Hey /r/hotpeppers, I've noticed this sub has an issue with identifying mites from time to time. I've seen broadmite damage come up here and people who see these plants don't even think they are actually peppers, see spidermite damage and think it's the heat or flying insect damage etc.

Mites are the bane of growers pretty much everywhere, and can be quite challenging for novice and experienced growers alike to handle. They are extremely small and most mites can only be seen by scoping the leaves with a 40x magnifying glass or better a microscope if available.

Mites attack leaves, some mites will weave webs and you may find little sections of your plant woven together. Mites attacking the leaves will also cause leaf curl and mites can even attack your delicious peppers and leave corked anomalous growth. You may inspect 25 leaves and find no mites, but there could still be mites. I don't know how many growers I've spoken with over the years who swore up and down they didn't have mites, they knew and they scoped. Only for a month or two later they finally figure it out when the problem is a little bit further out of hand and easier to diagnose.

Whats the best treatment for mites?

Well, first lets look at what won't work. Mites live on the plant itself, not in the dirt so anything applied to the dirt will not help this situation.

Neem oil and soapy water may help a tiny bit to remove some mites but will prove to be an ineffective tool in eradicating these pests or keeping infestation under control if there are enough of them. If you have a heavy mite problem I recommend using Spinosad. Or some other pesticide aimed specifically at mites. If their numbers are low enough your plant can outgrow them, if you're growing outdoors battling a small mite colony might not be worth the trouble or introduction to pesticides to your garden as natural forces will usually keep their population in check (rain, wind, other predatory insects, extreme cold, extreme heat)

I do not ever recommend using a broad spectrum systemic pesticide, you may find these products work but I personally abstain from their use for my own health reasons and to protect beneficial insects that occasionally take up home in one of my greenhouses or garden.

"But wait, /u/gryphonedm, is there anything else that could be causing this damage to my plants? I've scoped everywhere, and I just don't think mites is my problem." Yes, and no. Very little will cause the signs of broad mite damage other than broad mites, but spidermites and the like do cause damage that looks like it could be caused by the environment. Leaf curl is a natural reaction the plant has when it is getting to much light and sun, but you won't find the sun leaving webs or bite marks on your plants. Also in pepper plants leaf curl may be caused by a calcium deficiency. If you don't think it's the sun or a deficiency then look again for the mites, they can be very very challenging to spot and you could have no webs, and very few mites and still have leaf curl; remember these things are invisible to the naked eye, you cannot just look at your plants!

I might be missing some info I just typed this up off the top of my head so please feel free to add in to this in the comment section below. I'd also be happy to help anyone with their plants here as well. As some of you know I have only been in the pepper world for a short while (about a year~ with around 100 pepper plants), but I am a professional horticulturist and the plague of mites assaults many plant species so is something I'm fairly familiar with :)