Just noticed tiny tiny brown dots on panda film... Then noticed they were moving...

Okay. So I did 1 small run in a "den" and I think I pretty much escaped any bug problems on that run.

Now I'm in a room that is even better isolated from any outside contaminants but tonight I got home to
check on things and noticed some small brown dots.

Oddly... they seemed to make a straight horizontal line at light level (T5 4 footer), across the Panda film I have hung
(only in the back of the grow - the rest of the area is just plain flat white painted walls). My first thought was it was j
ust dried up gunk from my foliar feed that got warm and turned brown as it dried...

I then wiped my finger across it and noticed the movement... I suspected these "spider mites" you hear so much about...

I turned over a leaf and started looking but I don't see what I was expecting to see... several brown dots moving about...
but I do see something I think... I'm going to get the magnifier out and start investigating...

For an immediate course of action that I could take - I grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a spray bottle... I drenched the Panda film and
let a good bead of pure alcohol run down the film as best as I could... avoiding any contact with the plant as best possible. Some mist
likely landed on a few leaves towards the far back... I'll know if it helped here soon when I check again.


1st question - is there any "broad" spectrum treatment that would safely cover several bases rather than targeting just 1 problem insect?

2nd question - what else might this be if not spider mites? My woman does bonsai and she found scale on a couple plants (we believe) and
has treated accordingly... but these look nothing like what she found...

if its mites use all you can because they are tough little bastards and fuck your crop real quick............

Almost all pesticides are broad spectrum...they all will contain similar main ingredients in a class...gotta look at the main ingredients always...unisom and benadryl are the same exact thing...but they don't tell you that...you have to read the box...and look at the main ingredient...so look up ways to treat spider mites and then look at the organic and chemical options and see which is right for you and your situation...

There is neem oil which is organic....some people say they use it with great success...and I know neem oil works for fungus gnats...so I would assume a lot of these fixes span multiple bugs.

Okay. Trolled around on the forums and found some common theme to remedies so I brewed up my own concotion based on Neem oil since there was some already in the house and readily available - tonight!

I took a Gallon of water that had been out to dechlorinate...

Added 'dash' of garlic powder... read they don't like it... Added a 'dash' of cayene pepper sauce (yeah.. Frank's...) since I read they don't like habanero peppers... figure this would be safe alternative since it was on hand as well...
Next added another 'dash' of dish soap... went back and re-read and I might have been a little heavy handed with the soap... some 'recipes' said 2 drops... then I added the Neem oil and some rubbing alcohol...

I shook it thoroughly and then used it diluted a bit and gave them a top to bottom - including undersides - of my concotion.

They were just starting to get flowers on a few of the stronger ones and the lower parts of all weren't getting good hardy lighting (T5's)... so I decided to thin things out and erradicate some un-needed (hotly debated I know)
foliage that was likely home to a lot of nasties... I figure the lower 1/4 is gone on them all now except for 1 which was showing a lot of flowers really top to bottom surprisingly...

I'll be stopping by the local hydro tomorrow to get their input and likely buy whatever product(s) I need...

One thing I read that I'm contemplating was the CO2 approach of smothering them? Does that work? I had considered investing in CO2 but maybe this would make it more urgent
if it in and of itself were a remedy... I also thing the ladybugs idea is pretty cool but ummm.... for indoors? How'd that work - wouldn't your find them throughout the household?

Another question in my head - how do you "get" them in the first place... First time in a newly remodeled room - new everything top to bottom including pait, flooring, trim, etc....
Are they just out there and you've now provided them a lush environment to flourish? Wintertime and pets are in the home... and several bonsai's were brought in from the outside
but that was months ago...

Not sure how long they might have been 'around' in the household and maybe just now the conditions allowed for them to have a surge in growth?

The room had been getting extremely cold at night I believe... if you see some of my other threads I just bought an oil filled radiant heater to help with
those nigthtime lows... maybe been in place since Saturday or Sunday... can't remember which night I bought it.

Perhaps the cold had been warding them off? I read they like it HOT and DRY.... I know I was getting it pretty warm (82) and humid (50+) at times but it
would definitely drop quite a bit at night according to my meter... there's a covered window right behind them - inches away in cold ass weather.
The insulation that covers the window is just a 1/2" thick piece of mylar-covered styrofoam...

you only need enough dish soap to emulsify........neem tends to be slower but it fucks there breeding and eating up.............makes them get confused...a bit like smoking really lol......mighty wash is supposed to be good....just water with some kind of charge that blows them apart but doesnt harm you or the plant.

Picked up some Organocide today. Chose it becuase the woman found scale on a bonsai. It treats both.

Otherwise the local store reccomended this 'newer' product I forget the name but it was mite specific - like Mite B Gone or some catchy name...

Fingers crossed. I'm checking them out again in the morning - I checked the Panda film tonight where I first noticed them and no activity - but my eye sight sucks so who knows.

A thought before I crash for the night... How late in the flowering cycle can you use something like the mix I prepared?
How about this Organocide stuff I bought? Claims to be organic, etc...

I was just starting to get little budding sites about the size of the tip of a pinky... so pretty early still. I read that some of the stuff
like Azamax can't be used within 45 days of harvest or something like that...

I got a $10 lighted hand microscope from Radio Shack and planned to use it to examine my buds during flower. I noticed something on a leaf that could maybe vaguely resemble mite damage as I've seen on these forums. To my delight on that leaf I saw a dozen eggs and 1 mite. I was lucky to catch it early, but keep in mind early meant I could find 1-2 mites on various leaves and hundreds of eggs. well the point is, if u have Mites it is unmistakable. It was my first time ever having them, and I Matched them perfectly to top searches on google images. The eggs are the easiest to spot under magnification, they are tiny perfect pearlish spheres. I had a little more trouble finding the mites, maybedyne to my smaller population, but once u know what to look for, it will suck how easy u will find them.