Dealing with spider mites on herb plants
Recently, I started noticing some white spots on my mint and basil plants and thought, “Oh great, what now?”. At first, I couldn’t identify any possible source and suspected a fungal cause, as the spots were spreading between plants. However, after some research, something didn’t add up.
I also found some posts on Reddit showing the same symptoms, but not many useful comments. I took a closer look, flipped some leaves… nothing. But then on the next leaf I saw them: a group of tiny terrorists hiding in plain sight. Some of them even had the audacity to weave small webs as if to say, “This is our territory now.”
Spider mites are very small pests that love to suck the life out of your plants. Literally. They feed on the plant’s sap, leaving behind destruction.
As we don’t negotiate with terrorists, this is what I have been trying:
- Blended a bunch of garlic and rosemary, let it sit for some hours, and strained it into a spray bottle with water and a small amount of soap.
- Blasted the plants with water, aiming to clean the underside of the leaves.
- Sprayed the homemade mix on the plants every couple of days.
The garlic is a known repellent (rosemary oil also helps a little), while the soap tends to kill the pests.
New leaves aren’t being attacked anymore, which is good news. I will keep monitoring and hope this is enough.