I have tried pretty much everything to eliminate spidermite with limited success.  There always seems to be that “one that got away” and the process starts all over again.  I was reading how some horticulturalists had used hydrogen peroxide to kill plant pests.

So I thought I would see if I could come up with a process that would actually get rid of an entire colony of spider mite all at once.

What I had been using fairly successfully was Neem Oil and Organic coconut oil based soap.  So instead of mixing these ingredients with water I mixed them with 3% hydrogen peroxide.  I used  a battery operated sprayer that creates a fine mist.  For every quart of hydrogen peroxide I used a tablespoon of Neem oil and a tablespoon of Organic Castille Soap (Dr. Bronner’s Un-Scented Baby Mild Pure-Castile Liquid Soap).

Then the plants were removed from under their grow lights (otherwise they can burn) and sprayed on all sides including the soil and containers until they were dripping.  One variety (White Widow) did not like the spray at all (survived but lots of leaves were burned); All of the plants lost some of the larger palmate leaves to burn but in general I was satisfied because of the result:  Within a few days there were no eggs, nor spider mite to be found anywhere.  I also sprayed the growing benches with the solution.

If you try this I would recommend mixing up the solution and spraying one or two plants to see if the variety is sensitive.  Don’t spray all of your plants and then be disappointed because they didn’t fare well.  Always check treatments on one or two plants first.  If you have several varieties, test each variety.

A month later the plants are still clean.

Do invest in a battery operated sprayer.  Its the best way to get complete coverage for this type of operation.