I think nothing will get rid of mites. You might try not growing for enough of years and then hope they are all dead and start over with sterile soil. mites are really impossible to get rid of.

They are very tough to eliminate. Like you, I tried several things but nothing really worked. When I stopped over wintering plants and started fresh in spring I was able to avoid them. A local nursery had a problem with them and bought something that cost several hundred dollars a gallon.

john

this is not making me feel any better.

i just added a light dusting of DE to the quarantined pots, just in case.

here's hoping.

i refuse to lose our entire pepper crop that we have worked so hard on together because of a stupid bag of soil. i'll waterboard the damn plants if i have to, or sterilize them in the bleach solution again and make my own soil out of non-soil until this whole mite issue has blown over.

otherwise i'm fogging the room.

especially since now it looks like we have the smallest buds forming on the tallest plants, where flowers are about to bloom.

i shall overcome!

Yes, make your own soil!

One part organic (bark), and two parts inorganic (grit - pumice, perlite, Turface, gravel).

To sterilize the bark component (I use screened "Orchid Bark"), you can pour boiling
water into a bag of bark and seal it up. Or you can put the bark in a black bag, add
a bit of moisture, seal it, and leave it in the sun for a few weeks.

Josh

A recipe for a home remedy to get rid of aphids
1 cup vegetable or white mineral oil
2 cups water
2 teaspoons dish soap (without bleach) or Murphy�s soap
Spray this homemade aphid control mixture on the aphids every few days until the aphids recede. This home remedy to get rid of aphids will suffocate the aphids. Make sure that plants that are treated with this solution are kept out of direct sunlight as the oil may magnify the sunlight and burn the plants.
( I got this off the internet I used a little less oil,,,But it worked great I only had to do it once and I had a bad infestation. If you can wash all aphids & mites off first with water, be sure and do under leaves cause this is where most are going to be..I did afterwards use a lite dusting.The sun didn't seem to hurt using a little less oil.I actually used just a couple tablespoons in mine).

I spotted this when I was narrowing down suspects on a Holly in my front yard.

http://www.getridofthings.com/get-rid-of-spider-mites.htm

thanks addaboy, but i don't have aphids, i have soil mites.

and redtail, i read that site. i've done everything this guy said so far, among other things. like, quarantines, the neem, the alcohol...

except miticides, because we do want to HARVEST these peppers one day, you know? and i'm not sure if you can use a miticide that would actually work and kill the buggers FOR GOOD without making your pepper crop inedible.

the only thing i am really pretty strictly opposed to is adding predator mites. i mean, yes, in theory it sounds wonderful. i even read scientific articles about them, and their life cycles, etc. but i have OCD. i garden strictly indoors in sterilized pots with sterile soil wearing latex gloves. ADDING bugs? i think that's outside my realm of psychologically okay.

do you know of a miticide that's super strong but won't harm potential peppers?

Ivermectin will kill any sort of mites, but I don't know if anybody has a version to put onto plants. Maybe contact the company and ask?

It's made to kill worms and mites on cattle, livestock, and dogs.

I have no idea what the withdrawal period would be if you sprayed it on plants, but it is made to feed to animals, and they give it orally to people, too.

Maybe if you sprayed it on your peppers and ate the peppers, it would clear out any worms you might have?

If you look at the link I sent you, you will see something for predatory mites. Basically, introducing a beneficial insect to biologically control another. I've really been trying to avoid the "spray and pray" method with insecticides. Just a suggestion...

oregonwoodsmoke, you crack me up.

i'm going to look into that.

has anyone every used this or anything similar?

http://www.amazon.com/Doktor-Doom-KnockOut-spray-16/dp/B002JU1QEI/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top