Miticides

​Miticides kill mites and protect rhinos. I’ll get to the rhinos in a moment.

​When temperatures are high and humidity is low, mite populations can quickly get out of hand. They suck the life from your garden plants, reducing crop sizes, and making plants more susceptible to other problems.

Mite infestation on cucurbit leaf (Kate Russell)

Miticides are also known as acaricides. These pesticides specifically target members of the arachnid subclass Acari. If your garden plants are suffering from infestations of mites or spider mites, you may want to consider using miticides. Or you may not.

Spider mites on horseradish (Kate Russell)

Common miticides

Researching various miticides for this post, I ran across some very hard to pronounce words and some scary warnings. I started to list the most commonly used miticides, their targets and toxicities and realized it made for tedious reading (and writing). Bottom line: not all miticides are safe to use on edible plants. Many of these chemicals are dangerous to beneficial insects, honey bees, and us. Whenever using chemical treatments, be sure to read the label completely and follow the instructions.

Resistance and long-term health

Pests evolve a lot faster than we do. In many cases, they are developing resistance to the chemical treatments we use to control them. This means we are making them stronger as we add toxins to our own environment. And hey, you’re probably not growing food at home to add even more chemicals to your diet, right?

Mites can quickly develop resistance to chemical miticides, so you may need to change products if you decide to go that route. When you switch, it’s important to select a chemical that uses a different mode of action. For example, clofentezine and hexythiazox work the same way. So do fenpyroximate and pyridaben. Only buy as much chemical miticide as you are going to use. It is illegal to throw leftover miticides in the trash, pour them down the drain, or dump them in the soil. These are some really nasty chemicals.

Toxic chemicals are still used in agriculture (USDA) Public Domain

Organic mite control

Diatomaceous earth (DE) can also be used against mites and spider mites.  It desiccates them and kills them without leaving any chemical residue. Other food-grade dusts that also kill these pests without chemicals. These other dusts have an advantage over DE in that they do not contain silica. Breathing in silica dust is bad for us, too.

There are also predatory mites that prey on mites and spider mites.

Whichever treatment you decide to use, don’t apply it on a windy day. It and your money will simply fly away on the breeze. To be effective, sprays and dusts must coat the underside of all the leaves affected by mites or spider mites.

Now, about those rhinos

​Rhino poaching is being deterred by drilling holes in the horns of sedated rhinos and packing those holes with miticides. It doesn’t hurt the rhinos, but it brings on nausea, diarrhea, and convulsions in anyone who eats the horn, thinking it will provide them with some magical powers. And it won’t kill them. I think it’s the least punishment they should have to suffer for needlessly killing an endangered animal, don’t you?

Mother white rhino with calf (Nel Botha) Pixabay