Any plants not bothered by spider mites?

Just out of curiosity, are there any plants, annuals or perennials, that aren't really bothered by spider mites? I'm pretty sure there aren't any plants that are immune to them, but I was just wondering if there are any that spider mites usually don't bother as often as some plants.

Finding anything definitive is not easy....but here is what i ran across Succulents and think leathery leaf plants seem to have the fewest problems....also keeping a well watered garden is a deterrent to spider mites.....sigh not real hopeful stuff....grin

http://plantsarethestrangestpeople.blogspot.com/2010/01/list-houseplants-which-are-highly-prone.html

Yes Ditto with the moon, I was always told that any plants with an oily substance within the leaf was not liked by Red Spider, like Rhododendrons, and as mentioned by the Moon, leathery leaves, I do know from experience this is MOSTLY true but, I have almost lost a lemon tree last year in my conservatory, it was beautiful, perfumed like it could make you drunk and then came the spider mites, the bush was almost at deaths door before I noticed the fine webs that are the best clue to that problem but, by then it's a hard job to tackle and get rid of the mites. as suggested before I misted the plant 2 times a day, sent of for a parasitic wasp that eats ONLY red spider mites and it sure did the trick, the following year it was back and it must have been some that managed to hibernate over winter because I was growing the Lemon indoors.
I can say that most plants with soft, lush leaves are a party feast for those mites and even the type of plants that have a little hairy surface like tomato plants don't put them off.

Hope this helps you out a bit.
Best Regards, WeeNel.

Thanks to both of you :)

WeeNel, as for hairy surface plants, they love the Rudbeckia I grew from seed. In fact, they loved ALL of the wildflowers I grew from seed LOL BUT they have not yet touched my 1 year old Rudbeckia Goldsturm...maybe because it is in more shade?

The worst to get the 2 spotted spider mite thus far has been:

Marigolds (However, the ones that receive shade during the hottest part of the day have not gotten them yet)
Colocasia Black Beauty - (Only the ones that receive some mid-day sun have them. Ones that receive morning sun only don't have them.)
Colocasia Black Coral
Colocasia Esculenta
Colocasia Gigantea Thailand Strain
Colocasia Diamond Head
Roses
Cosmos - (Except the ones in 7+ hours of direct sun, rarely ever watered, and out by the mailbox haven't gotten them yet...go figure.)
Cardinal Flowers - (And these were well-watered, too!)
Azaleas
Zinnias
Several Wildflowers
Sweet Potato Vine
Dianthus
Mahogany Fern
Sparkling Meadow Rue
New Guinea Impatiens (Just the one in a pot, but not the ones planted in the ground)

Ones that have not gotten spider mites thus far are:

Colocasia Tea/Coffee Cups
Colocasia Mojito (This is right next to Colocasia Black Coral that really had them bad, but for some reason, the spider mites didn't touch Mojito.)
Colocasia Pink China
Colocasia Fontanesii
Colocasia Blue Gecko
Alocasia Mayan Mask
Philodendron Xanadu
Tropical Hibiscus
Canna
Mexican Petunia
Mexican Heather
Various Caladiums
Astilbe
Dusty Miller
Lantana
Succulents
Vinca (The flowers, not the ground cover)
Coleus
Persian Shield
Bulb plants (Calla Lily, Oriental, Asiatic, and Trumpet Lilies, Gladiolus)
And many more plants...

My shade gardens have not been invaded by spider mites thankfully. Hopefully, it stays that way. It seems that most of my plants that got any mid-day sun are the ones with Spider Mites. The exception was the Sparkling Meadow Rue and Cardinal Flowers which both receive morning and late afternoon sun only. The only Cardinal Flower NOT to get them is the lone one in the front yard that is in dappled sun under oak trees and is lucky to get an hour or two or direct sunlight every day. The Meadow Rue looked so bad and finally I got tired of dealing with it, so I cut it to the ground and moved it to the side of the house. We'll see if it grows back LOL

I have thrown away or sprayed down & potted up many of the infested plants that were in the mid-day sun garden. So, now I have empty spaces to fill. Maybe I will find something at the link Moon posted.

Thanks again for replying :-)

Carol....Spider mite "heaven" is hot dry areas in full sun. That is why all those sites recommend blasts of water/regular misting as a means of controlling them.

Carol, the moon is right, it was the dry heat inside my glass conservatory that allowed these mites to get so out of control before I even realised they were there, I was thinking over watering or under watering, or something eating the roots underground before I noticed the fine webs on my lemon tree, so dry heat that is the norm here in UK inside conservatories is the very conditions Red Spider Mites love, The misting wont kill off the mites but the dampness causes them to stop breading, so continual misting will help.
Best wishes WeeNel.

Ahhh, now I understand a bit better. I suppose I should go move the New Guinea Sun-Impatiens I just planted yesterday in mid-day sun - especially since today we have our first Heat Advisory and the Heat index is expected to be between 100 F and 104 F. Do you think I should move it or just water the heck out of that area? It gets about 1 hour of full sun in the morning between 8:30am and 9:30am, then shade until 12:30pm. Then it receives full sun until about 2:30-3:00pm and full shade after that.

I also didn't realize that dampness stops mite breeding. I have been washing/spraying the aforementioned infected plants daily since the outbreak. The Colocasia Black Coral had them bad before I noticed them because the mites are the same color as the leaves! Since I discovered mites on them a week ago, I have been using dish liquid & water in a bowl and wipe the underside of the leaves & stems with a sponge every other day, wait 15 minutes or so, then spray the leaves & stems with water. On the days I don't use the sponge, I just spray with water. One thing I'm confused about is that the area they are in is not dry, always damp, and not in full sun. The area only gets a hour or so of early morning sun and maybe 1 1/2 hours from 12:30 to 1:30. Otherwise, it is in dappled sun or full shade (once the sun goes over the house). As I mentioned before, the Colocasia Mojito is only 2 feet from the Black Coral and they haven't gotten mites - however, I do spray Mojito down daily anyway ever since I found them on the Black Coral. Since I have been doing the spraying or soapy washing daily for a week now, I have noticed fewer mites and the leaves don't have much, if any, of that sandy feeling on the underside of the leaves. Maybe I should switch to doing the spraying of the leaves every other day for a week, and then switch to every 3 days, and eventually cut it down to once a week. (Misting on the days I don't spray or sponge them, of course). What do you two think?

Another thing I did to hopefully cut down on Spidermites was dig up the Marigolds and did Moon's "swirling in a bucket of water upside-down method," whether they had mites or not, then planted them in pots and put them in an area of the front yard in sun, but far away from any other plants. I plant to hose them down (their leaves) every time I water them.

One more thing I am confused about that maybe y'all can explain. Here in South Carolina, our air is certainly not considered "dry." At night during spring and summer, it is 75% to 100% relative humidity and during the daytime, it ranges between 60% and 75%. Couple that with the fact, I never let the soil dry out completely...it is usually kept damp or moist depending on the area and plants...so how come the Spidermites have thrived here in my gardens? LOL The only thing *I* can think of is the fact the leaves are not damp or moist all day long like the soil is, and so when they are dry & in sun, the mites feed & breed on them. Would that be correct? If that is the case, should I mist the underside of the leaves just before the afternoon sun hits them?

Thank you two for helping me out so much. I've learned so much about gardening through you and others here at DG.

You say your confused well, join the club, there are so many different mites, bugs, crawlers and fliers that it's not easy to know what's what.
I would ask seriously IF your mites are definitely RED SPIDER, as a wipe with a sponge and followed by a misting does not normally give the results you mention over a week.
I have to use a magnifying glass to find the mites and by the way, they are NOT red in colour unless the females are breeding, any other time they are like a tiny pin head and dark brown /black.

However whatever your doing to treat your plants, KEEP it up, I say we all have different methods of dealing with a problem and if your getting results, go for it.

I am the opposite of you and moon in as much as I grow Marigolds as companion planting, they do attract greenfly and other Aphids but, because the Aphids love the Marigolds, it is a given that the Aphids leave most of the other plants alone.
I Plant Cloves of Garlic in beside some of my plants that get attacked with some bugs like earwigs, slugs, snails ect, because these creatures dont like the strong pungent garlic they dont get eaten so much, nothing is perfect, yes some stuff still gets eaten of covered with Aphids but all I am saying, these Companion plants do help a bit, it's better than going out every other day spraying and trying to have a bug free garden because we have to remember some of the sprays we can buy. actually kill off a lot of the good bugs we need for good growing conditions.
without some bad bugs we wont have good ones as the good guy's eat the bad ones. My Dad always taught me if any bugs are slow, they are the gardens enemies, if they are fast they are the friends as they have to be fast to get hold of the bad bugs. Does it work out that way, well here in my garden it is mostly true.

The confusion re your temps and humidity is not something I could give you advice on as I only know the mites NEED dry hot atmosphere to survive, bread, and carry on until they have there own little community. they can only survive in hot-warm temp's and dry air.
It is thought that every Red Spider Mite can lay a hundred eggs, they die then the hatching's breed within a few days, each lay's a hundred eggs and after a week, how many mites are there on your plants, the naked eye cant always spot them that's how small they are, but the very fine webbing is the first usual sign you have these mites so by then there are thousands. I looked using a magnifying glass on ONE leaf, and was amazed at how many little dots were running about on the leaf.
What you have to do with cleaning your leaf's by using a cloth or sponge is to clean the cloth / sponge with either Methylated Spirits or some other Alcohol substance to help kill the mites or you will spread them from leaf to leaf.

I hope this has helped you out a little.
Best regards. WeeNel.

WeeNel, to be honest, I am not 100% positive they are red spider mites or the 2 spotted spider mite. The only reason I guess at red mites is because when I noticed a pretty bad infestation on a Black Coral leaf, I remember seeing something tiny, red, and moving around among the black dots, and even some nearly clear dots, and some webbing. The red one was bigger than the others. (Or perhaps it was brown and appeared red, who knows LOL) All I know is that when I noticed the infestation, I panicked, and grabbed the hose real quick. I hated holding each leaf while spraying, but I did. I even had black dots on my fingers afterwards. When I rubbed my fingers together, the dots smeared. Gross! I had to go shower LOL It was NOT dirt LOL The thing that really freaked me out was being able to see them moving...there were so many, and the underside of the leaf was dotted with white specks and felt like sandpaper. Hosing the leaves down every day, sometime twice, has removed the sandpaper feeling, but the leaf will never be the same LOL

This morning I went out to water and hose everything down about 6:30. Can I just say I want to pull my hair out? I have spider mites on everything, except Caladiums, Autumn Ferns, Japanese Painted Ferns, and the Colocasia Pink China that is only about 7 inches tall right now. My 2 Alocasia Mayan Mask and my 2 Philodendron Xanadu have them. One of my Heuchera Plum Pudding was lush and full 2 weeks ago, but this morning, it looks like someone jumped on it. It is almost flat as a pancake and the leaves are half dead. The center was exposed and I could easily see the webbing. I looked at the stems near the leaves and sure enough, it was covered in black dots. I feel like I am at the point that I need to decide which plants I am attached to, which ones I am not, and then throwing those ones away.

Mainly, I feel like tossing any plant that has tons of leaves that are hard to spray like my Giant Dianthus that is browning and looking bad. Heck, I even found them on one of my my Dusty Miller Silver Dust and Calla Lilies.

I think the I am most frustrated about what they are doing to my Colocasia Esculenta. I assume the damage is from the spider mites. I hose them down once or twice a day, but everyday I notice the black spots around the stem where it meets the leaf and then some sporadically along the leaf veins. Some of them I can actually spray off or wipe off, but some seem as if they are glued to it. Little rust colored areas start appearing at the top of the stems and then the leaves get it. This morning, there were some tiny flies all over one leaf. (See Pic) I don't know if they are good or if they might be doing damage. After the dots appear on the leaf, eventually it gets necrotic spots with yellow halos. (See Pic) Then the whole leaf turns yellow in about 2-3 days.

If you look closely at the 1st and last 2 pictures, you can see the tiny black dots and rust on the leaf veins. They don't come off! If you have any idea of what I can do to stop the damage, let me know LOL Maybe the necrotic spots aren't from the mites, but from something else. I am a loss LOL HELP!

OK...I got a good picture of...what I assume to be Aphids or Red Spider Mites. Unfortunately, it just happens to be on my......Autumn Fern! Grrrr. Just got finished getting spider mites off my Coleus and Persian Shields! Now I gotta hose all my ferns. Geez. Is this really worth the trouble? LOL

Anyway, here are the pics I took of my Autumn Fern. At first I thought maybe they were the spores and perhaps they start out red then turn black. Then I saw the webbing at the top of the frond. That would make them Spider Mites right? Or do I have Aphids AND Spider Mites? LOL

rosemary and petunias are pretty much it, oh and thyme. Although I have to say i FINALLY found something that kills them! Bawahahaha (evil laugh). We go from freezing to 80+ and dry in a mater of a few weeks, and spider mites were devastating pretty much all my fruit trees (initially thought it was a late frost damage). My lax bug control caused almost loosing an apricot.

1oz of rosemary essential oil 1oz of phosphate free dish soap in a gallon of water. shake well and spray on at night

2 gallons later and only one treatment and they are 95% gone and the trees are already sending out healthy leaves.

Amazing, organic, and cheap. added bonus my yard smells lovely. No leaf damage noted and i drenched 17 trees, apples, apricots, cherries, pear, peach, nectarine.