Someone was asking me about pests. These have spider mites, they're not super bad but I'm going to spray neem oil anyway. It's not ideal but my ecosystem doesn't have any spider mites predators right now so it's really my only current solution. I'm not interested in non-native predators but if anyone has a line on some Illinois native predatory insects holler at me.
You can also see how well established my cover crop is! I'm a big fan of cover cropping. Monoculture is literally poison to the Earth, so obviously Bizzle don't play that shit.
Anyway the big one in the middle is up to my nose ๐ and they're fully flowering which sucks but I'm learning for next year. Nothing I ever do is a failure, it's just some shit I did.
https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/penn-state-researchers-use-natural-predators-fight-spider-mites/
TL;DR
And later they say that the ladybug was the go-to. But new EPA regulations prompted some farms to use pesticides that kill the ladybugs. So the predatory mites are better if you are using those kinds of pesticides.