Hello, i have a problem, is it spider mites? I think my house plant is infested with spider mites, i'm not sure where these spider mites come from, but maybe i have an idea, here's the story, i left my plant outside for a couple months, and now that it's starting to get too cold outside, i brought it inside my home, when i brought it inside, i noticed there was a black spider on my plant. I thought it was cool, so i decided not to kill it. I decided to allow the black spider hang out on my plant. For weeks i watched the black spider on my plant, and he made a big giant spider web and his spider web caught fruit fruits that were buzzing around my room. about 2 weeks ago, i noticed there was some tiny white insects around the trunk of my plants, i didn't know what they were or how they got there. day after day, i noticed there was more and more! today i noticed there was about 100 of them! they were crawling all around my plants and eating my plants, my plants doesn't seem as healthy . i think its because of the little white bugs i thought there were baby fruit fies but i read online and maybe they are spider mites? so my question is, where exactly do spider mites come from, im not asking where as, in outside, from other plants, i want to know who lays the eggs for spider mites, was it the black spider that was on my plants originally, that these white little bugs (spider mites) came from? i trusted this black spider, and he was my friend, but he betrayed me and layed many spider eggs on my plants. it is just a normal house plants, im not sure of the name, help!! how did i get myself into this mess, should i kill this plants and just buy a new one? was putting my plants outside a bad mistake? advice?
Spiders and spider mites are different animals. One is a spider, the other is a mite. Spider mites are very very small, less than one mm (since "Earth" doesn't really tell us where you're from, I'm not going to guess whether you use inches). You can just barely see them just looking. Spider mites get their common name from the webbing they create, like spiders do, but much smaller and denser, like from one point on a leaf to the next and filling in back to the leaf, or little triangles of webbing there the leaf stems attach to the trunk. Usually, seeing the webs is the only way to tell if you have spider mites. You might have aphids or white flies. Do you want to post some photos here to show us what you're seeing? Someone can confirm what they are and you can look up info on how to get rid of them. I don't think I've ever been successful at getting rid of white flies, but some people must manage to do it. There are a lot of insects outside. If your plant benefits from the extra light, then it's a trade-off if you want to risk bringing in insects when you bring it back inside. Up to you. It helps when it's outside to keep an eye on it and keep washing off insects you don't want. Spiders won't hurt your plants. If you only have one plant and don't have much invested in it, you can get rid of it, wait a while for the bugs to die or disappear from your house from lack of food, then get another and keep it inside. Or you can take it outside, spray it down to try to get rid of all the bugs, then bring it in and wipe it down with a soapy cloth every few days for a couple of weeks. We don't know what kind of plant it is, whether there are a few leaves or too many to make that practical.
The spider is an innocent bystander. I suspect you may be dealing with more than one pest. The ones caught in the spider web could be fruit flies but could also be fungus gnats. The former are reddish in color while the latter are relatively smaller, slower, and black. As for the other pest, if they are white and can be seen then they are not spider mites; those are reddish in color and very difficult to see with the naked eye. Insecticidal soap is effective against a number of pests. However it should not be applied until the pest and plant(s) have been identified. Though generally safe to use, the soap is damaging to some types of plants. A picture of the pest would be helpful towards its identification.
Unfortunately i don't have any pictures. I didn't think of taking one. But there was no webs, i guess maybe they look more like aphids, not white flies, I took the plant back inside after i soaked it with water and left it outside, I think the bugs died because it has been cold outside lately under 0. I will post pictures if the bugs come back. The plant looks beat up but i think it will survive. I will update eventually
