I did a three prong attack today. Soapy water to drown the little bastards, then an alcohol-water mix, and finally a garlic solution.
Garlic works good for other pests so I'm hoping it will help keep them down till I can find some pest strips or whatever.

Down with spider mites!

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Religion. Bravely turning its back on reality one universe at a time.

since my brushing of the plans (2 1/2 hours ago) The mites have assembled about 1/2 of the webbing they had before. I am trying another route. I am going to take my airbrush and blow the fuckers off towards the back of the room. I am then going to wrap double sided tape around the stems under the buds, the base of the plant, on the floor, and around the bottoms of the pots. I will blow them off again tomorrow, remove and replace the tape. I'll let you know what happens.
Fuck those mites. I am going to find a way to decrease the number even if I end up taking the plants outside, dousing them with gas, and lighting the things up. At least then I will have the satisfaction that they met a fiery end.

FLORAMITE!!!!!! IF YOU ARE AT WAR WITH MITES THIS IS THE ONLY SHIT TO USE !!!!
ok well there is other stuff but this is war and during war ya want a NUKE!!! +rep???

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"There Are No Stupid Questions, But There Are a LOT of Inquisitive Idiots

I was thinking of taking one of those sticky pads for trapping mice, slitting it and putting it around the base of the plant. that should catch anything I brush off, or tries to get back

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Religion. Bravely turning its back on reality one universe at a time.

tape is harder to get around stems on a mature plant than I thought. The airbrush got them off and now they are somewhere else in the room. They haven't touched the lower buds so they can go there for a week, better than the tops. I also found this on flouramite - "Its suppost to only stay with the plant for 28 days". I only have 1-2 weeks left.
so far airbrush was the best at getting them off.

sticky tape is a good idea. I am going to run it around the rim of the pots and the base of the plants next go-around.

Floromite SC you can get small bottles on Ebay for 20 bucks. 1 oz makes 24 gallons Give it a shot.


http://cgi.ebay.com/1oz-BTL-FLORAMIT...item3ca5a0694f

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http://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/256532-thc-bomb-super-silver-haze.html

http://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/258893-oregon-medical-out-door-09-a.html

No sign of a single living mite on my plant today.
Not bad.

When I spritzed the leaves with the alcohol, it was a 2:1 water:alcohol solution. It was left exposed to the air so it would evaporate quickly, and none was applied to the soil. Once there was no odor of alcohol, moved on to the next stage.

The garlic water was made from crushing and simmering a garlic clove in water for an hour. It stank like crazy. The water was strained, and sprayed liberally on both the plant and the soil. Garlic isn't cited for spider mites but works on a bunch of other bugs so I figured I'd give it a shot. Garlic seeds were planted in each corner of the pot as well. Preventative measures for the future.

I put a clear plastic bag over the top of the planter immediately after the garlic spray. It stayed on four around 18 hours. I took the bag off and inspected. No mites visible.

Doesn't mean I killed them all, but it's a reprieve for the plant, and the garlic will not affect the quality or taste of the buds later.

And it gives me time to prepare for their return.

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Religion. Bravely turning its back on reality one universe at a time.

Glad that helped.

I am on day 2 of the airbrush. When I checked out the plants today I saw virtually no sign of webbing and a whole lot less mites on the buds. I ran the airbrush again and could see the little guys flying off the buds. I am going to keep it up 2x per day when I can and 1x when I have my day booked. Don't think they will be able to do much of anything since they will not really be able to get re-established like they were before. I am spraying plain air and pulling the finished plants out as I go from front to back.

I tried the alcohol/water and got a bit on some of the buds. I immediately stopped. Some of those buds now smell like dirty feet (they had low to no odor before and I still have to put my nose right next to them to smell it). They have been like that for about a week with no change in odor or power of odor. When I pull some of the leaves down that are coming from the buds I cannot see any powdery white stuff, brown stuff, or any webs. I also discovered that I have that going on with one of the other plants. Could they be rotting out from mite damage? Is it mold? WTF?

I would guess the dirty feet smell is anaerobic bacteria in the moisture that got into the buds. But other than getting as much airflow over them as possible, can't think of anything else to do.

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Religion. Bravely turning its back on reality one universe at a time.

hope they can hold on a few more days. I checked the trichs with my handy radio shack microscope and I could harvest at any time. I just want the couchlock and it looks like I can keep the mites at bay pretty effectively. When I came home they had hardly made any comeback at all. The airbrush is freakin' sweet. I think no change in the smell because I have higher temps, lower humidity. Hopefully the smelly ones won't make me sick. Some of the biggest are stinky.