Milkweed troubles...

[harpo787]

One of my milkweeds seems to have quite a bit of...."webbing" on it but not like a spiderweb. Unfortunately, I can't seem to photograph it. Quite a few leaves have yellowed, and it seems that there's little tiny red/pink things crawling on it. There's also this collection of stuff on some of the leaves that I could SOMEWHAT photograph. Not sure if it's related to the red creatures or not. Any ideas?!?

[John Beaulieu]

Sounds like you have Red Spider Mites. They can be common in the dry air of the house when wintering plants from outdoors. I usually give the plant a heavy spraying of water (a mini power wash) and that is usually all it takes. Sometimes they can be harder.... A Google search will turn up many ways of dealing with them, such as at....

http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/mites.htm

John

[harpo787]

Interesting....well, these plants are outside in a screened in structure. Although, most of the day it's been a fairly pleasant temperature, and certainly nice at night. I'll have to give that link a look. Looking at a google image, I'd say you're right about it being the red spider mite. They seem to explode on contact! Laff.

Meanwhile, I've just been sweeping a twig through all the webs.

[Keith Petrosky]

Sometimes that happens to my milkweed. The leaf will fall off, but a new leaf will re-grow in it's place.