a tiny hole, so the pressure doesn't build up to much). The dry-ice will sublimate into CO2 gas. A pound of dry-ice will generate quite a lot of gas... You might get a bit of condensation onto the outside of the box, but that shouldn't be any bother. Be careful with dry-ice: it's about -80 Centigrade... Also: Put it in a well-ventilated place: you don't want to suffocate yourself and your loved ones...
 
Schoenie said:
@TorontoJoe If it's hard (or expensive) to acquire some CO2 -> If you can find a store that would sell you a few pounds of dry-ice (which is solid CO2, as you probably know), you should be good: put it in a small, padded box with holes, and stick it in a bag (with a tiny hole, so the pressure doesn't build up to much). The dry-ice will sublimate into CO2 gas. A pound of dry-ice will generate quite a lot of gas... You might get a bit of condensation onto the outside of the box, but that shouldn't be any bother. Be careful with dry-ice: it's about -80 Centigrade... Also: Put it in a well-ventilated place: you don't want to suffocate yourself and your loved ones...
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I've never been comfortable playing with dry ice, especially near live trees... I'd rather pay a little more and get a CO2 tank with a regulator. So many things you can do with it - carbonate beer, carbonate water, nuke pests :)
 
Figgin' A said:
I've never been comfortable playing with dry ice, especially near live trees... I'd rather pay a little more and get a CO2 tank with a regulator. So many things you can do with it - carbonate beer, carbonate water, nuke pests :)
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I checked and the brew supply place around the corner from me has it. So does my welding gas guy but there I have to get a really big bottle.
 
TorontoJoe said:
I really want that microscope now! I'm going to google some pictures so I know what I'm looking for.
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Not my pic, but here is what you'll see if you have them:

1200x675-fig1-two-spotted-spider-mites-eggs.jpg


Trust me, you don't want to see that.

I have another microscope that goes from 60x to 120x... I saw them up real close... ugly little mofos... though not as ugly as fig bud mites :)
 
Figgin' A said:
Not my pic, but here is what you'll see if you have them:

1200x675-fig1-two-spotted-spider-mites-eggs.jpg


Trust me, you don't want to see that.

I have another microscope that goes from 60x to 120x... I saw them up real close... ugly little mofos... though not as ugly as fig bud mites :)
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Ewww! I'm hoping I don't see that!

It should be here by tomorrow. I'll report back with my findings....
 
Figgin' A said:
Took me a while to find, but here are some of the pics of my spider mite damaged fig leaves.
figs-813.jpg

figs-812.jpg


What I noticed:
1 - tiny spider webs
2 - yellowing with black spots on the leaves
3 - yellowing veins
4 - yellowing starts at the bottom of tree
5- by the time you see yellowing at the top, bottom leaves begin or will have dropped
6 - uneven yellowing on leaves and across multiple leaves... some are yellow, some are not... mite don't attack all leaves equally at the same time.

Your leaves seem equally affected at the same time - that's likely not fig mite damage... and the damage doesn't look like mine.
Click to expand...

The damage with those leaves was from nutrient deficiency, not spider mites. They may have come after, but the deficiency came first which is what attracted them.
 
Inflorescence said:
The damage with those leaves was from nutrient deficiency, not spider mites. They may have come after, but the deficiency came first which is what attracted them.
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Spider mites can also cause nutrient deficiency in plants by interrupting the flow of nutrients and chlorophyll production. The damage was only on these 4 lower leaves on a fairly large plant, the rest were perfectly healthy, with few mites and mite eggs present on them. Nutrient deficiency, if that were the primary issue, would have affected more leaves, I think.
 
Figgin' A said:
Spider mites can also cause nutrient deficiency in plants by interrupting the flow of nutrients and chlorophyll production. The damage was only on these 4 lower leaves on a fairly large plant, the rest were perfectly healthy, with few mites and mite eggs present on them. Nutrient deficiency, if that were the primary issue, would have affected more leaves, I think.
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It’s kind of interesting but certain nutrient deficiencies affect particular leaves on a plant, not all of them. New top leaves, middle leaves, and older leaves are respectively affected by certain deficiencies.

Spider mites may further an existing deficiency, but a deficiency always comes first.

You can see with Joe’s that his one plant is likely lacking manganese and perhaps copper.
 
Inflorescence said:
It’s kind of interesting but certain nutrient deficiencies affect particular leaves on a plant, not all of them. New top leaves, middle leaves, and older leaves are respectively affected by certain deficiencies.

Spider mites may further an existing deficiency, but a deficiency always comes first.

You can see with Joe’s that his one plant is likely lacking manganese and perhaps copper.
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Perhaps it's true... in general... but I go based on the facts of my specific example, and the facts tell me otherwise. I had an infected pepper plant that I brought inside from the garden. Eventually, there was a heavy mite infestation on it. Treatment didn't eradicate the mites, so I disposed of it. The fig tree in question, Hollier, was right next to the pepper plant, and leaves probably touched at some point. The leaves that yellowed were at the bottom and on the side that was closest to the pepper plant. Inspection of those leaves under a microscope revealed a heavy mite infestation. Once I removed the affected leaves and gave the tree a CO2 treatment, there was no further yellowing, all the while my watering or fertilizing routing of this plant did not change.

I think we all should keep our minds open to the fact that anything is possible, and nothing should be ruled out. All facts point to the fact that mites likely spread to the fig tree from my pepper plant and caused nutrient deficiency and yellowing, not the other way around. The fact that many healthy leaves on that tree also had a small number of mites present also points to the fact that mites came there before any nutrient deficiency developed. I read a couple of studies that found that mites can, in fact, cause nutrient deficiency in plants by interrupting the flow of nutrients and chlorophyll production, as I mentioned above.
 
Good luck, I think over the years I’ve had all those white bugs at one time or another—mealy bugs, white flies, white and every color of aphid you can think of, and spider mites! Not sure if any are the same or not but every one has been a pain…especially the ones that can see/sense your presence and scatter away.

I’ve come to the conclusion, for me, is to just gently hose them off with plain water, until the beneficial bugs start to show up like lady bugs, wasps, yellow jackets, preying mantis, spider, I think fire flies are even predatory?

I won’t even use organic insect killer cause all insect killer doesn’t know the good from the bad—so—every year is a challenge.

But I tell ya, once the good guys show up they do their job!!!
 
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