Soil Mites: Are They Harmful to Your Houseplants?

Soil mites are tiny arthropods that live in potting soil, feeding on organic matter like decaying leaves and fungi. While they don’t directly harm most plants, their presence can be unsettling, especially when they multiply rapidly. In this guide, we’ll explore whether soil mites damage houseplants, how to get rid of them, and some preventive measures.

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What Are Soil Mites?

Soil mites are microscopic creatures, typically white, brown, or translucent, that thrive in moist, nutrient-rich soil. Unlike pests like spider mites or fungus gnats, soil mites don’t feed on live plants. Instead, they help break down organic matter, playing a role in soil health.

Are Soil Mites Harmful to Houseplants?

In most cases, soil mites are harmless to plants. However, their rapid reproduction can lead to infestations, and they may:

Attract other pests – Their presence can indicate overly moist soil, which invites fungus gnats and mold.

Spread bacteria or fungi – While they don’t feed on plants, they can carry pathogens from one plant to another.

Become a nuisance – If they crawl onto plant leaves or furniture, they can be annoying.

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Houseplants Most Affected by Soil Mites

Although soil mites don’t directly damage plants, some houseplants create ideal conditions for them to thrive, including:

1. Plants with Moist Soil Needs

Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum)

Ferns (Boston, Maidenhair, etc.)

Calathea (Prayer Plant)

Pothos (Epipremnum aureum)

2. Organic-Rich Potting Mix Lovers

Philodendrons

Monsteras

Snake Plants (Sansevieria) – if overwatered

African Violets

3. Compost-Heavy Soil Plants

Herbs like Basil and Mint

Fiddle Leaf Fig

These plants often have nutrient-dense, moist soil that soil mites love.

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How to Get Rid of Soil Mites

If you’re seeing too many soil mites, you may want to control them. Here’s how:

1. Let the Soil Dry Out

Soil mites thrive in moisture. Reduce watering to let the top layer of soil dry completely before watering again.

2. Repot with Fresh Soil

Remove the plant from its pot.

Shake off excess soil.

Rinse the roots and repot with fresh, sterilized potting mix.

3. Use Natural Remedies

Cinnamon powder – A natural antifungal that helps deter mites.

Neem oil spray – Mix neem oil with water and spray the soil surface.

Diatomaceous earth – Sprinkle on top of the soil to dehydrate and kill mites.

4. Improve Air Circulation

Using a small fan or opening windows can help reduce humidity and dry the soil faster.

5. Introduce Beneficial Predators

Predatory mites, like Hypoaspis miles, feed on soil mites and other pests.

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Preventing Soil Mite Infestations

To keep soil mites from returning, follow these simple habits:

✅ Use well-draining, sterile potting soil.

✅ Water only when the top 1–2 inches of soil are dry.

✅ Avoid composting indoors.

✅ Keep dead leaves and organic debris off the soil surface.

✅ Check for pests regularly.

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FAQ About Soil Mites

1. Can soil mites bite humans?

No, soil mites do not bite or harm humans.

2. Do soil mites mean my plant is unhealthy?

Not necessarily, but they could indicate overwatering or too much organic matter.

3. Will insecticides kill soil mites?

Most chemical insecticides aren’t effective against soil mites. Natural methods like neem oil or diatomaceous earth work better.

4. Are soil mites the same as spider mites?

No. Spider mites are plant-damaging pests that suck sap from leaves, while soil mites primarily feed on decaying organic material.

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Final Thoughts

Soil mites aren’t always bad, but too many can become a problem. By keeping your soil clean, dry, and well-aerated, you can control their population and keep your houseplants healthy. If you notice an infestation, simple natural remedies can help you get rid of them without harming your plants.

Got soil mites in your plants? Try these methods and let us know which one works best!

Why Weightloss Matters With Adult Diabetes

Weightloss is the watchword for most type 2 diabetics.  You know you should be losing pounds, eating a reduced amount of sugar and exercising.  But why is it so tough? to do this?

Type 2 diabetes tends to surface after a person reaches 40 years old, but not always.  Even pre-teens are now being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes!  That’s a sad commentary on our socienty today.

And that is why diabetes and losing weight is so much easier said than done these days; our culture is, “more, bigger, better” which  unfortunately includes food serving sizes.  It’s so easy to just say “super size it, please”.

Losing Weight and Diabetes — Why

You’ve heard it from your health care provider, read it in books and magazines, but here it is again.  If you have adult onset diabetes, you need to be on a weight management system, as well as exercising.  You know it, but do you do it?

It’s a fact that if working out helps your body better handle the insulin available to it.

The problem many times is fitting exercise into our daily schedule.  Raise your hand if you’ve ever said, “Just a few more minute’s sleep.”?  Still weight loss exercise programs raise your metabolism…so you burn more calories when you’re sleeping!

And if your medical doctor has you on medication, it’s very important that you take it as directed.

So that’s the “why” of diabetes — what about the “how”.

Diabetes and Losing Weight — How?

Pick some items from your refrigerator or cupboard and inspect it for sugar.  Don’t bother with the obvious, but instead look at items that you don’t expect (for example – salt).  Chances are, if it’s a processed food, sugar has been added.

Should you do away with all sugar?  That’s not practical for weightloss and dealing withadult onset diabetes.  What you want to do is be informed as to how much sugar you are consuming.

The benefits of losing weight really do outweigh all the junk food and inactivity.

A Low Glycemic Plan for Losing Weight

In the last few years, the idea of following a low-glycemic plan has gained quite a bit of momentum among diabetics and non-diabetics alike.  To put it another way, it limits the foods with sugar that’s rapidly metabolized by the body.

By selecting foods that release their sugar into your body more slowly, your blood sugar doesn’t swing wildly.  This is a big help, when it comes to losing pounds and diabetes.

Check With Your Doctor

Naturally, if you are under a medical doctor’s care for your type 2 diabetes, you need to check with him or her regarding weight loss.  Undoubtedly you’ll get the green light, but you should be monitored anyway.

Weightloss and diabetes doesn’t have to be challenging.  But you do need to consider what changes you can make, to live a healthier life.

Smart Strategies To Lose Weight Quickly

The  weight loss industry seems to have done a very good job with conditioning people to think they can shed fast in a weeks time. There has to be over a hundred various quick weight loss products offered, now. No matter what, you need to find an overall strategy that works best for you and is healthy. The thing to realize is you may have to try various products to find one that works well for you. Your results will be even better if you eat appropriately and can get some exercise in, as well. You want to lose your excessive fat once and for all without the usual ups and downs.

It is a part of some Western cultures for people to gorge themselves at a standard rate of three times a day. These are the types of servings during meals that are far too substantial and unhealthy. Well, now many of us know, thanks to various study, that the best strategy is to spread the meals out throughout the day. Be aware to the size of the portions, and it would be a good plan if the food was nutritious. Additionally you want to stop eating until your stomach is feeling full. It is also known that there is a small lag time between when you stop eating and you in fact feel full.
Bottled water sales have been thriving for well over ten years, and people have been consuming it for health reasons. Essentially, drinking water is a very well known solution to helping you lose weight. If you are in the habit of consuming soft drinks – you already know how undesirable they are for you – so we will not tell you to give up. Truly, a lot of research has been done over the years about the advantages of drinking water. It is seriously important to get enough daily water because of the daily influx of environmental toxic compounds and various toxins. You’ll be able to keep possibly bad snacking to a minimum due to the water intake removing hunger feelings.

Check for cardiac diet to lose 10 lbs in 3 days
You can make use of the methods we just talked about, plus others, to achieve major lifestyle adjustments and lose all that extra weight. Take it one step at a time, and before you know it you will discover great improvement toward your objectives. Do be careful that you do not lose weight too fast because the common result is to promptly gain it back.

Healthy Lifestyle | Math and Weight-loss

As soon as people find out that you want to lose weight they are going to start showering you with suggestions. Many people will try to be helpful. They will need you to be able to get to your goal weight as easily as you can. The issue you are going to hear the most frequently is going to be “slimming down is only math.” This concept, at its heart, is normally accurate. Obviously knowing it’s math doesn’t make the path easier to travel. Nobody claims to know how to take peace in the math when you’re trying to keep away from your favorite unhealthy snack foods or when you are too tired to keep working out. This article will help you with this.

The center of weight reduction math is pretty simple. If you would like to shed pounds, you need to use up more calories than you soak up each day. Not only will this make your whole body use what you put into it, it will work with what it has stored up too. You will need energy to keep moving and survive and that’s why your body stores fat to begin with; it offers something to burn if you can not eat enough calories every day. If you do enough exercise to burn all of the calories you ingest, logic declares that your weight should stay exactly where it is now. If you do so much exercise that you just burn through all of the calories you’ve taken in but still have to get through your day, the body will turn to your fat cells as a source of the energy you need.

The first way to handle this problem is to lessen the amount of calories you take in each day. Your physician will work on you to generate a healthy calorie count for your height, background and lifestyle. This does two things: it gives you an objective number and a start line for your diet plan. It makes it possible to figure out how intensive your workout needs to be every day. On the surface it looks like almost everything is centered on discipline. It will take willpower to kick the habit of eating once you’ve reached your calorie quota for the day. You require discipline to train everyday to burn through the calories you eat.

The simplest way to keep disciplined is to understand everything you can about how much exercise it takes to burn through the extra calories you take in. Is the sugary soda that looks so tasty worth the couple of hours you have got to spend on the treadmill to work it off? If you have the ability to see just how much work is needed to counteract a potentially unhealthy decision, it should be less difficult to make smart choices (like choosing a bottle of water).

Not surprisingly, there may be psychology at work with you too. Weight loss math just deals with the surface level of what you are about to go through as you work to shed some pounds and get healthy again. This is why it is so crucial for you to work together with another person who knows how to approach health and weight reduction smartly– they’ll help you decide on a good approach for meeting a weight loss goal.