spidermites-please help!

[bbrenner]

hi all
I have been lurking hoping there would be an answer to my spider mite problem. I've tried spraying and wiping the leaves but I watched two of my last instar cats die yesterday from a spider mite attack!!!
Has anyone got a solution that works?
Has anyone tried Nature control predators? Do they eat the caterpillars as well as the mites???
Help!!

[GBMonarch]

I didn't know the answer so I did a search and found this on the "Teaching with Monarchs" site.
www.teachingwithmonarchs.com/aphids.html- hope this helps.

Spider Mites:

Although many people try different methods and chemicals to rid a plant of spider mites, it is easy to be rid of them with a water sprinkler. These mites are first noticed simply as sick plants. The leaves become pale. Once the infestation becomes bad on a plant, webbing starts to cover the plant. If the infestation is light with no webbing, simply place the plant outside with a sprinkler on it. You may need to run the sprinkler for several days. Spider mites hate water. If the infestation is bad or if you have extra host plant and can spare the loss, cut off all the leaves and place them in a plastic bag, seal it, and throw it away. Then place your leafless plant under a sprinkler.

If your plant is growing in your garden, place a water sprinkler where it will run for hours each day on the plant.

[Paul Cherubini]

Control depends on the kind of spider mite you have. If it's the almost invisible, web spinning kind that
causes plant leaves to yellow or brown and fall off, then the best miticide is Avid 0.15 EC http://growersupply.com/av8ozmi.html It's expensive and systemic so your milkweed might not be suitable to feed monarch caterpillars for a month or more, but extremely effective against spider mites.

Maybe you have the larger predatory spider mites. If that is the case, these can be controlled using Ortho Malathion Plus available at Walmart, Home Depot, etc. Use the dilution rate recommended on the label for mites. Malathion is not systemic and treated plants are safe to feed monarch caterpillars about a week after spraying.