anybody try Diatamaceous earth for controlling spider mites

I could be totally off base with this, but I don't see DE as being a miticide.

The sharp, pointy particles might be fine for deterring slugs and snails, but that's about it.

 

It won't hurt the plants, and likely also won't hurt the bugs. DE is harmful to invertebrates, as it scrapes up their outsides and causes them to dehydrate, but you have to get a ton of it on them. If you dusted the plants very heavily with it and left a thick layer on, that might do a little, but not much.

You might look up whether neem oil works on spider mites. It works on aphids, and is tolerable for carnivorous plants, which are very sensitive. I say "tolerable" because they don't like it too much. Then again, I was mostly using it on sundews, which are covered in digestive organs and may or may not have digested some of it directly.

 

There is a product on the market - Bio Advanced 3-in-1 Insect, Disease, & Mite Control - that is relatively inexpensive, safe and quite effective. I get it from my local Lowes or Home Depot.

Originally, it contained imidacloprid and two other ingredients, tebuconazol and tau-fluvalinate, but now contains the “other two” only, but is still very good.