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Originally Posted by AlittleSalt
Bill, I am going to echo what Patti wrote.
How can you tell when they are there? What I have read is they are very small and like the underside of the leaves.
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The first indication is usually some paling of a few leaves and some light colored stippling showing on the top of the leaves. The leaves infested with them will appear somewhat pale and not as healthy as they should and might look a bit dry. That is about the best I can describe what I look for as first indicators of spider mites. When they get bad it is pretty obvious what the problem is but by then major damage will have been done to the plant. Spotting them early and treating them aggressively is the only way to really control them well. The mix of Permethrin, food grade DE and Dawn dish washing liquid is extremely effective if used early enough and reapplied if it rains or the spider mites return which is not unusual. It doesn't require a long wait time between application and harvest and with the addition of the DE it is fairly long lasting in its effect on spider mites. The problem with most sprays with poisons that are acceptable for food products is that they don't remain effective for long enough to take care of the new mites that come from the eggs so frequent spraying is usually necessary to break their life cycle.
I have not really had a bad season so far. I have had more big pretty tomatoes come off my plants this season than any year I can remember. It has rather been spectacular except for the last week or so because the constant rains finally took their toll on my older plants with rampant EB but not before we had a wonderful harvest of big beautiful tomatoes. I know better than to expect the beautiful plants and great production to remain constant in our climate so I was thankful it lasted as long as it did. Now I am in the normal disease and pest fighting mode which down here usually starts much earlier than it did this year. I still have three smaller beds that were planted latter than the first big planting and I plan to plant at least one more small bed before August so I should make enough to keep us in fresh eating tomatoes right through to cold weather. Of course if the rains keep coming then all bets are off but if I don't make another tomato this year I will still have had one of my best tomato seasons ever.
Bill