Garden Pests and Diseases: Spider Mites 101 - Please help with my pepper plants!, 0 by Izumi

Izumi wrote:
I'm hoping someone can answer some questions I have about SPIDER MITES, so I can figure out how to get rid of them for good!!

I've had problems with the bugs on my two (indoor) cherry bomb plants this season. One plant got a pretty bad infestation... it reached the point where I could see little webs on the leaves, and mites crawling back and forth on the webs. I treated that plant several times by spraying it with dish soap diluted in water. After about 3 sprays the bugs were gone, but the plant subsequently dropped most of its leaves (not sure if that was from the mites or the treatment). It has since recovered and grown plenty of new leaves and flower buds, so things seem to be going well, but I'm not entirely convinced the bugs are gone. They actually seem to have spread to the other plant as well, and I'm trying to take a less aggressive approach in treating it this time, to avoid leaf loss.

I'm a little mystified by the current situation, actually. Since treating the initial infestation, I haven't seen any more actual insects (crawling, building webs, etc.) on either plant, but I seem to be observing progressive damage to the leaves. The leaves are mostly healthy but when you look closely at them you can see a grainy appearance, with tiny white spots where the leaf tissue appears to be eaten away (see photo).

Is this spider mite damage, or could there be another cause?

The reason I ask is that I don't see any bugs, and yet the spots still seem to be spreading on both plants. I inspect the leaves every day and sometimes I see a few little brown specks on the bottom of the leaves. I'm wondering... are these spider mites, or spider mite droppings, or spider mite eggs, or something else related to spider mites?? I only see a few here and there, and I brush them off with my finger. As I said, I don't see any other sign of bugs... nothing crawling around. The brown specks look very different from the mites I saw originally.

I read a fair amount about spider mite control in other threads. Everyone seems to have their own concoction, including some combination of soap, beer, hydrogen peroxide, neem oil, etc., but I'm wary of causing leaf drop again. I read in one post that water should be enough to get rid them, so I've been blasting the tops and bottoms of the leaves with a spray bottle every day. As I said, I don't see any bugs, but every day there are a few more of these brown specks and (I think) a few more areas of damage.

Can somebody help me figure out what's going on? If there are still spider mites on the plants, wouldn't I be able to see them?? What are the brown specks?

Any insight or advice would be GREATLY appreciated!

Many thanks,

Izumi