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Originally Posted by orchidsarefun
Seems like you have what I had - and these only appeared in my plants potted in sphagnum moss - in army quantities ! No bark potted plants had them.
I took samples and photos to my local Ag Extension office, I had the AOS look at photos. Turns out nobody could really identify them, other than to classify them as "mites" and not necessarily harmful.
I was told that they were likely predatory because of a unicorn-like horn they had. Well I said that could also be used to suck plant sap too !
The problem with treatment was that I didn't know what they were feeding on. There was no visible damage to plants. Safe systemic insecticides are not generally available for indoor use and I wasn't keen anyway. Others are topical which means you have to get at them when they are moving around. This infestation also happened in Winter which added to the treatment problem.
The only thing that worked - for me - was neem oil - sprayed when they were active. At least I think it worked because numbers of them dropped visibly. I also fed them to my butterworts in vast numbers. They were easy to catch between fingers and 'felt' hardish. It took about 3 months to eliminate 100% from the one plant stand. Then I got them in another room with plants. These didn't multiply into an army and have been taken care of - either naturally through lack of food ( ? ) or in my plant spraying rotation.
Another thing - I had bought a huge block of sphagnum moss and I put this in the garage over Winter to kill critters that may be in the moss.
I still don't know where these came from but - 2 years later this Winter - I haven't had a recurrence. My butterworts are the only ones missing them !
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Your experience with mites sounds a lot like what my plants are enduring. I'm only encountering the mites on the plants potted in sphagnum, not in the ones in bark mixes. I treated a plant with neem oil a few years ago and assumed (probably because of the smell) that it was unsafe to use in the house--but after a quick search online today it appears that I was wrong.
I'm glad to hear that you managed to get rid of your infestation! Maybe this is the excuse I needed to splurge on a carnivorous plant!
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