spider mites
- Thread starter furl707
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jrp677
Active Member
I found the info below to be helpful. Good luck.
Soooo did some research, much of which may already be posted here somewhere but either way, will post it all. Basically though, spider mites are transferred in, through, clothes, wind, dirt etc... ready for a read??
ps this is RESEARCH...my own personal experience is not over yet...
Mites by themselves are not aggressive movers. They pretty much stay on the same leaf or nearby leaves for their entire lives. They are moved (vectored) by bird feathers, dog and animal hair, and clothing. They are usually worst in dry dusty conditions, although two spotted mites have been known to thrive even under very wet conditions.
Spidermites thrive in dry (20%-30% humidity), warm(70-80 degrees F) conditions. In temperatures above 80 degrees F, spidermites can reproduce in as little as 5 days, making early detection a necessity.
The most important step you can take to avoid pests is to keep your growroom clean, free of odours, free of bacteria and free of rubbish.
Keep your environmental conditions as close to perfect as you can, maintaining variables such as temperature, humidity and air quality. Make sure that you have got good air exchange, and keep the air moving.
After visiting a risk area and before entering your growroom, change clothes to reduce the chance of cross contamination.
Try not to draw air into your growroom directly from outside if possible. If you do then filter the air, especially in summer.
Do not let other gardeners or people who may have come from infected areas into your growroom.
Quarantine any cuttings that have come from other growrooms for a few days (or until you are sure they are free of mites) before introducing them into your growroom.
Keep pets out of and away from your growroom.
Stick to quality growing media rather than compost and other bagged media from garden centers. Dedicated hydroponic media is much less likely to contain bugs than standard soil.
Mites usually start becoming a problem in late spring and reach a peak by late summer or just at the peak heat of the season. They are definitely hot weather critters. In cold weather they move and multiply much more slowly. In summer their life cycle is about seven to ten days, that is, hatchlings are laying eggs after a week or two. Any treatment must take this into account. Just killing the adults does little good. Repeat treatments are almost always necessary to kill the emerging mites. In winter they begin moving off trees and shrubs to winter over on grasses.
Mites, like aphids are easily dislodged from the leaf surface, at least before they have a chance to begin building webbing. A weekly hard blast of water can stop an infestation from occuring or slow it down once it starts. However, you must be able to spray the undersides of the leaves. Just hitting the top surface will do little or nothing. Concentrate your attention on the lower parts of the plant. Mites won't be found on the upper and succulent parts of the plant.
If you find more than an occasional mite, and most of the lower leaves have two or more mites and perhaps webbing, you are probably in trouble. Begin lower levels of control. First try blasting them off with a spray of water. Do this about every two or three days. It may or may not work. If the population continues to build, use an insecticidal soap designed for mites (it should be on the label), or introduce predators.
Once mite count reaches about 40 per leaf, the population will really explode and mites will begin moving to other leaves and plants. In the worst cases, they will even begin moving to other species that are usually resistant. Treatment with predator mites at this stage is possible, but difficult and expensive. At this stage you may want to take a more toxic route.
Red spider mites are pretty easily dealt with. You can usually knock them out with water sprays. The big problem is that there are few effective ovicides for mites, so you must follow up in five to seven days with a repeat treatment to kill the hatchlings. Usually three treatments are necessary to end an infestation. Read and follow all label instructions carefully. Do not use more or less than the recommended amount or concentration. Using less can result in breeding mites with resistance to that chemical.
If you have two spotted mites, your job is even harder. These mites are very difficult to control and most are resistant to most miticides. Don't bother using typical over the counter insecticides, they will do nothing. These mites can build a resistance to pesticides very quickly, so repeated use of the same one just breeds new problems for the rest of us. These two spotted mites can still be killed it just takes a more serious approach.
Critics have said that while predators may work in a nursery situation, it won't in a small yard as long as your neighbors are engaging in chemical warfare. I think it is worth a try as long as you have a yard that will provide a complete environment, which usually means some exposed soil, trees and shrubs. In fact predator mites are more useful to small scale operations, than to larger ones such as mine. They can be used to treat individual plants, but long term control means changing the environment, including establishing a population of predators.
You must choose the right predator mite for your situation. There are several species available that are adapted to a particular climate. They have a rather narrow range of humidity and temperature requirements. Predator mites are available from several bio control companies
Predator mites can be expensive. At times, somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 a gram, or $50 to $80 per thousand mites.
Effective treatment is dependent on getting the proper predator mite. Green Methods lists about six, Nature's Control lists three. The most important parameters are temperature and humidity, but there are also other factors such as fast knockdown, early introduction, longevity, etc.
If you have ONE infested plant, I'd say forget it, the mites would cost as much as the plant, but if you have a good size collection and mites are a general problem, including your landscape, it might be a feasible method of control.
Additionally, yes the mites do stick around because bio controls do NOT eliminate the pest but simply set up a dynamic between the two species which keeps the pest from getting out of hand. If you want total control (read elimination) you must use chemicals.
i already got the azatrol for $60 im using it as a foilar spray at 1/2 strengh
jrp677
Active Member
I'm currently using Zero Tolerance. Only $20 and it works! You can use it up to 5 days before harvest.
Attachments
This has to be the best product I have ever used. Worked like a charm and is very safe.
http://www.canadianxpress.com/spray1.html
Pretty cheap and lasts for a while. Spray all over your plants covering everything and the mites just die off and never come back (that is the plan at least)
http://www.canadianxpress.com/spray1.html
Pretty cheap and lasts for a while. Spray all over your plants covering everything and the mites just die off and never come back (that is the plan at least)
towelie...
Well-Known Member
well...
got them on 2 ready plants, and its bad.
whyt do you do if you already got them, is there any way to save this stuff? make hash out of it? watercure? anyfuckinthing...?
or do i have to throw away this bud now?
got them on 2 ready plants, and its bad.
whyt do you do if you already got them, is there any way to save this stuff? make hash out of it? watercure? anyfuckinthing...?
or do i have to throw away this bud now?
Leothwyn
Well-Known Member
For me what finally did the trick was to be very consistent. Spray every 3 days - very thoroughly; no excuses, don't put spraying off for even a day. Do this at least 4 times... maybe 5 or 6 if it's really bad. I tried a lot of things and they kept returning. I don't think WHAT I used was the trick, just how I used it. Doing it every three days repeatedly for a decent period of time will get them as they hatch - before they have time to reproduce again. (BTW, I just used neem, which had failed me in the past when I was more loose about how often I sprayed). Also, to be safe, I sprayed all over (stems, tops and bottoms of leaves, and even the soil around the plant).
Not claiming that I have the best solution... but after a long struggle, this is what finally worked.
P.S. I don't think I'd do so much spraying very late into flower (2 weeks seems safe though). If late in flower, I'd just keep them at bay with iso alcohol + water (50/50), which evaporates quickly.
Not claiming that I have the best solution... but after a long struggle, this is what finally worked.
P.S. I don't think I'd do so much spraying very late into flower (2 weeks seems safe though). If late in flower, I'd just keep them at bay with iso alcohol + water (50/50), which evaporates quickly.