Spider Mites attacked my plant
I guess every plant parent has experienced spider mites at some point. I am experiencing my first one right now for the Alocasia Bambino. It is true that spider mites love this plant especially. I mean, it is a baby plant in the middle of growing one of its gorgeous leaves, can't spiders just leave it alone?
The symptoms:
- some tiny but fluffy white balls like dust on the leaf
- on the backside of the leaf, where the leaf and stem connect, there are tiny webs
Anyway, what do I do? After some research, I needed to do 3 things:
- leave the plant on quarantine
- give the leaves a shower (using the human shower head)
- get some organic Neem oil and spray the leaves
What is the neem oil? According to my little research, it is from the neem tree (印楝树)，which is the Indian version of white cedar or chinaberry, they are similar but different though. Guess what, I worked on a design project in a neighborhood named after the chinaberry (苦楝树). Offtrack... The neem oil contains Azadirachtin (印楝素), that 1) suffocates spider mites; 2) disrupts their hormone, preventing them to breed. Too bad for the spider mites, but my plant deserves health, too.
After the shower, I say 5 out of its 9 leaves return to normal, 2 still look off with the white dots, and 2 somewhere in between. I'll see how it goes with the spray.
Image of the plant being attacked by spider mites:
