Agreed. That looks like bad spider mite damage. The water method definitely works if you stay on top of it. If you use neem oil, mighty wash, sns, green cleaner, or azamax (and there are plenty of other ones) then it will get the job done more quickly. There are also homemade garlic spray recipes and so on. The web is wrought with information about controlling spider mites and if you don't want to use systemic pesticides, all the organic methods seem to work equally well.