Spidermites - Neeed Ladybugs

A Quote from the april '08 High Times, Jorge's RX section.."In the United States, Ladybird beetles (ladybugs) are collected in California in the sierra mountains. The Ladybirds are hibernating and full of fat (stored food) when they are collected, and they are refrigerated to keep them in a state of low metabolism. When they are released, the ladybugs warm up and start looking for a mate; food is the last thing on their mind at this time. Once they mate and lay eggs, young larvae hatch out. The larvae that cannot fly have a ravenouse appetite, and their favorite food is aphids. SELDOM DO THEY EAT SPIDER MITES.

If you introduce 100 ladybugs into your growroom on monday, there will be only a few left on friday. Most of them will be ready to look for a mate and will take off toward the "sun"-which is actually a high-intensity discharge light (HID). They'll fly straight into the hot lamp and pop like popcorn!

Now i don't know how long it takes for ladybugs to hatch, and the fact that they don't eat spider mites, but they don't seem to be the answer to spider mites at all.

I have bombed twice w/ pyrethrins, and twice 3 days later w/ nylar. to NO avail. I left for 5 days only to come back to some of my best looking buds being covered in webbing and ate the HELL up(Ruined).

If anyone has any ideas please post asap, i'm 3-4 weeks from harvest and DO NOT want to lose it to a freak'n bug. HELP!!!!!!

I always use a mix of Pyrethrum and safer soap. You can buy both at lowes. It has always worked for me. I just follow the directions on the bottle. I make sure to coat the top ant bottom sides of the leaves. I let them dry for a couple of hours then I put them back under the light.

thc haven your are very right there, mine ended up in the lights LOL took for ever to clean em all out, step crunch, step crunch was comical--they did eat the other bugs though.

thcheaven said:

A Quote from the april '08 High Times, Jorge's RX section.."In the United States, Ladybird beetles (ladybugs) are collected in California in the sierra mountains. The Ladybirds are hibernating and full of fat (stored food) when they are collected, and they are refrigerated to keep them in a state of low metabolism. When they are released, the ladybugs warm up and start looking for a mate; food is the last thing on their mind at this time. Once they mate and lay eggs, young larvae hatch out. The larvae that cannot fly have a ravenouse appetite, and their favorite food is aphids. SELDOM DO THEY EAT SPIDER MITES.

If you introduce 100 ladybugs into your growroom on monday, there will be only a few left on friday. Most of them will be ready to look for a mate and will take off toward the "sun"-which is actually a high-intensity discharge light (HID). They'll fly straight into the hot lamp and pop like popcorn!

Now i don't know how long it takes for ladybugs to hatch, and the fact that they don't eat spider mites, but they don't seem to be the answer to spider mites at all.

Click to expand...

Obviously Jorge is an accomplished grower but the more i hear what he has to say the more i think he's loosing his grip,he dont remember what he said or what grow advice he gave last week,his advice does a complete 180 from one publication to the next,he has widely reccomended the use of lady bugs for years for wiping out spider mites,he even reccomends them in his ultimate grow video & vaccuming them up after they accomplish their task,then re refrigerating them.

Jorge is all over the place with his advice .

If your not sure they'll work for you call & talk to a botinist at your local college or call a local greenhouse & talk to the gardner there,i think Jorge has succumb to all the limelight & has switched his focus away from real advice more twords selling & pushing sales of magazines & products .

Common sense.

yes, ladybugs first want to mate when un-refridgerated.
What species doesn't want to get it on in the spring when the ta-ta first come out to play?

Yes, 1/2 or more will fly into the light, and another 1/4 will find a crack somewhere maybe.
But the ones that are living have to eat something eventually.

Yes, ladybugs may prefer one species over another.
example: aphids over spidermites.

But is the ladybug going to starve itself because it has no aphids to eat?
Doubt it.

So what if the ladybugs are not eating the spidermites.
That must mean you have more species than just mites.
If the ladybugs are hangin in your garden, then they are eating some type of bug from there too.

Once they run out of desert species, they will have to eat the main coarse.
I doubt a ladybug is going to fight to get out in hopes of desert, when an easy meal with no hunting or guesswork is already in their faces.

No ladybug is a bad ladybug.
Just not a spidermite prefering predator.

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But.

What will eat more/day of our friendly predator bugs to help us get the quickest or cheapest results?
Is there a species of predator bug that does prefer the taste of spidermites and do think they are desert?