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It has been a while my chili plants show these symptoms. It seems relatively under control as they are not dying or dropping many leaves, but I'd still like to fix the issue if possible.

Symptoms are: leaves have yellow spots, like soenter image description here

and some stems have a sort of spider-web like matter covering them, like so

enter image description here

I'm assuming both the leaves and the stems are symptoms of the same underlying issue, but I'm not certain. My guess would be perhaps a fungal infection? The spider-web looks a bit like mycelium. And most importantly, how do I get rid of it?

Thanks for your help!

francoiskroll
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1 Answers1

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These are spider mites and lots of them.

You can confirm the identification by looking at the webbing with a hand lens or zooming in on your picture and seeing the tiny white dots on the plant and in the webs.

There are enough of them that they could start spreading to other plants so I recommend you start treatment immediately.

Of course miticides and systemic pesticides will work but I don't think you want to use those on a plant whose seed/fruit you will eat.

Effective treatment is to use dish soap and water at five ml soap to one liter of water. Or you can use neem oil if you have it as it has some residual activity.

I recommend wiping the plant down with a cloth soaked in the solution and doing this at least three times at five day intervals to catch the eggs hatching.

Another quick and fast treatment is to fill a sink with soap and water and dunk the plant in while holding the soil in place with a cloth.

kevinskio
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  • Oh. I should have asked this question months ago! Thank you. Any preference between the neem oil and soap method? – francoiskroll Mar 20 '22 at 15:47
  • @francoiskroll I can't buy neem oil where I live. I was a licensed pesticide applicator and found that if you can't successfully treat it with soap and water then you should consider getting rid of it – kevinskio Mar 20 '22 at 23:23
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    Already gave thumbs up. The only thing I can add is, often spider mites indicate the plant was under stress somehow. Too much or too little of something. Sunlight, water, fertilizer. Indoor plants near heat vent or A/C vent. So "round up the usual suspects" as well as doing the soap thing. – Boba Fit Apr 14 '23 at 15:27