Bought eggplants from Home Depot--Red Spider Mites!

[CrazyConure]

I wanted to try eggplants, so I bought a plant from Home Depot. It looked fine at the store, but a few days later I'm checking on my garden and I see little red balls on my new egg plants. Being naive, I was touching them. To my horror, I looked closer and saw RED BUGS! I immediately went inside and washed my hands. Eww I hate bugs.

I haven't seen these bugs before. I have only heard of the horror on the forums. I self diagnosed it as Red Spider Mites.

Well, I wasn't going to sit there and wait for this nightmare to spread on my perfectly insect free plants. I quickly dosed all of my plants in spinosad and neem oil. A few hours later I come back to check andto my horror there were still some left (possibly dead) but I grabbed more spinosad and neem, and even added some Safer™ Insect killing soap and added it to the spray. I made sure to get every inch of the plant. I even soaked the soil in case the escaped the plant in time.

Not sure what to do. I was tempted to just rip off the plants. I do not want to deal with these insects. They are really creepy.

Are eggplants prone to Mites? Should I take out the plant? It's really clean right now. I might just wait a few days and see if the problem persists.

Sorry if this thread was a mess. I'm scatterbrained.

 

[Chuck]

Sounds like you got rid of them but to make sure I will try to explain a little about them. They have a complex reproductive cycle and can quadruple their numbers every 3-5 days. Soaking the soil in spinosad is the secret as they reproduce and lay eggs in the soil. The eggs hatch and they crawl up the plant where Neem takes care of them. But not all of the eggs hatch at the same time so you have to repeat your annihilation project at least twice more every 5 days. This is just another case where one should not buy their plants from Big Box Stores. Their plants come from all over the US and Mexico so you never really know what you are getting. It is very early in the season to have spider mites so I would guess the plants came from where it is very warm, like central Mexico. Eggplant is very prone to spider mites, almost as prone as tomatoes are. Don't take out your plants, just keep close watch. You will see yellowing of the lower leaves first. If you start to see the webbing it is probably to late to save the plant without a lot of work. But if you spray and drench the soil a couple of more times you should be OK.