Aloe mite?

The pictures gave me goosebumps.

yes, aloe mite. I stepped very carefully and touched nothing when I was taking pictures of those far-gone infestations. The last thing I wanted to do was bring it home.

A friend of mine got that in her collection one time. I had the creeps for months after that. I must have checked every plant daily for a year straight. Yuck! She ended up just tossing some really nice ones. It wasn't worth infecting her whole collection trying to save a few.

Early detection and zero tolerance are really important. Because where there are aloes, there are aloe mites.

Thank goodness they don't cross species. Like spreading to Agaves. I suspect they have their own type. I have one seedling that from seed to plant I grew. It developed the mites. Only showed up in the flower stock. Kept it away from the rest of my collection. Can't say how or where it came from. Tried all known insecticides I owned. Nothing. Stuff on line cost over $100 for just a few oz. I see why people toss them. I heard Seven helps. So, soaked down with seven power. Showed some results. Next Seven liquid. So far, working. Cut all infected areas out and new growth looks normal but the next bloom stock will tell. Since it showed signs of helping, I used the seven liquid on all remaining Aloes just to be sure. Another piece of it I grew apart to see what happens but a rabbit ate it.
Now there is also some cresting that occurs on a plant that is similar looking to aloe mite. I have one haworthia hybrid that I first though was infected but it's not. Purchased it that way and for safety sake, kept it away from other Aloaceae.
Aloe Mite reminds me of the remake of 'The Thing'. How just one tiny speck of it could take over a person. Fire kills it but also the subject.

Mites are not insects. So many insecticides won't work on them.

There are topical miticides made for horses and other livestock. I can't say whether they would be safe to use on aloes, but I had a Mammillaria with terrible spider mites a couple years ago, and I poured the store brand Tractor Supply livestock miticide on it. It completely got rid of them. I think it was 2016 and they're still gone.

At the time I didn't know if it would work at all or even if it would harm the plant, I just did it as a spur-of-the-moment thing because I had the miticide already for my animals.

Good Idea Jai. Next time I go to get my bird seed, I'll have to check it out. Hope it's not too expensive.
Seven Liquid list mites but the very tiny aloe mites live in protected areas and feed internally. Best used to keep from spreading to uninfected plants.

It can be expensive, about $35 for a gallon-ish container because it's meant to be used in huge quantities (horses, pigs, and cows, get LOTS of mites). I had some left in the bottom of a jug and just literally drenched the poor plant, but magically it worked. If you're using it only for plants, you'd probably have it forever.

For some reason it seems like aloes might "take up" more of the liquid than a cactus would so it may harm the plants. Maybe they don't take up more and I just imagine that, through.

Now that I think of it, there are miticides for caged birds, as well. Those come in smaller quantities and are probably cheaper.

That's why I kept the plant. If I loose it, no big deal. Worth the fact of learning. I really drenched it with the liquid Sevin so I wanted to see any results. The white power Sevin, I used all over the place on all my house plants. Wife didn't like the idea. Did it out side before bringing them in but sill messy.

A word about Aloe and Age mites or eriophyid mites as they are officially known. Unlike spider mites they are microscopic and live inside the plant. So unless you are using miticides that are translaminar or using a 'spreader sticker' type product that helps your miticide penetrate and cover all surfaces of the plant, you are not really doing anything.

While Sevin has definitely come up as something that has helped, the actual veracity of that is unclear as based on what Sevin is, it probably should not have worked.

While Aloe mite appears to have been around longer, here in the desert SW and So Cal nursery land Agave mite has been the main attention getter. So most of my info regarding this is based on my own limited experience with Agave mite and from talking to people who have had to treat large collections.
Initial infestations are impossible to detect, but once outward symptoms are present an Aloe mite infestation is way more obvious than an Agave mite infestation, which can show low level, but hard to detect symptoms for months before becoming obvious.

As mentioned here the best treatment is to get rid of the affected plant asap. Even healthy unaffected looking offsets should be considered suspect. However, if that for some reason is not possible the miticides available such as Forbid, Avid, and several others, all at the expensive to outrageous end of price spectrum do work, and small amounts go a long way.
While Aloe and Agave mites are definitely distinct - ie. an Agave mite will not jump to an Aloe and vice versa - the miticides appear to be effective against both.

Some people (nursery people and people with large expensive collections) advocate for a permanent preventative treatment program where you circulate between several different miticides on a monthly to bi-monthly basis. Other people would suggest isolating any Aloes/Agaves and associated species that you are bringing in your collection for at least 2-3 months and spray them several times with a miticide, before introducing them to the rest of your collection.

In both Aloes and Agaves the mites can be pushed into 'remission' - ie the plant will look normal and produce normal growth - by using miticides without fully eradicating them, which will them return as treatment is stopped or conditions improve. Some people doubt that you can completely eliminate the mites from an infested plant, but in my own experience with a couple of mite infested Agaves the treatment with Avid that I did on those plants has caused the plants to recover and be healthy for at least a couple of years now.
One experienced Agave grower who has dealt with a full blown infestation in his collection advocates treating an obviously infested Agave with at least two different miticides till it has grown three fully symptom free leaves before putting the miticides away.

Interestingly high doses of the 'spreader sticker' type additives to make the mticide more efficient are linked to occurrences of Agave core fusing and leaf deformities... Given that Aloes grow differently they should not be affected as severely by that.

I have only ever had one Aloe with Aloe mite and that plant immediately got binned. As said two Agaves. It has led me to treat all my Agaves with Avid once a year just in case. The miticides are expensive but if you weigh $100 and several years worth of treatment (if you do not go to a monthly or bi-monthly treatment) against the potential loss of a large Agave and/or Aloe collection it might be worth it.

That was really informative and helpful, Thijs.



My experience is almost exclusively with the aloe mite (my one case of agave mite was history as soon as I saw it).

I agree about the seeming futility of "curing" a mite-infested plant some times. After its second case of aloe mite, I will remove a plant for good. That's what happened with Hercules, and striata, and a maculate aloe. I actually didn't wait for a second time with nobilis and spinosissima. All those names are worth remembering in association with this garden pest because they're frequent victims. Not all aloes are equally susceptible, fortunately.

Sometimes (and often, in the places where aloes are native) aloe mites will only affect an inflorescence. I think they travel via the wind and via wings from there to other plants. It's to their advantage to get up high and fly free. You can amputate the inflorescence early and all visible symptoms will disappear until the next year, when another inflorescence comes out looking fishy. Aloe arborescens commonly does this.

On to more lively and colorful topics, here's a nice little dwarf that's about to put up 5 inflorescences.



I grew out seedlings from last year's flowers... really really slow but I think the plant may be self fertile. From what I have seen the seasonal growth pattern with this plant (a winter grower/summer slower) is pretty extreme, even with baby seedlings.

Hoffmanii


Candy Corn

Found this today labeled as Gasteria aristata.

Aristaloe is a genus of evergreen flowering perennial plant in the family Asphodelaceae from Southern Africa. Its sole species is Aristaloe aristata, known as guinea-fowl aloe or lace aloe. Wikipedia.
Used to be called Aloe Aristaloe which is the base plant that a whole bunch of hybrid 'Gasteria' came from.
Nice specimen Ângelo. Starting to pup already. I have a old large one with many pups.

Not to nitpick, but the original species name (Haworth 1825) was also aristata. Only the genus name was changed in the recent revision. The hybrids with Gasteria, which are almost as common in cultivation as the species itself, used to be called xGasteraloes, and presumably still are, unless that new genus name has led to the invention of a new intergeneric name. xGasteraristaloe, maybe? Doesn't roll off the tongue quite the same way.

Curiously this species was originally described only 16 years after Gasteria was split from Aloe, during a time when that splitting was still not accepted by some people.

At least they got the name half right on that sale plant, Angelo!

Hmmm... I wonder if any of the xGasteraloes inherited Aristaloe aristata's cold hardiness.

It's probably worth investigating.

Aloe species with nice reddish stress colors here.




These last 2 are closely related flower-wise but spicata usually grows more of a stem.



I also planted a castanea with colors very similar to the last plant, but more orange.