Spider Mites on plants. Will they harm my parrot?

[BoomBoom]

Hello! I just noticed that some of the leaves on my lucky bamboo plants are sticky. Close inspection revealed little webs and tiny mites under the leaves. Looked it up and it seems they are spider mites that commonly attack lucky bamboos. Boomer doesn't get too close to the plants but the mites could easily get on my carpet, furniture etc.

Should I be worried about these spider mites jumping on to my parrot and living in his feathers?

 

[weco]

Not to worry Boomer, mites that eat plants don't suck blood.....

 

[MikeyTN]

You don't have to worry about the bird getting attacked, but you better get rid of them on your plants before they get too big of a colony. I use dawn dish soap mixed with water to spray them with to rid them.

 

[BoomBoom]

Weco, Mikey, thanks! I also read about the dawn dish soap but wasn't sure it was safe. That will be my project today. And here I thought I was going to have a nice, lazy Saturday morning.

 

[crimson]

I laughed when I read your post about a lazy Saturday morning....I was thinking the same thing when I got up this morning, however, all I did was make more batches of food for my fids, and cleaned up the mess before my day started.

as for your mites, your best to get rid of them before you have too many, like Mikey said.

 

[Kalidasa]

I used to have those on my bamboo's also, I think they're called mealy bugs...tiny white slow moving things, roundish with lots of legs and they produce webbing. Soapy solution works, as well as spot spraying them with rubbing alcohol. Sometimes soapy water makes the leaves look sickly if you don't rinse it off properly. I hate those things!

 

[Mayden]

Dawn washing up stuff is bird safe if you're cleaning bird feathers. They usually use it on birds during oil spils and such so don't worry about that being near your fid!

 

[MikeyTN]

Dawn dish soap is very safe like its been mentioned. That's the only dish soap I buy because they donate money for oil spill funds for the animals!!!!

 

[BoomBoom]

I used to have those on my bamboo's also, I think they're called mealy bugs...tiny white slow moving things, roundish with lots of legs and they produce webbing. Soapy solution works, as well as spot spraying them with rubbing alcohol. Sometimes soapy water makes the leaves look sickly if you don't rinse it off properly. I hate those things!

Yup that is exactly what they were as you described it. Dawn dish soap and a thorough rinse took care of those nasty critters yesterday. Hopefully they don't come back. Not even sure how my lucky bamboos got them in the first place, they're all indoors. Thanks for all the tips.