Dahlias Under Attack: Mites - August 2025

Go away for a couple of weeks in August and you hold your breath that nothing catastrophic happens back home.   Drought damage.  Rabbit Damage.  Insect Damage.  We had all three.  Plus two burrows of baby bunnies birthed in our yard (one in front, one in back).  While we were out of town, we saw ZERO rain.  None.  Not a drop.  

So that meant that despite my efforts to set up *some* irrigation via timer(s), some things suffered.  I've worked over the past few days scurrying around trying to get everything back watered-in, and only think that I lost a few things while others had mere setbacks. 

But, the insects?  That might be a problem.  The dahlias on the southside of our house have been attacked by something.  I'm no expert, but after doing some research I've narrowed it to one of two things:  mites or thrips.  Pretty sure they're mites.  When I examined the plants, the foliage was 'bronzing' and/or 'silvering'.  If you search for that, you'll discover (like I did) that bronzing = mites while silvering = thrips. 

I spotted tiny white bugs that weren't 'long' like what thrips look like online, so I"m pretty sure they're mites.

The plants, look bad.  Drought + mite damage = brown edges, dead leaves and dying foliage.  See below for a few shots:

I went out and grabbed a miticide and have applied it generously to the plants - both on the top-side of the leaves and on as many of the back-sides that I could get to.  I also poured on a small amount of a systematic insecticide via a drench that (hopefully) the plants will take up and will protect the new growth.  Lastly, I dropped a bit of granular fertilizer in hopes that it will give the plant a little boost to push out new foliage.  My fear is that the current foliage that the mites have worked-on is going to lead to total decline.  If we can see new green shoots - those will serve as 'solar panels' to power the plant and get it back on-track.

The vacation meant that I wasn't out in the garden everyday - observing and getting ahead of things like mites.  I'm guessing that if I was home, I might have spotted these little buggers days earlier and could have intervened before the plant(s) got to this point.  

Last year, I had only earwig and budworm problems with the dahlias, so having a mite infestation is new for us.  You learn something every day out in the garden.