my new beneficial mite routine (for spider mites + thrips!) + thripocalypse round 2?? 😩 

just sharing how I've recently starting incorporating beneficials into my plant care routine ☺ I'm still learning but love to update you with things I'm doing as I go! thank you for watching 🌿💚 y'all are the best x

Hi Fern, just wanted to let you know You don't have to put one one sachette on one plant. You can group them together, the mites will just migrate from one plant to another, this way You can treat way more plants than just 25. Also mites need high humidity (78-80%) to hatch. What I do is put a wet towel at the bottom of a trash bag, put a few plants together, add mites and close the bag. They should hatch and get to work within 48h. This metod was recommended to me by the seller. Luv U and Your content.

I have been into houseplants for three years now and in my tiny mobile home I have 35 plants from small to medium size in my living room and kitchen area and I have never had any bugs. I live in the American southwest desert. A neighbor snowbird gave me a Philodendron Xanadu when she left to go back to Canada last spring. She had it outside for five months. A couple weeks later I found Scale on it. I immediately tossed it in the dumpster and that’s what I will do if I ever find pests on any of my plants. I’m 80 and don’t intend to spend whatever time I have left dealing with sick plants. Donna

Sending positive vibes to all your planties and death wishes to the thrips 🥷💚

Thank you for being honest about the expense! That seems to be a fact that most people don’t mention.

I appreciate the reminder to remain calm. I have had houseplants for a looooong time. Dealt with spider mites a couple years ago.First time. Diligently spraying with castille soap and showering them every 3 -5 days for about a month worked. This year I have splurged and paid more money than usual for plants. So, naturally, I got thrips this year! I First time. I freaked and got Capt Jacks Dead Bug brew and Bonide systemic granules. I have tried to remain calm but internally I am feeling stressed by my plants now instead of joy. I plan to try and annihilate the @ssh●les with chemicals and then Id like to try using the beneficial mites for prevention. I hope these work for you and that you dont have to say goodbye to any of your babies ! ❤

If your plants are touching each other you don’t need so many sachets. The mites just walk from one plant to the other. If you make groups of plants you can have one sachet per m2. It really works for me 😊 And keep squishing the big ones because mites won’t tackle them. After three rounds of mites I do find an occasional thrip here and there but that doesn’t seem to bother the plants so I’m perfectly fine with that, it’s nature 💚

I liked that u actually showed us how the beneficial mites look like. All the best with demolishing the evil bastards!! 🤞🏻😈☠🔥

I have a group of us that order beneficials together to split shipping costs. Also, the mites you have are pretty much good for immature stages of thrips. It won't eat adult thrips. Orius or pirate bugs are the ones that eat adult thrips. My last tip, is once I see the beneficials being active, I'll move around the satchets to other plants in other areas where leaves aren't touching. Helps spread them around. Seems like you got a good batch that hatched alot. I've been ordering a while and sometimes the hatch rate isn't great.

What? Excuse me? How do you keep getting more and more gorgeous 😍

Oof.. thrips are the absolute WORST! I used pirate bugs recently and they wiped them all out, so I love using beneficial mites over chemicals now. I swear they started to become resilient to pesticide too 😢 I totally understand how you’re feeling! ❤

Thank you Fern ❤😊

Also, love the autumn vibes in the outro 🥰🍂🎃

How awesome that you can use the good mites! I never heard about them! So cool!😊

Thank you so much for sharing this. It's so helpful to see what thrips and beneficial mites look like. Sending good vibes and try to enjoy your time away anyways.

This was so helpful and so interesting! Thank you.

I’ve been dealing with thrips all summer /: I feel for you. Sending good vibes

🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻hope they take care of those thrips for you while you’re gone. So glad you got the thrips targeted ones!!!

Thank you for the video! Love you fern Also I think that a video of you showing all of your silver plants will be so cool 😊

Your syngonium albo looks amazing 🤩 💚🌿

Thank you for sharing. I’m also dealing with a lot of thrips and some spider mites. I just bought swirski mites so I’m looking forward to seeing how well it does. Wishing you many thrip-free days ahead for your collection.

Can I just say, it's insane the growth your channel been getting since hitting 100k, in next few months you def would hit 200k!

Oh no!!! I’m so sorry you are dealing with pests again. You take such immaculate care of your plants 😮

Ugh, literally just got them for the first time in four years, no longer a thrip virgin. I am battling with you!! We got this!💜 💪🏻

Sorry about your thrips but you have honestly never looked better, you are glowing! ❤

I’ve also been dealing with a thripacolypse this summer, and now the transition to fall is coming 😰😰 The anthuriums in your milsbo tall are so beautiful btw! Hopefully the benefitial mites will keep your thrip outbreak managable!

I have thrips too, going on for a few months now I am now on my 2nd round of beneficials too and I do think the numbers are dwindling. Tney seem to really love my more succulent leaved plants, who would have thought? I hope you have nipped your outbreak in the bud, your mites seem very busy at work so I have everything crossed for you to have a pest free autumn/winter. Love your channel Fern, you have got your new home looking lovely 😍

i have the WORST thrip infestation rn this video couldn't have come at a better time - thank you so much!!

I'm so glad you came out witth a video on beneficial mites as I've been super curious about them lately!! I'm so sorry you're dealing with a thrips outbreak but I admire your calm attitude towards it, I would be freaking out 😫I've owned houseplants for 4/5 years now and thankfully I've never had to deal with thrips, although watch me eat my words because I've spoken it out loud. However, mealy bugs are another story and I feel like I've never been mealy bug free in all the years I've owned houseplants 🥲I feel like I also never notice them until they've infested a plant, and done some serious damage. They especially love my hoyas I've noticed and I've just recently learnt that root mealies are a thing so that's fun 🙃 Wishing you luck 🤞and manifesting your plants get through this 💚🌱

Thanks for all the information.

Oh, Fern, big hugs. But also thank you - I needed to hear your words of calm reassurance. I'm also in the middle of a pest outbreak and I darn near lost it. I had a wee anthurium that just wasn't growing and I looked at it a bit closer on Friday and saw thrips larvae on it. When I got out the jeweller's loupe for a positive ID, I discovered flat mites, too! The thrips had spread to at least one other plant, but the flat mites had gotten into a good proportion of my collection, because I've been moving plants around a bit lately 🤦‍♀Nothing had any visible damage so I had no idea. My sister and I spent all weekend inspecting plants with a microscope and hosing the affected ones down with isopropyl solution. My beneficial bugs arrived yesterday but I'm still traumatised. I'm glad to see you washed your plants down before you applied the sachets, because it knocks down pest population so the mites have a better chance of success. Ideally, give them a wash before each new application. I also highly recommend, if the budget allows, ordering stratiolaelaps mites for your soil. They'll eat thrips larvae, fungus gnat larvae, and mites that diapause in the soil. They live for a long time, too, because they can survive on decaying organic matter when they run out of pests to eat. Our only supplier of those is all out at the moment but I'm checking every day in the hope I can get some soon.

"Out to party..."...that made me so so laugh 😂 I feel that situation so much...I hate Thrips so much...what a struggle and to have a panic attack is understanding because our plants mean so much to us and of course they are literally so close to us as well... my first comment on your channel. Many wonderful greetings from Germany and I truly love your channel. You keep me on track every time I lose motivation or feel overwhelmed. Doing plant chores with you is precious to me ❤

Suuuper random, but omg Fern your skin is GLOWING so much. You look amazing !!!

Glad you’re using beneficial insects! Please make an update video on your thysanoptera problem. I had it in my philodendron white wizard, and I’m using black soap until my next pay heck to get predatory mites.

Thank you so much for addressing pests! I feel like so much plant content out there doesn't address this and leaves people feeling hopeless and eventually giving up altogether. The lack of knowledge of how to deal with pests means people resort to desperate measures. You are smart to remind people to remain calm. There is this notion that you are failure if your plants get pests but it's really a matter of time and if you have your windows open ever, you will likely get pests eventually. There's so much content out there displaying beautiful plants but people never mention that they probably have pests everywhere! I love the idea of beneficial bugs, I might get a few packs just to be safe. I've never heard of these packs before! Koppert should be sponsoring you! I recently had to deal with a mealy bug, thrip, and spider mite infestation this summer. It was a cool summer so I had the windows open a lot. It was great for my energy bill but not so great for my plants. Some things that I have found to help is: 1 Thoroughly check new plants before you buy them; 2 Isolate new plants before putting them with the rest; 3 As soon as you find pests, proceed with regular showers and insecticidal soap for months after you see evidence of their existence (of course you can't do this with beneficial bugs); 4 Pay close attention and apply these rules to plants near open windows or plants that have been outside

I literally just went to a plantshop yesterday to get the beneficial mites because I had a breakout of thripse after my holiday. I bought them in sachets and I also got two other types of beneficial bugs (nematodes for the soil and some kind of flies). My beneficial bugs are apparently eating any bug so I didn't need to buy different sorts, that actually kinda sucks. All in all I only paid 50€ for treating ~ 30 plants. Good luck!!! 🍀🤞

Yes I have thrips for the first time. I’m watching closely!

We’re with you, Fern. We just squashed a spidermite attack and now thrips are invading 😅. The bennies should start arriving tomorrow. It’s just part of the plant life, right?💪🏼Stay strong

Thrips are the worst. Just spent the whole summer getting rid of them. My combo has been black soap spray, bug b gone and diatomaceous earth because here in quebec, we are limited on products. Just a side note. If you play in your outdoor gardens, put your clothes in the wash as soon as you come in and don't touch your plants. I think that's where my infestation started this summer when I was gardening a lot.

Legit msg'd you when you were on vacation about somewhere having milk confetti LOL! Had no idea you already got one and now I feel bad I prob had you stressin' on vacation about the dang thing. Here's hoping mine didn't come from the same place! Great video showing how you're using the mites! Wish they weren't so pricey in Canada 😢

I’m dealing with thrips too 🙃 Sending good vibes for your thrippy plants ✨🤞🏻💚. p.s. the word sachet is pronounced Sa -SHAY 🙂

Hang in there! Plants has been a minor hobby of mine for years but this last year the hobby turned into a frenzy 😂 and I have added 17 philodendron and 8 alocasias to my collection. I DREAD pests and fear for the day I will find them on my plants. I have been rather lucky coz over the years when I did get them I would usually toss the plant and problem solved... but no way I will toss my new babies without a fight first. Your video was helpful. Thank you! 💕 From Sweden

This was so interesting! I knew they were expensive to purchase so thanks for letting us know how's mich you've paid. Thanks so much for sharing! ♥️

Oh my goodness! Let the pests PERISHHHHH. My mom and I are currently in a thrips tragedy and it's not going that well to say the least haha. I somehow took them upstairs with me and I keep seeing large larvae of those fuckers on my monstera. The worst is my moms philodendron xanadu omg, I've cut sooo many leaves off of her but they just appear out of thin air. They've started appearing in my nightmares haha. Wish you good luck in the war😅😂

Thank you for showing a thrip it helped confirm that I have them too 😢

I think thrips are more prone if you have outdoor green spaces I got a front and back garden, and I have had thrips on all my plants this year I think I didn't realise for weeks because they're so tiny.... I felt super anxious spending hours a night researching how to rid them but I'm seeing it as a growth experience so I can get comfortable that pests and plants go together and this is going to make us better prepared for future outbreaks....

Apparently, the way you can the difference between beneficials and bad bugs in the wild is in the speed that they crawl. Beneficials are fast and bad bugs are slow!

**immediately goes and takes all new plants out of semi quarantine and puts them into real quarantine**

Thanks for sharing

I feel you Fern, my chickens got mites and it’s such a pain to treat. 😭 I have to basically disinfect every nook and cranny, diatomaceous Earth all of the soil in the chickens area, and treat the chickens and bedding with permethrin… 😭 (which requires gloves, long sleeves, glasses, and a mask) I also put Vaseline on the ends of the perches. Took me four hours of intense work to do the first treatment last week. I will do another round in a few days to get any that hatched since then. Thankfully the only indoor plant pests I’ve dealt with is fungus gnats. Hoping that trend continues! 🤞🤞

Hope you will be free of these pests ‼️after the mites do their work‼️👍 💚🌱🌵☘️💚

I've used these mites in my ikea cabinet before, and let me warn you, once they finish eating they will travel and get between the glass and the metal and die there. My cabinet is littered with dead mite bodies and the only way to get rid of it is to pop all the glass out and clean it. Which is a pain.

Definitely try Orius Insidiosus - they rule!!

Whoop whoop!!! ❤

I get thrips, what feels like, all the time.. I flower farm so the flowers seem to have hitch hikers, but the thrips usually dwindle away after I spray the plant down with water then with some neem or the like. And I’ll just squish any babies that I see every couple days. I find that if I don’t let them get massive population wise that they don’t cause too much damage

I'm dealing with pests of the human variety lol. Hope your plants get better!

Love “Manjula giving a sketchy vibe” 😜

I've never tried koepert, but I've ordered from growliv lots of times and I love beneficials. I initially wrestled with the cost, but then realized the cost of the sprays and more importantly my time and getting the spray on me and I'm just not willing to deal with that. I love setting the beneficals free - so they can do the work for me!! I'll never go back.

I would recommend Fertilome the Fire Blight spray tree powder mix Agri-strep Streptomycin Sulfate. It’s what I use for my plants ❤

Just found thrips on my deliciosa yesterday 😫 ordered the thrips and spider mites goodbugs straight away!! I always have a couple of spider mites on my marantacea

Seen them in the plants and was wondering what they were, assumed insecticide. Even better :) Looking Forword to your thoughts on them in future vids.

Thrips fly 😫 I've been dealing with them for the first time ever. I also have a large collection. Yes, I've heard that it's been a bad year for them. I've used several treatments(not beneficials though)and I think the physical removal of the visible thrips both by hand and spraying off consistently and systemic granules is what has helped most.

that's so cool! luckily i've only ever had spider mites... on my gloriosum, and my mamei had a major aphid infestation... do the mites reproduce? die off? how often do you have to replace the sachets? loving the length of your hair btw!

Down here in Texas my two main pests are mealy bugs and those yellow orange aphids. I spray my plants every two weeks with rubbing alcohol to prevent them but today found the aphids on one plant. I sprayed with alcohol well and got them wiped off with a clothe. Hoping that is the end of them again. The alcohol does well for me and before today the last time I had a pest was about 3 years ago. I have over 600 plants so it is hard to watch them all. Best of luck with your mites. Hope they work.

FERN!!!!! OMGoodness first of all- YOUR HAIR is soooooo gorgeous!!! I absolutely love it!!! 😍 Second of all- UGHHHHH😵THRIPS!!! 😵 Fingers crossed those lil mites do the job!! Ok, I have a question. What about if you want to get rid of all the mites? Is it as simple as washing off the leaves? I've heard of others in the plant tube circle state that they have been bitten by the larger ones just randomly in their house! I wonder if they bug dogs at all?

Hi Fern! thank you for this video… I was wondering about re-ordering the beneficial mites against the thrips and this gave me the last push I needed! Also, do you have the blue stickies to catch the adults? I found them useful given that the mites won’t prey on the adults… OMG I really dislike those bugs (the thrips that is! Not the beneficial mites! ) take care 💚🍀💚

I found some thrips on my monstera deliciosa :( I am hopeful that she will pull through, but dang, not my favorite thing to be dealing with!

This will b a good way to see if they really work..

I've got thrips for the first time right now! I feel you're pain😢

I've been dealing with thrips for about the last year. I'm losing my mind. Every time I think I've beat them they show up again. I've got beneficial mites and ladybugs and I think I have everything that's infected separated at this point so send good vibes pls 😭

ugh thrips are the woooorst. I've had them on and off for like a year :')

Hi from NZ Fern

Its the start of spring for me (new Zealand) and I have found adult thrips on about 90% of my collection! so wish me luck

i feel ur stress, im away from home for a month or two and my mom is watering my plants and my plants are strugglingggg 😭😭😭 im so scared, but trying to stay calm because jts not the end of the world

Ugh I remember last year when thrips hit like all of us early autumn 🍂 end of summer . My only worry with predatory mites 🐞 is they say if there is a active infestation the predatory mites won’t be able to completely eradicate them. But I’d like to try because treating an entire collection over and over is emotionally and physically exhausting 😢😅😅😅

Tbh it’s just a ongoing battle between me and thrips since the spring time😮‍💨🤧

Hi Fern. So sorry you're dealing with pests. I've only been collecting for 2 yrs and I think the only issue I've had is spider mites on my Alocasia. I've put systemic granules in the soil and sprayed with Mighty Mint plant protection. They go away but then come back. Had to move plant outside

Sachets is pronounced like sa-shay. Just in case you didn’t know. If that’s just how you pronounce it then ignore me 😅 I’ve JUST started using mites for thrips as they’ve killed a calathea before I realised what was happening 😭 fingers crossed they work for as I’d rather they do all the work than me!

I am fighting Thrips also. Just got my first order of Amblyseius Cucumeris. I found a video about breeding predatory bugs, so I am attempting to create my own supply of bugs. the video shows how to make cultures and how all that works. This something I have considered trying but was detoured by the shipping. I hope the new bug farm works out and I can have mites not thrips. I hate using pesticides. But I hate Thrips a little more.

I wanna see an update on this video! 😁

Pests! 😭 I’m so nervous about bringing my plants indoors that have been on my front porch all summer. I don’t even know where to begin! I do NOT want to bring in any unwanted guests. I have sprayed all the leaves down with a neem solution twice this summer. I have no idea if any of the plants had any issues or not. Just trying to keep things at bay.

if you are in the uk theres dragon-fli for benefital mites and lady bugs. only downside is that theyre in papaer packetsa dn so if you mist them they go to sheet.

When I bought my beneficials I just had my plants leaves touching so the mites could walk across the leaves and spread out a bit more.

I did so much traveling in July/august. Because I just wasn’t present thrips totally took over while I was gone 😢 I just started using beneficials as well. Started with a spray down and some insecticidal soap, then added the mites. Then a week later I sprayed them down and used captain jacks dead bug. I haven’t really seen any mites crawling around on the leaves, so that makes me nervous. I ordered them from amazon because ordering the koppert ones from a distributor was super expensive, but now I’m thinking it might be worth it….

Ugh I am also dealing with thrips and I hate them and their tiny dirty poops. I thought I got rid of them but spotted a couple of larvae on my adansonii this week. Realised they had infested my haworthia without me noticing and that was above the adansonii so probably dropped down from there. Suffice it to say that's in the bin and I've got mites on the way haha

I really want to try, but the thought makes me itch. 😅😊

I wish we had better access to this type of thing in Australia..all ive seen is crazy $$$

Hoping for a pest free home 🥲

How did you treat for aphids? I have a Hoya that I bought from a local greenhouse that has had aphids for a couples months. I’ll treat for two weeks and think they’re gone but then they show back up with a vengeance. It’s almost time for me to bring my plants back inside and if I can’t get a handle on these aphids I’ll have to toss the Hoya.

Hey great video! I have all my plants in mineral substrate and i noticed that for some months now some really tiny black bugs were crawling around. I managed to capture them with my microscope and found out online they might be globular springtails. My plants don't seem to have any problem, on the contrary theyre thriving! Have u ever seen something similar and do you maybe know if they are beneficial mites or are bad for the plants?? Thank you 😊

Hi Fern. I love this natural approach to beating pests. Like outdoor plants, indoor plants have to endure years when pests prolificate in plague proportion. One year its mealy bugs out of control, other times its aphids or thrips. I find autumn the worst. I shower down my plants and if still warm, put them back outside. Get those beneficial bugs to do their thing, before winter hits hard. Thank you for showing us this plant saving idea. Please keep us updated on progress.

I’ve been using beneficiary mites for maybe about 6 months now. I’m loving seeing them running around and keeping the bad guys at bay! I just ordered a heavy arsenal of all of them because of spider mites mostly and a single something I couldn’t identify. Its war!!!

So how long do the thrip packages last for ? How long does it take for the thrips to be gone?

Someone suggested ladybugs to me for spider mites. I bought thembut haven't used them yet because I am conflicted about using them indoors. Do you have any advice? I regularly use insecticidal super soap (for treatment and generally when I shower the plants) and captain jack's deadbug brew to control the mites but then they reappear a few months later.

Curious why you don’t use Systemic or something similar? I instantly put it in any new plant I get. Wondering if I should ‘t be doing that, but I don’t want pests! Love you and your channel and just got my Spooky Repot sweatshirt yesterday and can’t wait to wear it!

thanks god I don't have any of these pests right now, this video is scary, more than the scream movie 😁

Ouuu this is just what I needed!! I ordered from Optimize Organics (based in BC) and they sent 4 of the KopperT sachets (2 of each kind) and another little freebie product I have a thrip issue right now and I’m going to have to order some of the mites when I place my next order this coming week

🙌🏽

thanks for this content :) i was wondering if you knew if we should avoid spraying our plants with any pest treatments before applying beneficial mites and for how long we have to wait to apply them since the last time we sprayed? i’m assuming it also depends on if the spray is natural or not. 😅

did you have full grown lacewings? or were they larvae or eggs