Picky Spider Mites in my Garden

A whole mess of spider mites blew in this summer on the west wind from Utah. They just wiped out the early coneflowers hollyhocks. It was a heartbreaker to have to cut off all those beautiful new buds, but it was the only way to keep the mites from invading even further. Fortunately, the coneflowers and hollyhocks rebounded with even more beautiful, mite-free flowers a few weeks later.

But...the really INTERESTING thing is that with six varieties of mint to choose from in my garden, the spider mites ate only the spearmint. They ate it right down to the ground, while completely ignoring apple mint, peppermint, lime mint, orange mint and chocolate mint. So what sets the spearmint apart?

Spearmint is the original mint (along with water mint). It is a genetically purer variety. All those other fancy mints are derived from the original mints--you can't even grow them from seed. So my guess is that those picky spider mites prefer pure, original varieties to the fancier cultivars. The coneflowers and hollyhocks are also old, original varieties.

Makes me think about all those genetically modified crops out there. If the bugs won't eat them, we probably should pass them by also.