A hot, dry summer like has been occurring in many parts of Iowa could mean spider mite problems for many of our landscape and garden plants.
Spider mites feed externally on the foliage of nearly all vegetables, flowers, trees and shrubs.
They use piercing-sucking mouthparts to puncture the plant tissue and feed on the liquid within the cells. In light infestations the foliage will appear to be speckled with very tiny yellowish-green spots. If the population of mites increases the damage can become severe enough to turn the foliage entirely greenish-yellow and eventually tan or brown. Heavily infested plants often drop their leaves. Close examination of infested foliage may reveal very fine webbing produced by the mites.