spider mites 10 days b4 harvest

BigTexan

Well-Known Member
Thats cool you breed them in the veg...how do you get them from not commiting suicide into the lights?I tried using them in the past and thats what they end up doing. Then I have to hear the crunch of walking on their corpses...lol I threw in the towel on that idea;)
I breed them in a terrarium but they are free to enter/exit the cage. I went to home depot and got metal screen door screen, it was like 45 foot roll. i put screens behind all fans and over all exhaust fans as well as putting screens over any openings they could escape. they are escape artists. doors are sealed as well. since they have a home they stay off the floor, i dont have a high mortality rate because if they get hungry they know were their home is. if you want to control their location use raisins and honey, as well as a cotton ball or rag thats wet for them to drink. if they are happy they will not die. and if they have a good home they will lay eggs in it. they stay off the weed as far as laying eggs they are really picky were they lay them. but love to get out and fly around for a few.

They love to screw on the weed but ive yet to see eggs on the girls. the ladys in the bud room i think get high from crawling on the mature buds. ill find them stumbling around sometimes. but they have a temporary home in their. only time i put lady bugs in flower is if i start seeing bug problems, but they run free in the veg room because you get the most pests in the veg room. plus they love it.
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Diabolical666

Well-Known Member
I breed them in a terrarium but they are free to enter/exit the cage. I went to home depot and got metal screen door screen, it was like 45 foot roll. i put screens behind all fans and over all exhaust fans as well as putting screens over any openings they could escape. they are escape artists. doors are sealed as well. since they have a home they stay off the floor, i dont have a high mortality rate because if they get hungry they know were their home is. if you want to control their location use raisins and honey, as well as a cotton ball or rag thats wet for them to drink. if they are happy they will not die. and if they have a good home they will lay eggs in it. they stay off the weed as far as laying eggs they are really picky were they lay them. but love to get out and fly around for a few.

They love to screw on the weed but ive yet to see eggs on the girls. the ladys in the bud room i think get high from crawling on the mature buds. ill find them stumbling around sometimes. but they have a temporary home in their. only time i put lady bugs in flower is if i start seeing bug problems, but they run free in the veg room because you get the most pests in the veg room. plus they love it.
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thats awesome thanks for the reply!
 

harris hawk

Well-Known Member
I applaud your attention to detail. So is that a teenager plant or almost harvested one with mites? Used to have mites or still does? Can you lower your grow room temps? Honestly I think you'll be disappointed if you finish her under those conditions you described. If you thought you got rid of them and oh shit you didn't, that's why I say you probably have them on the other plants, or they are at least in that room. Spraying this late sucks, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Your plant doesn't look bad, if I thought I had 10 days, I'd probably just ride it out.
Being so close to harvest, I would do the same "ride it out"
 

shishkaboy

Well-Known Member
Rosemary oil, neem oil mixture is what I use. But there are other natural options safe for human consumption.
 

yktind

Well-Known Member
I breed them in a terrarium but they are free to enter/exit the cage. I went to home depot and got metal screen door screen, it was like 45 foot roll. i put screens behind all fans and over all exhaust fans as well as putting screens over any openings they could escape. they are escape artists. doors are sealed as well. since they have a home they stay off the floor, i dont have a high mortality rate because if they get hungry they know were their home is. if you want to control their location use raisins and honey, as well as a cotton ball or rag thats wet for them to drink. if they are happy they will not die. and if they have a good home they will lay eggs in it. they stay off the weed as far as laying eggs they are really picky were they lay them. but love to get out and fly around for a few.

They love to screw on the weed but ive yet to see eggs on the girls. the ladys in the bud room i think get high from crawling on the mature buds. ill find them stumbling around sometimes. but they have a temporary home in their. only time i put lady bugs in flower is if i start seeing bug problems, but they run free in the veg room because you get the most pests in the veg room. plus they love it.
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Now I think I need some pet ladybugs!
 

shishkaboy

Well-Known Member
homemade mite spray.JPG I tried ladybugs once, they all died in like 3 days. Didnt lay eggs or anything. Got stuck in every piece of exposed duct tape, got into my cool tubes. But worst of all they would walk right past the mites. Dont just ride it out bro. Every day you wait they are multiplying exponentially, even if you try to use your hands to smash em, you gotta lower the numbers everyday, or you will never be rid of em. When you do get rid of em,, you will be treating as a preventative measure like one a week just in case.
 

BigTexan

Well-Known Member
Now I think I need some pet ladybugs!
They are THE best pest to have, runner up would be a praying mantis, but if they run out of bugs to eat they will start eating your plants. ladybugs will die before eating your plants. honey and raisins are their second choice of food when their are no bugs to eat. i use a rooting humidity dome for their cage because it keeps moisture in which they need and it has two sealable openings at the top so i can decide if i dont want anymore out of the cage. some months can be a little too many lady bugs and ill just give some to my other growing friends or just let some of the older guys/girls out by opening the window to the veg room for a few hours. to keep them alive they need to stay in a cage for 24 hours before releasing them that is if you buy from a store because they are usually refrigerated so sticking them directly into the room will definitely kill them. they cant get hot, 80 max in the cage and thats with an opening for fresh air. ive actually seen them get out and flutter their wings at the entrance because since they lay eggs in it, its their colony they treat it like bees. if it gets too hot youll see them trying to cool off the eggs. there are many species of lady bugs, make sure they are lady bugs that eat mites. not all of them eat other bugs. they are hard to keep alive but once the cycle of breeding starts it doesnt stop if you have a healthy colony. i started with a bag of 1200 lady bugs maybe 900 were alive from the garden store. (lots of dead ones is normal when buying from a garden store do not buy online unless you can find someone who ships overnight)
 

shishkaboy

Well-Known Member
@BigTexan
So for the first day you are supposed to leave the dome closed?
I did everything you said, except I left a small opening in the dome(I had raisins and a wet sponge in there for food and water). They all just went everywhere in the room. They didnt even touch the raisins, they would drink the water from the sponge. When the predators didnt work for me I had to figure something out. Now I use rosemary oil and neem oil and dish soap homemade mix.
 

BigTexan

Well-Known Member
@BigTexan
So for the first day you are supposed to leave the dome closed?
I did everything you said, except I left a small opening in the dome(I had raisins and a wet sponge in there for food and water). They all just went everywhere in the room. They didnt even touch the raisins, they would drink the water from the sponge. When the predators didnt work for me I had to figure something out. Now I use rosemary oil and neem oil and dish soap homemade mix.
yes keep it closed for the first day so they can get acclimated to the room. they were just taken off a refrigerated truck and shoved in another fridge lol you'd want to get settled first too. to help them wake up when you buy them give them a spray of room temp water to help them go through waking up stress free. i dont use any oils/sprays because its clogs up the pores on the leaves and reduces uv uptake. and that has been proven. lady bugs are great and i just laugh when people tell me lady bugs dont work. its the grower who isnt working lol they also complain about dead lady bugs in the buds and poop everywhere, both of those ive never had a problem with i dont see poop anywhere and never once found a dead bug in my buds. so its probably just people who dont like the concept of bugs being in their grow rooms, but they are a beetle, the stickiness on the buds do no effect them they weigh enough to crawl on it without problems. they are also probably heavy enough to fall off if they happen to die on the bud but, like i said never seen it happen. all i know is my girls are spotless and i dont even have a gnat problem. only bugs i see is an earwig or two once every week. hate those fuckers. cant keep them away. they bring in micro mites. but still dont have a problem lol
 

shishkaboy

Well-Known Member
I know exactly what you mean, I get people talking about clogged pores and burnt leaves. But not everyone rinses the stuff off. Whatever I spray (only organic) if it aint water it gets rinsed off. Mites are soft bodied and are affected by the neem/rosemary immediately. So right after I spray I make it rain. No issues at all.
 

BigTexan

Well-Known Member
washing leaves takes me all day lol plus cant do it for very long with my bad back so thats why i never used it again.
 

BigTexan

Well-Known Member
i upgraded to a fertilizer sprayer with the pump and fine mist, still sucked, i use it for disinfecting my rooms after harvest now lol
 

420ms3

Well-Known Member
well i put her back in the garden about 2 feet away from the nearest plant and 2-3 days later they starting reappearing so once again removed all infected leaves and stuck her in the bathroom. im thinking ill just hang a lil 90 watt led panel and a fan over and then chop her a lil early..
 

shishkaboy

Well-Known Member
well i put her back in the garden about 2 feet away from the nearest plant and 2-3 days later they starting reappearing so once again removed all infected leaves and stuck her in the bathroom. im thinking ill just hang a lil 90 watt led panel and a fan over and then chop her a lil early..
You can even wash the plant, soapy water will help.
 
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