If I have microscopic mites in my brugs, what is the best treatment and on what schedule?
mites on Brugs
It would depend on whether they are spidermites or broadmites. When you have a large spidermite infestation, you will see little strands of silk, much like spiderwebs all over and among the leaves, both old and new. The leaves will take on a spotted appearance, turn yellow and drop off. If you hold a white sheet of paper under a leaf and tap the top of the leaf, you should see a layer of reddish dust-like mites falling onto the paper. Broadmites distort and thicken new growth. They are much smaller than spidermites and require at least a 10X magnifying lens — a good quality one. They don't fall off if you use the paper and tap method.
Spidermites are easier to control or get rid of. You can control them by spraying the whole plants with a stiff spray of water. Over time the numbers will build up again and you will have to keep repeating the treatment. Unfortunately, the damage they do is cumulative thus weakening the plant. Safer soap can also be used. I don't know how effective it is since I have never used safer soap. I use neem oil because the mites don't develop any immunity to it since it is a contact spray and it is safe to use around humans and pets. Use as directed. The best way to approach this is to remove all but the smaller leaves. You don't have to, but you will have to make sure you really get the underside of each leaf because that's where you will find most of the mites are hiding. You will have to re-spray every 7 days once or twice more to make sure you get any and all newly hatched spidermites. There are other and more powerful chemicals that can be used, but they are also more toxic.
Broadmites are more difficult to kill and require more powerful and more expensive chemicals to kill them. Avid and Forbid are 2 of the slightly older products. Use them as directed. While Avid and Forbid also work on spidermites, it would be wise to reserve those chemicals for use against broadmites. They are not contact sprays and pests will develop resistance to the chemicals requiring stronger and stronger methods to kill the pests in the future.