- try diatomaceous earth. its a fine powder. use food grade DE. take the powder and put it in a plastic bottle with a cap. drill some small holes in the top about the same size as a salt shaker or smaller. give it a squeeze to force the air and powder out as a little cloud on the leaves and dirt. make sure its kept dry. this will kill any existing mites in the area. DE is like micro shards of glass totally harmless to humans. if bugs crawl through it they get cut up and dry out and die. in about a day. Trust me it works better than anything I've tried which is about everything. kelp4less.com is a good place to buy online. Google it do some homework give it a try. anyone with a bug problem try this and let us know how it works.