In 30 years of growing Hoyas, I have yet to get spider mites (knock on wood!) Mealies are my nemisis, which I've had pretty much under control since succumbing to the call of systemics. Spider mites, I've heard, are prevelent where underwatering occurs. I'm sure you'll get some good advice from folks here...

Denise in Omaha

I have had spider mites before, they are nothing a good hosing cant get rid of I think. Spray them down, wash them down, then I spray Safer's or in the past neem. I cant remember which plants had them, but I found them not too bad to get rid of....**knock on wood**

Good Luck! Hope this helped a bit

While I've not had a spider mite outbreak in a couple of years, my past experiences with them have been apocalyptic. I grow a great deal of tropicals, and let's face it, mites think tropicals are caviar. One year a group of Avid resistant spider mites wiped out 80% of my 300 strong plant collection. For those who don't know, Avid is a potent and expensive miticide. I nearly gave up plants after that, and have sworn off chemicals.

Denise, your comment about under-watering struck a cord with me. When my hoya cuttings were under my grow lights they dried out very quickly and I couldn't keep up with the watering----I'm sure the combination of too much light and too dry soil gave them a lot of stress (even though I have a humidifier in the same room).

I've resorted to my only weapon against spider mites now---the bleach soak. Try not to "flat-line" on me (a bit of medical humor there), as I get flamed every time I mention my cure....but 90% of the time it works and gets rid of the mites. I take a "cutting" of the cutting and soak them in a water/bleach mixture for about 8 hours, then re-root it. Despite people swearing this will kill plants, it doesn't, and if the mite infestion is light enough they WILL die off. I am *very* keen to save the H. australis sana that someone on this borad sent to me----I'm in LOVE with those soft, fuzzy leaves!

I'll keep posting as to how things turn out----feel free to continue giving me hints and advice. One of the reason I got into hoyas was their resistance to spider mites, and it crushes me that they have attacked. :(

I’ve been an indoor landscaper for 40 years. It sounds crazy, but 15 years ago a customer said leaf shine is a great pesticide. I gave her every reason it wouldn’t work. On the way to my next account I thought about it. She was right. If you have a species that can take leaf shine, it’s a miracle. Remember plants won’t use water for 3 days after spraying. Like the toxic chemicals I used in the 70’s if you spray for mealy, you can watch the cotton burn off and the bugs die. All leaf shine is oil, gentler than Volk Oil, etc....but JUST as potent!