I've noticed a white "webbing" forming on some of my leaves, there are tiny, random holes appearing and some leaves look eaten away at the edges. What is causing this? How can I do away with it? I don't like to use pesticide since I have a newborn baby in the house. Are there any "greener" alternatives? I've noticed that some of the leaves are looking a bit yellow/orange. Could that be a result of overwatering, or this pest?
Cool, thank you :) I read on a website that I should spray it with alcohol diluted with water. I used 1 part 91% rubbing to 4 parts water and sprayed all leaves and stems. I hope this works.
Spider mites don't nibble away the edges of leaves, so that is not what is eating your foliage, they do however make the leaf go yellow due to the leaf being sucked, Spider mites do make webs and these webs are finer than a normal spiders web, it is like fairy webbing, if you have a magnifying glass, take the plant to good light, turn the leaf over and look with the spy glass all over the back of leaf to see any tiny little insects, Red spider mites are not always red, they can be Grey or white but you have to really concentrate carefully to find them even using a glass, once you spot the tiny spots running a round you will then look on all your leaves and treat with whatever your choice is, I use a parasitic tiny little wasp that only eats red spider mites and once they have cleaned the plant of them, there job id done, they die off.
If you have those mites you will have to treat all your plants in the same room as the infected plant.
While you are looking through the glass, look for eggs of green / white fly also as these will such all the sap out of the foliage too, but they don't leave webs, please check too that the webs are not just house spiders webs, at this time of year they start to enter the house more for warmth and probably we don't notice them.
Hope this helps too. good luck. Weenel.
