Introduction - What are Spider Mites?

Spider mites are actually classified as arachnids - they are literally tiny spiders. And it's easy to see how they get their name too. If you find yourself plagued with these beasties, you'll see their characteristic tiny webbing between leaves, branches, and even folds within pods.

Their mechanism of damage is twofold; through sucking sap and also suffocating your plants with their fine silk threads. In my observations, the threads have been so fine that it's actually restricted transpiration - and protected them from a blast of pesticide.

They are smaller than most other pests, which is how they are able to get a foothold so quickly. One minute your plants are fine, a couple of weeks later, they could be dead. They are roughly 1/10th of the size of an adult aphid. That's tiny!

My Experience

I have encountered spider mites twice. Once at the end of 2024, and again half way through 2025.

In 2024, I caught them early. I spent a lot more time with my plants that year, so I was able to tell when things weren't quite right. Inspecting the leaves, I knew exactly what I was dealing with - tiny orange dots crawling over the surface. They hadn't started making webs yet, so I was able to dispatch of them effectively.

2025 was different. I had been spending less time with my plants (getting married, and the room was no longer my home office). This meant that I didn't notice untill the webbing had started. Within days, my gorgeous Count Mattcula had its fate sealed. It had collapsed and was covered in webs. It was dying.

Methods of Control

What didn't work

The classic product I was recommended by users of Reddit was SMC, or Spider Mite Control. This product uses a "physical mode of action" to suffocate the mites and kill them not on contact, but relatively quickly. It relies on an even application, and for every mite to be encapsulated in liquid. I'm not sure if that affected my experience with this product, but using it in 2025, I got absolutely no results. Even when they were directly sprayed, they walked it off like it was nothing.

Daily misting with water was also supposed to control them. However, I noticed no difference.

Off the shelf "Bug Clear Ultra" was also tried, and had no reaction. This was my third attempt, so I was getting pretty desperate now.

I did consider beneficial or predatory mites, but my ethos when gardening indoors is to not fight bugs by releasing more bugs. Rightly or wrongly I believe that there may be some biological mechanism in some predatory insects that recognises it's in a vacuum, so it keeps the population alive rather than going for full eradication. But that's just my conspiracy loving brain, I have not done any research on this topic.

What did work

Enter Guard'n'aid for Spider Mites.

I ordered a decanted smaller bottle on eBay for a couple of pounds, and it did the job brilliantly. I didn't need a large quantity of it, but the amount I bought left me with an easy surplus. I made up 800ml of spray with the suggested dilution and it got to work right away. I could see the mites dropping.

This stuff had an active insecticide in it - pyrethrin with canola oil. It was instant death on contact, and lingering benefits way after application. After the first spray, I noticed a severe reduction in numbers. After the second, two days apart from the first, I could barely see any live mites!