Many plant species suffer from spider mites’ infestations, so it is best to address this issue straight away to prevent your plant from dying. Spider mites are pests known to siphon essential nutrients out of leaves, causing the plant to die quickly. However, you can use neem oil to kill spider mites since they are susceptible to its detrimental effects.
When dealing with spider mites and other insects, it is best to create a mixture of neem oil, liquid soap, and water to act as a natural pesticide. Spider mites are known to feed on plants, which is why coating your foliage with neem oil wards off these pests and even kill them.
Let’s explore more details about using neem oil to kill spider mites.
Using Neem Oil to Kill Spider Mites
Although neem oil is not as effective as insecticides, it is a natural substitute that produces similar results without damaging your plants. For this reason, it is typically used as a pest repellant and is known to kill off various pest species within a few days.
Neem oil can be used to effectively kill spider mites and other pests. Spray your plants with a particular neem oil mixture. It can either be used as a preventive measure to ward off spider mites or destroy an infestation by infecting spider mites with its active compound. If you’re not fussed about mixing neem oil with insecticides for quicker results, you can do so. However, if you’re looking for a completely natural solution to your spider mites problem, you should only use neem oil at the right times. When buying neem oil from the shop, it is best to opt for cold-pressed neem oil concentrate since you don’t need to use a lot of it at one time. Additionally, organic liquid soaps work well when targeting spider mites infestations because they can safely be used as a soil drench for a compounded effect. As far as organic farming goes, neem oil produces desirable effects.
How to Create the Perfect Neem Oil Solution for Spider Mites
Depending on the size of your garden, you will want to use either a half-gallon, single-gallon, or double-gallon handheld garden sprayer. When making an emulsifiable neem concentrate, you can mix two ounces of neem oil with a gallon of water and add drops of liquid soap to the mixture. The liquid soap works as an emulsifier since oil does not mix with water without it. To target more than ten plants in your garden, you will need a two-gallon mixture of neem oil, liquid soap, and water. You can make do with one to four plants with half a gallon of mixture. You can easily adjust the ratio of ingredients according to the number of plants you are looking to target.
How to Spray the Neem Oil Solution on Your Plants
Once you’ve got your one-gallon mixture of neem oil, use your garden sprayer to coat your plants thoroughly and ensure you cover all parts of the foliage, including the underside of the leaves. If you notice any webbings near your plant, use a nozzle and garden hose to destroy and dislodge them before beginning your neem oil spray treatment. Depending on the degree of spider mites infestation you are dealing with, you can spray your plants every four to seven days for optimal results.
Severe infestations will need a rigorous treatment plan, i.e., covering all portions of the plants with the neem oil solution every four days. As a general rule of thumb, make sure your plants are slightly dripping with the solution. Dead foliage may fall around the plant’s roots, providing shelter for the spider mites and enabling their reproduction. To avoid this, prune your plants as soon as you notice dry and curling leaves. Spray them once every seven days for optimal effects to protect your plants from a spider mite infestation.
Final Verdict
Neem oil is an effective treatment for killing and warding off spider mites from your garden plants. Although it takes a while for neem oil to produce desirable effects, it is a much safer substitute than other insecticides. Creating the perfect mixture of neem oil, organic liquid soap, and water will allow you to keep your plants healthy and safe from a spider mites infestation. For this reason, it is one of the best solutions for a spider mites infestation in your garden.
