Indoors, pests can be devastating.
Outdoors, we have help in the form of predators.
I do see occasional signs of spider mites.
But when I flip the leaf over. I find empty husks.
They get gobbled up before they have a chance to fully colonize.
You folks on the mainland have "rancher" ants. They bring aphids to drain your plants dry, as they "milk" the aphids for honeydew.
Knowing this, I isolated my plants with moats to lock the ants out.
Then I learned that the cane farmers here had imported carnivorous ants to eat the cane borer grubs.
That was unsuccessful.
However, it left billions of hungry ants roaming the islands and their favorite meal is a bowl of juicy aphids, but they don't pass up a snack of spider mites.
(One of those hungry bastids tried to eat my leg)
Even without minion ants, there is a natural balance between pests and predators
That's why I use no poisons. It destroys the natural balance.
Often the pests recover faster than the predators.
Natural balance vs spraying poison? It's a no-brainer Imho.
Aloha,
Wee' zard