Are you aware that spider mites are practically invisible to the naked eye? So small that no one can possibly tell the difference between an adult and a youngster.

indoor plant.. or outdoor potted plant???

frankly.. if i bought a plant a week ago.. and it has scale.. i would return it for refund ...

if it were an outdoor plant.. i might go all systemic granules on it.. AFTER I PROPERLY IDd the problems ... [or an indoor plant i could put outside for summer]

but all that said.. you are spot on in your lack of ability to isolate it ... becasue of the move.. and it might just be most cost effective to find it a new home in a garbage can .. and go buy a new friend.. after you are settled in the new place ...

ken

rhizo_1: Yes, I am aware they are hard to see. But I also know what I saw. The webbing caught my eye and I saw what I thought was a baby spider at first, then I saw another. They were probably as small as the head of a pin. After more investigation, I realized they were mites. I saw small, barely visible, tiny (yes, very hard to see, but not impossible if you're looking for it) white things moving on my plants and webs. Unless I have both baby spiders and spider mites.

ken_adrian: it's an indoor plant. And it wasn't something that we bought, it was bought by my husband's company for a work event and he brought them home for me afterwards. I don't even know what nursery they got it from. It was a plant that would have been thrown in the trash otherwise. He didn't know what to look for as far as pests, and I only noticed them yesterday after having it for a week. So far, I've only seen the one spot of scale, but I'm keeping an eye out for more.

Spider mites are much smaller than the head of a pin, several of them could square dance on the head of a pin. Now, there are predatory mites that are a lot larger.

You may very well have phytophagous mites plus something else. I'd take a cheap hand lens and inspect the underside of a few leaves. That's where the spider mites are likely to hang out.

Listen to rhizo - she knows what she is talking about :-) Spider mites really are impossible to see on the plant itself (although you can detect telltale signs of an established infestation like the fine webbing along the leaf petioles and stippling of the foliage). Really the only way you can see the actual insect with the naked eye is to knock them off onto a piece of white paper....they will look like microscopic brown specks. Barely the size of a grain of dust.

If you suspect you do have spider mites put the tree into the shower or take outside and spray it down well with water. That should take care of the problem.