Natures Good Guys - Amblyseius swirskii (10 Sachets with 250 Mites)

Ahhhh, I wish I had just switched to predatory mites long ago. I have an indoor garden with some fairly unusual plants and I recently discovered mites again after believing they had been gone for over a year. The thought of treating every single plant with some kind of spray again completely overwhelmed me. So I asked a few friend for recommendations for predatory insects and then discovered this company.First, this company offers quite a wide variety of predatory insects for whatever you might need them for. I have always felt capable of managing any other kind of pest, but mites were forever the thorn in my side. You NEVER know if they’re gone. In fact, I got rid of an awesome collection of marantaceae because they seem to be a favorite snack among the spider mite community and I just couldn’t tolerate it anymore.So cut to my first order of these sachets of mites. One of the plants I had discovered some webbing on was a pretty full pot of Global Green. Certainly not the most prized plant, but it’s pretty and I like it. So I hung two sachets in that plant and even though it says you don’t have to, I kind of tore open the sachet a little bit because I wanted to make sure my little predator friends could make it out. 4 weeks later and this plant now looks phenomenal! Every vine has perked up and there is vigorous new growth with big, gorgeous leaves. Every single one of my plants now has some new friends to fend off the enemy (well, actually to *eat* the enemy).The moral of the story is that one should, hell-for-leather, give up their routine of spending the time spraying your plants with whatever. Instead, but some of these sachets, OPEN THEM RIGHT AWAY, at full tilt hang them on your plants, and then go do something you’d rather be doing like have a picnic, binge watch Netflix, or hang out with your favorite person. Not only will you save time, but you’ll save $ in the long run, too.

Have had a off and on struggle with spider mites with my extensive indoor houseplant collection full of lots of expensive and rare ornamentals. Have used of course like many people a range of powerful chemicals to address spider mites but they are one of the most resistant pests there are. Either the chemicals do nothing or don't get rid of them all, or they are so harsh they damage or kill the plants. Almost always the tender new growth on plants suffer. Also having to move everything outside to spray is such a pain or just very hard because it's too cold or too hot and the chemical solution has to evaporate before bringing them back indoors, or you get it sprayed on yourself. Then to rinse the houseplants off down the line is a pain too.Anyways these mites arrived fast and I first checked to see if I could see any and saw movement so there was life when I got it. Within a day or two the infestation was addressed and almost completely wiped out that's how fast they worked. I grouped the plants together so foliage would touch which is usually a no no, but it I'm sure helped the predator mites spread between plants easier. Before arriving I of course sprayed everything off in the shower to reduce the population of mites so the predator mites could wipe them out more effectively. But I'm shocked at how easy and fast and effective they worked. They say they have the hatching staggered in the sachets so just a fraction of predator mites were hatched and working that's how effective they are. Even if I have to buy these every 6 months to a year because they die off with no more pest mites to eat, it's so worth it for the ease of use and no chemicals indoors. But frankly the most important thing is it works and way better than chemicals. That's really all that matters given how hard it is to get rid of spider mites. Please don't stop making these available to the home gardener and the small sizes for people who don't need large amounts. It's not practical to buy the big amounts which is how it used to be. Every home gardener should know about these. They are a God send.

The sachets I got seemed to be teeming with life. Probably a decent preventive measure, I initially got them to battle a discovered infestation on flowering plants, unfortunately by the time I discovered my mite problem it was too late for these guys to really do anything. Hemp russet mites are terrible, if your stuff is fully infested, trash it if you can't go full throttle with sprays, or look into the mass release bottles.I now have the sachets on some vegetating plants following micronized sulfur and fatty K-salt sprays. Periodic scoping reveals no russet mites leftover aside from isolated pockets, with the random surviving A. Swirskii skittering about.

So far it's been two weeks and none, nada, no movement of any mites? They say could take up to 3-4 weeks.Other note the package was very warm when it was delivered got it within 3 min of delivery. The ice pack inside had been warm for quite some time not even damp, just pretty warm!

The media could not be loaded. I haven’t had any issues really. First time was a test run, should have gotten more bugs for the amount of plants I have.One thing I failed at in the beginning is making sure these dudes have water. It says to mist plants and the second I did they went straight for the water. It’s currently been a month and they are still alive around my humidity stones. They do the job, but it IS recommended that you get more than one shipment of bugs to prevent any stragglers.If you have lots of mites, GET LOTS OF MITES.These bugs will thrive wherever the bad bugs are thriving. So be sure to place them in that area if you’d like them to live longer (usually the less airflow areas).I will be back in another month or so for my third round of bugs since I have a lovely alocasia addiction 🫠