If a quick inspection of your garden reveals a bunch of tiny red bugs crawling over the leaves and flowers, you have a clover mite problem. Natural and organic pest management methods are more important than ever. Learn how to diagnose and deal with these pests and how to control clover mites in the future using our step-by-step instructions.
Bryobia praetiosa Koch, or clover mites, are arachnids with eight legs and are a close relative to the spider mite. They’re oval-shaped, and the eggs and young mites are a conspicuous bright red. However, the clover mite is about the size of a pinhead and is difficult to spot until you have a full-on infestation.
Clover mites are common in North America, especially in the early spring and fall when temperatures are slightly cooler. These little insects are polyphagous, which means they eat various foods like lawn grass, clover, and many ornamental flowers. Clover mites aren’t dangerous, but they certainly are a nuisance, and continued feedings are detrimental to your growing plants.
Discover How to Conduct Organic Clover Mite Control
The clover mite is a nuisance pest bent on consuming the delicious plant juices throughout your yard. Natural clover mite control is the only remedy against this intrusive plant feeder. Find out how to survey your defenses for weakness and use the environment to your advantage.
Learn how to recognize and eliminate mites in your plants without disrupting the natural biological balance of your backyard or resorting to toxic synthetic pesticides.
Integrated pest management is easier than ever with this walk-through of common problems and their proven solutions. Don’t let another day go by without these game-changing clover mite control recommendations.
Use Proper Plant Placement to Deter Clover Mites
Organic clover mite control is much easier than it seems and can be as simple as noticing what goes into your garden. If you create an attractive buffet for the clover mite and its cohorts, they will come, eat your plant life, and lay eggs in overwhelming numbers. Learn how to deter and even repel clover mite activity with these simple tricks.
Knowing how to control clover mites takes a little planning, and you don’t need a landscape architect, either. First, consider your flowers; clover mites enjoy certain plants more than others. Choose plants they don’t like: petunia, geranium, chrysanthemum, juniper, and spruce are among several plant species that the cover mite finds less appealing.
Proper plant placement is essential, too. Establish potted plants away from your house, doors, and windows. A plant with a clover mite infestation creates a jumping-off point for the adult clover mite to enter your house, where they overwinter and lay eggs. Avoid that problem with strategic plant selection and placement.
Create Barriers in Your Yard to Repel Clover Mites
Clover mites typically enter your dwelling through cracks along the foundation walls. Tall grass, shrubs, or ornamental bushes right up against the house are more vulnerable to a clover mite infestation. Almost all insect life seeks warmth and shelter from the winter or respite from the summer sun’s heat.
Integrated pest control management and natural clover mite control are two sides of the same coin. Natural biological regulation means using every clever technique at your disposal to control the green spaces in your yard and the pest population without harsh chemicals or eventually turning to a professional pest control company.
One of the most effective mite-fighting solutions is to make a grass and flower-free zone around your house using creative spacing and decorative fillers like gravel, woodchips, and shale. As well, simple spices can often be effective as pest control. For instance, cinnamon will kill soil and clover mites while protecting the rest of the plants in your garden.
You might even choose some ornamental brickwork or coordinated clusters of patio stones to complete the look. Clover mite control could be just the excuse you need to let your inner landscape artist run wild.
How to Control Clover Mites With Neem Oil
The female clover mite lays about 70 eggs in her lifetime, which doesn’t seem like a lot compared to big breeders like ants or cockroaches, but it adds up quickly. Find out how to mix a batch of insect control in a bottle, which should help deal with your clover mite problem safely and naturally.
Neem oil is a fantastic tool for organic clover mite control because it works for many pests like the clover mite, spider mite, and some stinging insects, and it even does bed bug control.
For this DIY trick, you need a 1-gallon garden sprayer or a repurposed spray bottle and a fresh bottle of pure, cold-pressed neem oil.
Fill your chosen sprayer with one gallon of clean water, and add four teaspoons of cold-pressed neem oil. Carefully spray a thick coating on the over and undersides of the leaves and continue every few days to kill clover mite adults and young. Spray bi-weekly after that to prevent clover mites from returning.
You can also use diatomaceous earth for clover mite control as a pet-friendly and non-toxic option.
Clover Mite Control and Home Maintenance
If you’re concerned about adequate clover mite control, household maintenance should be on your priority list. Clover mites enter the house through cracks in the foundation walls, holes in window screens, and gaps around external fixtures. Set aside an afternoon to inspect and address any potential concerns.
An over-fertilized lawn is one of the biggest and most well-known attractions for clover mites. We understand that lawn care is a priority for many people. However, clover mites love a lush lawn, and there’s quite a bit of tangible evidence linking over-fertilization to clover mite outbreaks across North America.
Clover mite prevention means being aware of the happenings in your yard. Keeping your fertilization levels in check and monitoring your plants’ health are critical for success.
Ask yourself what you should accomplish this season to give your yard protection. Are there things that require repair, or could you reorganize your potted plants or clear the long grass beside the house?
Now that you know how to control clover mites, you need to keep them away with proper prevention. All it takes is an afternoon of elbow grease with the family to check off everything on this list. Once you have, you’ll all rest easy knowing those pesky little critters aren’t looking to invade and overtake your outdoor space.
Reduce your fertilizer application to discourage repopulation. Move plants and shrubs back from the exterior wall of your home and trim any branches or vegetation that creates a convenient access point to your window sill. Never put piles of leaf litter or grass clippings near your foundation walls because the Bryobia praetiosa will surely come running.
If you’re already dealing with clover mite infestations indoors, they usually come in large numbers; where there’s one, there could be hundreds more. Unfortunately, squishing the clover mite leaves a highly-pigmented red stain. Get the vacuum and look for the rest of the colony in addition to bright red egg clusters to stop them from regenerating the population.
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