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They could pass for baby spiders in the eyes of one who does not really know the difference between a spider insect and a spider mite, especially when they have their silky web threads packed full of younger mites on a tender calathea leaf.
The calathea plant, popularly called the prayer plant, is a multi-specie plant, with broad and beautifully patterned leaves.
The spaces within their leaves are broad enough to store water after a rainfall as well as house certain tiny invertebrates like snails.
They come in different colors, ranging from pink to white, the calathea is usually a beautiful sight to behold.
This beautiful plant is often attacked and most times destroyed by a ruthless species of tetranychoidia known as spider mite.
The spider mite has a simple goal on the calathea plant- predation. With a rapid reproductive process, the spider mite can populate a calathea plant within the first three days of infestation.
They slowly begin to feed on the prayer plant until all of the leaves are gone, then they move to the next plant.
Note that every time holes begin to appear on your calathea leaves, spider mites are on the plant.
This article explains the effective ways to be employed in keeping your calathea plant free from spider mite infestation.
You might want to while reading this, inspect your calatheas for signs of spider mite infestation.
Signs of Spider Mites on the Calathea Plant
Spider mites are not microorganisms that can only be seen using an electron microscope. They are visible enough to be seen by the human eyes.
There are also certain conditions that appear on the calathea plant that points to the fact that a prayer plant has spider mite infestation. The signs or symptoms are:
1. Webbings on leaves
2. Whitish colorations on the underside of leaves
3. Tiny particle movements on the calathea leaves
4. Nyctinastic movement dysfunction
1. Webbings on leaves: the webbings on the leaves are usually on the underside of the leaves where the sun does not really reach.
Webbings by spider mites are a means of propagating the reproduction of more spider mites on the plant. originally, webbings should not be on a healthy calathea plant.
When you begin to find silky webbings on the calathea plant with tiny insects inside those webbings, simply know that your prayer plant has been infested.
2. Whitish colorations on the underside of leaves: these whitish colorations look like debris.
They are tiny eggshells used by the spider mite in propagating the new mites. These shells accumulate on the underside of the plants and form a whitish mess.
When you discover whitish colorations on your calathea plant, you should be ready to either fight off the spider mites or watch your calathea become food for spider mites.
3. Tiny particle movements on your calathea leaves: the spider mites are always moving around the leaf nodules, mating, reproducing, and feeding, hence a spider mite-infested leaf will have its surface busy with tiny particle movements.
4. Nyctinastic movement dysfunction: nyctinastic movement is the movement in plants that cause the opening and shutting of the leaves of the calathea plant by day and night.
An infestation of spider mites on the calathea plant takes away this ability from the spider mite plant, and the leaves stay open all night and day long.
Are Calatheas (Prayer Plant) Prone to Spider Mite?
Prayer plants have a funny attraction to insects, invertebrates as well as humans. Sadly, insects and invertebrates do not wish to take care of the calathea as humans do.
They want to rather feed on the leaves and juice of the calathea plant for their survival.
Yes, calatheas are prone to attack by spider mites. Not just spider mites, but a host of other insects and predators that derive nutrition from ingesting the leaves of the calathea plants.
The calathea plant has a higher risk of spider mites infestation when it is left in an unhealthy condition.
Do Spider Mites Like Calatheas?
Spider mites like calathea and every plant that are not growing in conditions of high temperatures.
Spider mites are not just drawn to prayer-plants. They infest many other plants as long as the conditions in the plant favor their survival and reproduction.
How Do You Get Rid of Spider Mites in Calathea?
Spider mites like to stay in calathea plants that are drought-stressed and sunburned.
Therefore, to eradicate spider mites from calathea plants, the following has to be done:
1. Maintain humidity and moisture around the calathea plant
2. Introduce natural predators for outdoor calathea plants
3. Use insecticides
4. Apply spider mite repellents
5. Prune away heavily infested leaves
Spider mites are difficult to properly get rid of. They are so bent on infesting plants, that they could easily return to a plant after a week of getting rid of them.
Their advantage is in their multiplicative abilities, numerous colonies, and quick propensity to spread.
If you must get rid of these mites from your calathea, you have to be as dogged as they are, willing to stop at nothing until every single colony is eradicated from your calatheas.
Maintain Humidity and Moisture around the Calathea Plant.
Adopt misting as a technique for watering the plant when the environmental temperature begins to rise.
This is to ensure that a humid condition is maintained within the circumference of the plant pot as well as supplying enough water to the prayer plant for survival through the summer.
With good moisture content on the plant, it does not have to be drought-stressed and cannot accommodate the breeding of spider mites on its leaves.
Introduce Natural predators for Outdoor Calathea Plants
Spider mites cannot survive in the presence of natural predators. Your guess is as right as mine as to why they can’t.
I mean, who in his right senses would walk into a lion’s den?
For spider mites, their natural predators include ladybugs, persimilis, and carlifornius.
These predators feed on the different species of spider mites and have a maximum of 3-5 days to eat your calathea plant clean of even the smallest spider mite.
Introducing these predators helps control the infestation of spider mites on calatheas planted outdoors.
They wouldn’t be so helpful indoors because they too, might soon become an issue in the house the spider mites are gone.
Use Insecticides
Insecticides are effective and can quickly eradicate the mites from multiple leaf nodules at once.
Insecticides should be applied to a spider mite-infested calathea as often as two times a week.
This kills the spider mites as well as their eggs and prevents further growth of the spider mites on your calatheas.
Apply Spider Mite Repellents
Certain substances irritate spider mites and repel them from the leaves of the calathea plant.
Applying this repellent on the leaves of the calathea plant either by spraying or rubbing on the leaves is a sure way of keeping colonies of spider mites away from your calathea plant.
Some spider mite repellents include neem oil, eucalyptus oil, lemon oil, cinnamon oil, peppermint oil, and rosemary oil.
These oils spread easily all over the leaves of calathea plants and keep spider mites away. They are recommended for indoor usage because they do not have smells that are toxic to humans.
Prune Away Heavily Infested Leaves
Sometimes, the leaves carry too many spider mites than is normal for the continued survival of the leaf.
The leaf usually looks brownish and withered because of how much phosphorous has been taken out of it by the multiple numbers of mites on the leaf.
In situations like this, the application of insecticides or the introduction of natural predators, cannot remedy the state of the plant.
The best option at this point is to prune away the leaf from the calathea plant and properly dispose of it to prevent the transportation of the spider mites to other parts of the plant.
This should be a last resort after other measures have failed.
How Do You Treat Calathea for Pests?
Spider mites, mealy bugs, scales, and fungus gnat, are some of the major pests that attack calatheas and other house plants.
To treat the calathea plant of pests, adopt the same methods used for treating calatheas of spider mites.
Although, each of the pests has unique modes of removal from the calatheas plant that differ a bit from the mode adopted in the removal of spider mites, pests, in general, will be forced to leave a plant upon application of pesticides.
Therefore to treat calathea for pests, first, understand the nature of the pest, study its mode of propagation and parts of plants it feeds on, research about the natural enemies of the pest and apply a generous amount of insecticide on the plant until the calathea plant is free from the pest.
Ensure that you do not apply insecticides in quantities that might be harmful to the plant.
Can prayer-plants recover from spider mite damage?
It depends on the extent of the damage. If the spider mites do a lot of damage to the foliage of the plant, recovery can take a longer time than when the damage is quite simple.
Yes, the prayer-plants can recover from spider mite damage.
It could take some time after getting rid of the spider mites, but with the right conditions put in place for growth, your prayer-plants could be blooming again.
Notable Information
In this article, we have said that:
1. Spider mites are a ruthless species of pests that attack the calathea plant, sucking nutrients out of it.
2. The calathea plant loses its ability to perform nycstinatic movements when it is infested with spider mites.
3. Spider mites can be controlled by introducing biological enemies of the spider mites to the calathea plant.
4. The spider mites are not just drawn to the calathea but to every plant that has good conditions to favor the survival of her vast colony.
5. Prayer plants can recover from damage caused by spider mites if proper care is given to the plant.
Conclusion
Calatheas can stay evergreen all year round but they need the right conditions to do so.
A moisture-loving species of plant, calatheas do not find dry conditions very favorable.
When they are drought-stressed, spider mites find them favorable for infestation.
