I'm Marty, from the Essex coast in England. I'm 46 and have been a cacti enthusiast for about a year and a half now. Mammillarias are among my many cacti specialist interests. I have a decent collection of some 30 odd species, including seedlings that I have germinated this year. Sadly however, a few of my more established plants are on the way out as it looks like the dreaded RSM has attacked. I think I am losing M senilis, M senilis 'Diguetti', M glassii siberiensis and M tepexecensis. It is sad and a bit soul destroying, but I will keep going and so will my plants!

I am a member of the BCSS and I often post on their forum, so I may be familiar to a few of you folks here.

Hi Marty and welcome to this Forum.

Shame about the RSM, it is a constant menace, much worse in my opinion than mealy bug because you always see the result too late. All you can do is to stop them doing even worse. But with the clumping species you've mentioned above, it might be worth giving them a good anti-RSM treatment and try to keep them. I know that I have seen some plants that I've had attacked send out new offsets, even if the growing point of the original plant is just too far gone. Then after a year or so, cut it off and re-root. It may not be worth doing this with every plant, if they are easy to obtain, but if it has been a treasured posession,or a form that isn;t readily available again, then why not try at least.

Hi Marty,

And a warm welcome here. Sorry to hear about your problems with red spider mite.
It happened to everyone of us and if not it will be. Don't let encourage you and keep going on with this nice hobby