Have you decided on mites because of the damage to the center of the plant? Photos would be helpful. Mites destroy centers and can be seen with a strong scope. I have been visited by both cyclamen mite and broad mite in the past. Normal insecticides will not kill mites; you have to use a miticide. Forbid is the best in my opinion. One spraying or dipping and the mites are gone. You can buy small amounts on Ebay.

If your centers are very damaged, it would be best to discard the plant and start anew. I would also treat any leaves with the miticide. In the past, I've taken leaves from mite infested plants without treating and the young plants almost always had mites. These beasties can spread like wildfire so you will want to treat quickly and yes also those without showing signs because it takes awhile for the damage to show.

Hi thank you for responding to my question. Yes I’m now sure. I have destroyed several plants I took some leaves to propagate later. in researching this, am I correct that the leaves I intend to propagate are already infected? Am I correct that if I treat these leaves they would be ok? Also the remaining plants that appear to be healthy but are they? I have plants in 4 different rooms. What do,I do? Do I just wait to see in the days to come I could possible see this in those plants? i root my leaves in water before I pot them. I recently potted several leaves that had good roots and some babies already. I really enjoy this part of growing my violets. I once had an infection of mealy bugs but got that one under control. And thought I was being really careful. Now what do I have to do to save my plants?

If you have only one infected room and haven't moved plants from there into your other rooms, those plants may be ok. I know one can always carry mites on one's hands & clothes but I think close plant contact is the spreader. If you already have found mites in other rooms then you may have to take action and treat or at least watch carefully and toss as needed. As for taking untreated leaves, I would suggest that older leaves may be best. True, they may take longer to root but mites are less likely because their mouth pieces are only able to chew on tender growth, at least I think that is true. I've also read that since mites don't like tough plant parts, if you seal your leaf ( maybe even a younger one in this case) in a plastic baggie, any attached mites may die from starvation before baby plantlets appear. This sounds reasonable but I haven't tested it. Perhaps someone else will chime in to offer advice.

An odd note: I recall a shelf upon which all the plants had mites except for one. I could never find a mite on it nor did it ever develop symptoms. Perhaps it just tasted bad or had some type of immunity!

Terri

Thank you, you have been helpful. I looked closely at all plants so far they look ok. I’ll just have to keep check on this. I thought I would be safe with leaves. But now I know. So I do have some I know came from older leaves. Do you think if I treat the leaves with Neem oil would b sufficient?

myrnay

I don't believe Neem oil will actually kill mites but it may make them sick. As a precautionary measure, its worth a try.

Get Forbid 4F on ebay - smallest possible amount - and thoroughly spray everything green in the house. It is a systemic, so whatever you will not kill on contact will die when feeding. If you have fish - make sure the tank is covered. Fish is very sensitive... to everything. If the plants are distorted - chuck them, restart from middle leaves. The damage is done and it will take a year to grow out of it. If you have a chimera - hold to it, you cannot restart it from a leaf - so you will endure looking at the butt ugly plant until it will look normal again. Neem will kill mites on contact but it will not kill the ones that are hiding and it will not kill eggs. So... waste of time.

Forbid on Amazon is over 200 dollars for 8 oz! And would you be sure your getting the real deal on Ebay? Something that expensive could be faked to make some good dollars. Is there anything else that works?

You could try Avid. I don't know how expensive it is but do know you have to treat the plants more than once perhaps up to three times. Mites are awful! If you can bring yourself to do it, I would discard all plants that show signs of the buggers, isolate those that don't for months. Clean the area and let it stay empty for awhile and start again.