Ultraviolet light can kill the eggs of the spider mite (Tetranychus urticae). Recent research of Florida University warns of possible side effects, however.
Sriyanka Lahiri, an entomologist of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) was the first to discover that ultraviolet light can help to control spider mite. UV light is combined here with predatory mites. Recently, however, Lahiri and her team found that the same UV doses that kill most of the spider mites also almost kill 90% of the eggs of the predatory mite.
This means that these predatory mites cannot grow into adults as a result of which they cannot eat the spider mites.
According to Lahiri, this problem can be sidestepped by first killing the spider mite eggs with UV light and subsequently introducing adult predatory mites.
