Spidermites

A spidermite is a little, tiny bug in the arachnid family that is a massive pain to a lot of homeowners. These pests are capable of attacking just about any kind of plant material, from your spruces outside to your flowers inside. I was googling more information on them, and found out that it's a huge problem for people who have indoor grow rooms as well (shame, shame). Let's get the facts about spidermites:

• There are thousands of different species of spidermites, so diagnosing them is tricky.
• They are almost impossible to see with the unaided eye, making it trickier.
• They can be brown, yellow, red or green depending on the species and the season.
• They're certainly not easy to get rid of, but we're going to try to anyways.

 Southern Red Mite

Two-spotted mite

Source for pics: http://spidermite.info/

HOW TO SPOT SPIDERMITES: 

When you look at the underside of the leaves of your plant, you might see tiny, light colored flecks that almost look like dandruff on the plant. This is a good indication that you've got an early infestation. Granted, the type of plant will likely show different symptoms. Some examples, spidermites on an alberta spruce will look something like this:

While the same damage on an arborvitae will look like the botton leaf in this picture:

 And on a boxwood:

Pictures courtesy of http://woodypests.cas.psu.edu/FactSheets/InsectFactSheets/html/Spruce_Spider_Mite.html

The most noticable damage that I deal with in my day to day at work is the damage they do to spruces. They basically eat the tree from the inside out:

Source: http://treegreen.co/Pages/spider-mite.aspx

When spidermites start to injure any of these plants, the leaves/needles start turning a gold, gray, or bronze color. This makes matters worse because the changing color of the plant means it will be absorbing a different amount of sunlight than usual, most times scorching them and causing early leaf/needle drop.

There are a few ways to get rid of these pests, preferred tactics include:

 Chemical: if you are in or near any decent sized city, there is likely a tree company that can take care of this for you. If you're a DIY'r like myself, you can try using a horticultural oil or an insecticidal soap to trap them and their eggs, killing them off. As with any kind of chemical, make sure you read the labels. Also beware, some of these hoticultural oils can take the blue color out of a few species of spruces. Not a big deal, but something to think about.

The bully method (or mechanical, hehe): push um around! If your 5 foot spruce is covered in spidermites and you don't want them there, then do the logical thing. Grab a hose, put it on jet, and blast them out of the tree. While this does NOT kill a lot of them, it does give the predators in the grass more of a chance to catch them, giving your tree a brief respite. This method, if being used alone, should be done 2-3 times a week. Every time they set up camp, destroy it. 

Biological: Every creature on the planet is prey to another creature. Spidermites are no different. Their natural enemies are ladybugs, pirate bugs, other kinds of mites, and dusty wings. Unfortunately, by the time these predators start breeding and getting ready to take out the spidermites, the spidermites have already been breeding for a month or so. Therefor, it's not a very effective means of control to release more predators into your yard hoping for drastic effects.

Something else to remember, spidermites thrive on trees that are under stress from heat or drought. Easy way to fix that, though, just read my article about keeping your trees from heat stress: When/Why/How to Water!