Spider Mites! Help!

Well from what I've been told by several horticulturists, the mites wont nest where there are predators. In your situation you might need more lady bugs to scare them away, but that might at least help if they don't nest.

The spray I've been using is called Mite X. It's organic and can be used right up till the day of harvest. It has 3 types of oil, 3 types of acid, Sorbitol, Sucrose, Molasses and water. I can't tell you personally how they work on mites yet (and hopefully never will) but they kicked the Thrips little buts in one application. Also the fem horticulturist at my local nursery said she used it on a big flowering bush in the parking lot of her nursery and got rid of a spider mite infestation in one application. And she's been on the money on everything so far. Also it's also cheap, less than $10.

If you're looking for something to apply daily, you might try that tobacco juice with some chilli pepper powder. I've never used it myself, but I got it from a paperclipped thread, and they're usually pretty reliable. If it works it's cheap enough to use every day, and since it's not a pesticide they may not be able to build an immunity to it.

Also, if one likes humidity and one don't, I'd keep the humidity high. It will probably kill the ones that don't like it where as low humidity probably wont kill the ones that don't like that. At least that would cut the number of mites to worry about down to 1.

If you don't have a "mite screen" on your intake, I'd highly recommend it. If you can't find one, stockings might work in a pinch.

Where I am it's 20% humidity. I had thrips come in through my intake even though it's been below 30 degrees outside, and the mites probably came in the same way. I mean there's snow on the ground, that's just freaking crazy. I'm sure it's a bit worse where you're at, but the threat of mite problems are the reason I got lady bugs. And I plan on letting them breed till it's hard to see in there. I'm faily confident that the lady bugs plus a thrip screen plus 40% humidity will do the trick for me.

Anyway, I hope one or two suggestions help.

Good luck.

i know avid and i know that it will also work. very well. i have been reluctant to try it because as you said it is a systemic meaning it does remain in plant tissues. although it is approved for food crops up to a week before harvest it still makes me a bit nervous. the thing that i like about the no-pest strips is that dichlorvos (active ingredient) is highly volatile and evaporates almost immediately. also the plants will not absorb it, due to its volatility.

i have also read about bagging your plants and flooding them with co2 for 15-20 mins. i like the way this sounds anyone have any experience with co2 kills?

danny - the mite screen is a must. put that in this summer. intake is through a hepa filter. i honestly think the eggs are everywhere on the ground though and just walking to the room picks em up. maybe a bleach welcome mat...

CAashtree said:

i know avid and i know that it will also work. very well. i have been reluctant to try it because as you said it is a systemic meaning it does remain in plant tissues. although it is approved for food crops up to a week before harvest it still makes me a bit nervous. the thing that i like about the no-pest strips is that dichlorvos (active ingredient) is highly volatile and evaporates almost immediately. also the plants will not absorb it, due to its volatility.

i have also read about bagging your plants and flooding them with co2 for 15-20 mins. i like the way this sounds anyone have any experience with co2 kills?

danny - the mite screen is a must. put that in this summer. intake is through a hepa filter. i honestly think the eggs are everywhere on the ground though and just walking to the room picks em up. maybe a bleach welcome mat...

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lol @ bleach welcome mat. If I understand this right, you have to go outside and walk to your room and enter there. If the room has a small area before getting to your light shield, you might want to leave a change of clothes for yourself, like sweats & flip flops or something. That way you don't track them all the way into your plants. I do pretty much the same thing myself whether I've been out or not.

BTW, would you know of any mite, thrip, anphid, or any other kind of pest that is white and about the size of a small dot that will bite humans?

hot shot no pest strips knocked my mites rite out of the house. i would recommend them but i have read that they r not safe if u r around ur plants a lot. read up on them. they work great but there r health concerns. did not work on white flies do not know about thrips.

Hey guys! I like the idea of the no-pest strips. My room is in the house, but my flowering room is behind 2 doors. My main problem is that my set up is still rather basic. I'm working on getting a ventilation system installed, so for now my doors both have to be opened while the light is on. I had a lot of problems with heat and i know the solution is proper ventilation (working on it..promise!). So if I wanted to use the no-pest strips I think what I would do is put them in there while the light is off, close both doors and blast the fans. Then when my lights come back on, but the strips away, etc etc. Would that work? Also, can I use these while budding? Will the strips kill the ladybugs? If that's the case then ,aybe I can catch them and keep them in the fridge until I'm done with the strips (?). My ladybugs are working, but they're staying at the bottom of the plants. I'm worried about my beautiful colas (that have adults on them)!! I'm def willing to take the risks associated with the no-pest strips. These mites are driving me nuts!

StonerPuppy69 said:

Hey guys! I like the idea of the no-pest strips. My room is in the house, but my flowering room is behind 2 doors. My main problem is that my set up is still rather basic. I'm working on getting a ventilation system installed, so for now my doors both have to be opened while the light is on. I had a lot of problems with heat and i know the solution is proper ventilation (working on it..promise!). So if I wanted to use the no-pest strips I think what I would do is put them in there while the light is off, close both doors and blast the fans. Then when my lights come back on, but the strips away, etc etc. Would that work? Also, can I use these while budding? Will the strips kill the ladybugs? If that's the case then ,aybe I can catch them and keep them in the fridge until I'm done with the strips (?). My ladybugs are working, but they're staying at the bottom of the plants. I'm worried about my beautiful colas (that have adults on them)!! I'm def willing to take the risks associated with the no-pest strips. These mites are driving me nuts!

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If the lady bugs aren't knocking them out, then you should definately try something different until they're gone. The infestation sounds like it might be too advanced for 1500 lady bugs to handle.

To catch them just use a cup and flick them off the leaves into it. In my room they seem to like to collect which makes it easier. But if you have problems collecting them don't let that stop you from trying different things. Lady Bugs are pretty cheap to replace.

You should add humidity to anything else you try, it will help. And when you treat, you should treat again 4 to 7 days later to kill new hatchlings, and you should keep treating for 3 to 4 weeks at least. So try to use orgainic pesticides on your flowering girls.

Also, keeping the temp below 70 helps to slow down their reproduction so there are less to kill.

Mite X is a good organic to use, I've also heard good things about neem oil. And I read a thread that said Petroleum Oil kills the eggs, they sell a Petroleum Oil based pesticide at Home Depot, but I can't confirm that it kills the eggs.

You can use pest strips in conjunction with the other treatments & humidity. Most of the literature I've read sais that one treatment alone wont get rid of a infestation once they've nested.

After they're gone I'd go back to the lady bugs for prevention, they should keep infestations from starting. And I found some information on care of Lady Bugs today looking for info on proper temp.

You can feed them raisins or any other type of food like that which doesn't have citric acid. You should mist the raisins before feeding.

You also have to give them somewhere to drink. I took a short bowl, put papertowel in the bottom to prevent pooling (don't want them to drown themselves) and put the wood shavings that they came in over that. You can also use a sponge or just some wet papertowel.

They don't nest, so don't worry about giving them nesting materials, they live on the plants.

They live for about a year and lay eggs by the dozen through their life time. Some of the eggs are infertile, they lay them on purpose to give the new hatchlings something to eat. And they look like little alligator slugs when they hatch. Within a couple of months they go through several stages before they become the lady bugs we're use to seeing. Their young will still eat Mites & Thrips if they find them.

Right now they're in there finishing off a Thrip & Fungus Gnat infestation that I sprayed Mite X the night before I released them to help them with. Don't ask me where the fungus gnats came from. I may also have smider mites, not sure because they're not budding yet and I've only seen 1 spider mite sign. But I think if I do have them the infestation is small enough for them to handle. I'm still going to get another 1500 tommorow just in case though.

the strips will kill the ladybugs. i would not use them if your room is in your house, especially with the door open. the active ingredient will make its way throughout your whole house rapidly. (not in very high concentrations, but there nonetheless.) it would be very difficult to reach the acute lethal dosage for humans or even small pets using a reasonable ammount of the strips but long term effects (if any - cancer seems most likely...) are not really established. dont fuck with your health any more than you have to.
if its in your house i have had good results in the past with azamax. dunk your vegging plants, remove or harvest those in bud, carefully scrape off the top quarter inch of soil and promptly discard outside, drench the soil with azamax solution, spray the floor, walls and cieling with azamax. wait 5 days. repeat. wait 5 days. repeat. just to make sure, wait 5 days and repeat once more. you can spray azamax as a maintenance dose weekly on your vegging plants too. and vacuum or sweep regularly. pain in the ass but much more friendly to animals and people. azamax is active ingredient in neem oil but concentrated.

back to the no-pest strips. bottom line is they work because they are poisonous to all animal life (especially fish...aquariums). and keep in mind that if you use them you must keep them up for about a month to make sure you have killed all hatches.

use aza from now on.

not only does it prevent them and every other bug known to man... it kills them.

you spray it on the plants every couple weeks, and forget about it.

Bugs want nothign to do with your plants.

i got mites in my room, and its on my clones... they havent touched my big plants that i spray.

dont use the spray on clones tho... its too strong, and hurts the plants.

Aza-Direct


A broad-spectrum botanical insecticide that controls key insect pests on greenhouse and outdoor food crops. It’s primary mode of action is as an insect growth regulator which inhibits molting and the development of immature insects into healthy adults. Aza-Direct is an effective repellant and antifeedant thereby affecting both immature and adult insect pests. Aza-Direct is an OMRI listed product in the USA. The product composition is also certified IMO-Switzerland, and RIOA-Switzerland.

http://www.gowanco.com/ProductInfo~pid~39~Aza-Direct .aspx

where does one purchase neem oil locally? i have to buy some tomorrow asap

Has neem oil been mentioned yet? I feed my babies a little drop of neem oil every now and then... no problems.. no bugs. nugs taste fine.. Neem FTW?

sherriberry said:

where does one purchase neem oil locally? i have to buy some tomorrow asap

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Most national hard ware stores should carry it, like Home Depot for example. Many nurseries should also carry it and probably have a better price.

Diatomaceous earth is my weapon of choice. Nothing like a natural alternative that is multi use. It is in more stuff than you can imagine and is safe too if handled apropriatly. Read up on it if you don't know about it. Here's a excert from wiki regarding Pest Control.
"Diatomite is also used as an insecticide, due to its physico-sorptive properties. The fine powder absorbs lipids from the waxy outer layer of insects' exoskeletons, causing them to dehydrate. Arthropods die as a result of the water pressure deficiency, based on Fick's law of diffusion. This also works against gastropods and is commonly employed in gardening to defeat slugs. However, since slugs inhabit humid environments, efficacy is very low. It is sometimes mixed with an attractant or other additives to increase its effectiveness. Medical-grade diatomite is sometimes used to de-worm both animals and humans. It is most commonly used in lieu of boric acid, and can be used to help control and eventually eliminate a cockroach infestation. This material has wide application for insect control in grain storage."


Here is the site that I got the Fossil Shell Flour that has kept my whole garden bug free and my dog too.
perma-guard.com

probably too late to help you now stonerpuppy but next time you can try a product called flora-mite. cant buy it in california because it stays in plants for 21 days but i have a couple friends swho use it and i know it is also very effective. usually a spray beginning veg and one about two weeks into flower just when theyre beginning to show should do the trick.
with diatomaceous(sp?) earth, dont you have to get it on the bugs? seems like it would be difficult to clean your ladies...

neem oil has been said, cause its good!

Kill yourself... is my advise, I lost 2 entire grows to those bastards!!!
Made me quit for years... then I heard the calling... and I'm back tempting fate... seriously, good luck friend..
P.S. I just survived a Fungus Nat Bomb and a Thrips attack... no signs for 10 days...

Hey folks...just wanted to update...I am just about mite free! (Hopefully I don't jinx it!). I ended up putting a no-pest strip in there. I also had some on my vegging girls and put it in there also and...no more mites! The plants started growing better almost instantly. And since Im in the end of my flowering and the mites arent there to suck the life out of my plants, they're plumping up pretty nicely =) I still see a few here and there but I know that that comes along with new hatchlings. So Im def monitoring much closer and when these girls are done flowering I'll be sanatizing everything! Good luck everyone!

StonerPuppy69 said:

Hey folks...just wanted to update...I am just about mite free! (Hopefully I don't jinx it!). I ended up putting a no-pest strip in there. I also had some on my vegging girls and put it in there also and...no more mites! The plants started growing better almost instantly. And since Im in the end of my flowering and the mites arent there to suck the life out of my plants, they're plumping up pretty nicely =) I still see a few here and there but I know that that comes along with new hatchlings. So Im def monitoring much closer and when these girls are done flowering I'll be sanatizing everything! Good luck everyone!

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By "no pest strip" do you mean the sticky tape type devices that some places have hanging from the ceiling? Where did you put yours? Did you accent the no pest strip with anything else? I'm asking because I have my first case of spider mites and have already lost two girls myself. So I guess you can look at your infestation as a good thing because having read all your posts/responses I'm hoping to learn to combat these pests.

tryed it all none of it works ..neem ,pest off ,etc.only thing that will kill the mites there eggs and larvy is plant vitality a bit expencive but works 100% all the others just prelong the problem and some time thats enough but if wanted it totally gone then plant vitality....try it .along with pest off no pest strips [ ebay] you ll never see mights again .

Hi JadeLeaf! Thanks for asking for some help =) Are your plants vegging or flowering? How far along is the infestation? If you;ve had to lose girls Im guessing that it's pretty bad. Depending on your stage of growth will determine what you'll use kind of. Things that will work at any stage are definately predators. I used ladybugs. My mites were pretty bad so they didn't quite work as fast as I needed them to. I had 1500 ladybugs for 5 plants that were 3 weeks into flowering. They could eat some but not keeping up with the mites. You can also get carnivorous mites that will only eat the spider mites and not your plants. Ive never used them but you can probably look into it. There's lots of sprays you can get. Most people say neem oil works quite well. I tried Mite X on my vegging girls and that worked for a while. You want to get anything that has oils in it because it sort of suffocates the mites. But don't use sprays if youre 3 weeks (at the latest) or after into flowering. It could create mold in the buds if you dont have proper ventilation and air movement. And if youre going to spray it on young buds do it in the dark because the light will burn the hairs. Since my infestation was so bad and nothing was really working I jumped right to the Hot Shot no-pest strips. Its like a yellow blob inside of a white plastic case and you can either hang it or just set it in there or put it in front of your fan. You can get them on ebay for like $15. Not too bad. But Ive heard they arent too good to breathe in. If your room is in your house make sure its sealed off and dont hang out in there if its in there. And if you have predators it will kill them off also. Youll want to keep the strip in there for a few days to kill off any new hatchlings also. Make sure you keep your room nice and clean too! It will prevent anything from even getting to the plants.

Any problem you encounter with growing always seems to be a good one (sounds crazy)..but it will help you learn and make your next harvest even better! Good luck! Let me know if you have any more questions