pest problem: how to identify and what to do

Hi,

I am growing kitchen herbs indoor in Switzerland. I am sticking to natural and organic, but almost all my olants are dying, some already have, some are about to. In the soil, I see these extremly fast running tiny little brown-redish spiders, they are a little bit smaller than aphids. There are a lot of them all over the soil of several of my plants, looks kind of like an infestation. Can I save my plants, what can I do?

8 legs and smaller than an aphid sounds like some kind of mite. Perhaps since they are in the soil you could cover the soil with a thin layer ~ 1 mm of food grade diatomaceous earth.

Dear Wiliam,

thank you so much for your brilliant suggestion, I just ordered some of this earth. If applied outdoors, would I run the risk of injuring beneficial insects or earthworms with this?

Is there a website that helps one to identify common plant diseases and pests? My indoor herbs are getting one problem after the other, and by the time I have figured out what the new problem is, my plants have died. The website I envision would have a decision tree to help diagnose common pests and problems. maybe it already exists?

Diana Wais wrote:Dear Wiliam,

thank you so much for your brilliant suggestion, I just ordered some of this earth. If applied outdoors, would I run the risk of injuring beneficial insects or earthworms with this?

Diatomaceous earth works because it is microscopically sharp and cuts the exoskeleton of insects, causing them to dry out. It's naturally occurring and not poisonous, but it is indiscriminate in that it will kill beneficial insects just as well as harmful ones. DE doesn't work if wet. Since earthworms are slimy and don't have exoskeletons, I don't think they'll be harmed by DE.

hau  Diana, these are some good sites for pests and disease identification and treatments.

common plant pests and diseases

pest and disease directory

garden problems

pests and diseases (now archived)

pests and problems

As has been mentioned, tiny and eight legs generally means mites.

Redhawk