My brinjal leaves have a faded speckled stippled look on top, fine webbing on the underside, and very tiny dots that move when I look closely. The leaves are going dull and brittle in this hot dry spell. What pest is this and why are my sprays not working?
The speckled stippled leaves, fine webbing underneath and tiny moving dots in hot dry weather are spider mites, not insects. This is why your normal insecticides are not working, mites are arachnids and need a specific miticide. In fact spraying broad insecticides can make mites worse by killing their predators, so stop those. For light infestations a strong water spray on the underside and neem oil help, and predatory mites control them naturally if you do not kill them. For heavier loads use a recommended miticide such as spiromesifen, fenpyroximate or propargite, and rotate miticide groups since mites build resistance quickly. Keep plants well watered because dusty water stressed plants get worse mite outbreaks. Cover the leaf undersides thoroughly when spraying as that is where mites live. As brinjal is eaten fresh, follow the label dose and pre-harvest interval, and confirm with a hand lens or your KVK before buying a miticide.
I wasted money on insecticides until the KVK told me they were mites. A proper miticide cleared them in one round.
Keeping the plants well watered and washing the dust off the leaves really reduced the mites in the dry season for me.
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