Spider mites can cause serious damage to a garden or larger fields of crops.
It's estimated that these spider mites cause about 5% loss to the world's total agriculture which is a very large amount of damage.
When you have an infestation of this pest, steps will have to be taken in order to get rid of them so they can't continue to do even more damage or spread.
What spider mites do is start with the leaves of the plant.
They normally get onto the underside of the leaf and will pierce a small hole into the leaf which breaks the protective coating.
They will slowly start sucking from the leaf.
This will dry and dehydrate the leaf over time.
Eventually you will start to notice your leaves with small speckles of decay on them and may even notice the red or yellow mites walking around on the leaf if you look very carefully.
If nothing is done, the plant will die and more and more mites will breed killing off more of your plants in your garden.
A couple things can be done about these mites so that you can prevent future problems.
Water the underside of the leaves.
This can knock them off the plant as well as raise the humidity around the plant which they hate.
This also helps deal with other types of pests who like being on the underside of the leaves.
Spray some soap and water on the plant.
Test this first to make sure your mixture won't hurt the plant.
If you live in a rainy area, consider adding in some vegetable oil to this mixture to help it stick to the plants better.
Get lady bugs and mite predators to the garden so they will work all day long getting rid of your mite problem for you.
Use a substance called diatomaceous earth to dehydrate and kill the mites in the garden.
Sprinkle this in your garden to take care of pest problems.