Return of the spider mites

3rd Monkey said:

Awry means "not right".

Yea, never saw ashy DE before and spider mites definitely don't fly over it. They stumble around and then die fairly quickly after contact.

The stuff I buy is $18 for 10lbs.

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Jimmy the vest uk said:

Thats great news. so you been plagued for two years before using this tactic?
You know what its like you will probably find one tommorow after writing that ha ha.
Had you tried DE during them 2 years?
Thanks for your input

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Jimmy the vest uk said:

Hi there 3rd monkey and anyone else who is reading this feel free to get involved.
So i got the DE, defoliated my plants as much as possible, misted the whole plant under leaves on top and on branches, used a pepper pot to shake the DE very generously over the tops and then turned plant upside down completely and got a very good coating of the undersides and the branches.
I set my air moving fans to low and just left them for the past 10 days watering when necessary.
One good thing is seeing how much new growth i got in 10 days which i was suprised about especially after such a heavy defoliation.
In regards to the mites its not good news, this DE either does not work or i have been scammed and its not actually DE that i am using.
On inspection of the new growth under microscope i see a lot of happy mites moving around.
On the older leaves still coated with DE there was also mites moving around and alot of new webbing, looks to me like they dont care about it at all.
Can you recommend a brand of DE that you have used and has worked well for you? From what i have told you is there anything i have done wrong that you can think of?
I bought 10 kg for 18 gbp and it is called multi mite DE, but im starting to think its something else as the mites look like they have enjoyed the last 10 days without me fucking around with them
Any comments from anyone very welcome
Cheers

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DaFreak said:

Hey monkey I read years ago you don't want to smoke DE. Since I never used it I don't care one way or the other, but any insights on that?

As far as treating spider mites, I like to use neem products like azamax or neem itself. And here in the States they have a newish product called green magic, organic made from soy and you can use it up to harvest. Best product I have ever used for mites hands down. will knock the population down with one application, but like everything, you need to keep it going for many applications and I like to rotate those two products.

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70's natureboy said:

I don't like the sound of covering my plants with dust. I used to swear by Avid, then it didn't work. I had to resort to neem oil. If you spray small vegging plants every 2-3 days they will die and the plants won't be harmed. If they are in flower I would clone them and throw them away,( depending on how bad the infestation is). If they are just on one branch I would try to salvage some branches. Then I would just concentrate on keeping the new clones healthy and bug free.

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Jimmy the vest uk said:

Im pretty sure i have been scammed, i remember reading on there website something like happy customers dont generally leave good reviews on products there much more likely to leave bad reviews rather than good ones, so please contact us before you leave bad feedback and see what we can do for you. If you know your product you would never need to say that would you.
Its all learning at the end of the day, im not giving up on DE just yet im going to buy from somewhere else and try again.
3rd monkey thanks for your time
Jimmy

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OldMedUser said:

I've used DE for years but not sprayed it on the leaves tho heard about that 20 years ago at least.

Has fungus gnats bad and mixed about a half cup on the top of the soil then watered the plants from the bottom to keep the top dry. Gnats all gone in a couple weeks.

Ants? Make a ring of DE around their home and they be gone in a while too.

I sprinkle the DE around the walls and gently brush it into the cracks to keep all the damn bugs at bay.

Just make sure you have got rid of mites before flowering. The soap spray will ruin buds and I don't want anything sprayed on my buds ever no matter the promises of safety. Eating and smoking residues are two different animals.

No need to rotate products as the soap/oil mix kills by suffocating the adults and they can't become resistant to suffocation. With the canola oil added you need to be tilting the sprayer back and forth a lot as you work it to keep it mixed in. Many bug killing products use canola oil. May be called rapeseed oil in the UK.

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OldMedUser said:

There are different grades of DE too so maybe you just got the wrong one.

Feed grade is use in animal feed and you can get the same called food grade for 10X the price but it's exactly the same. I got a huge 30lb sack almost 20 years ago at the local farm supply for $30 and still have about 1/4 of it left. I made '00' caps of it and took one daily for a while in case I had worms. Didn't kill me.

The wife uses it on her chickens to get rid of their mites and adds some to their feed as well.

The DE used for filtration has been heated to a high temp to make it more porous but that also takes off the sharp edges that make it effective against bugs so maybe you got that one by mistake. Or they conned you!

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Jimmy the vest uk said:

I remember them saying our DE is very pourous. Would the correct DE be considered pourous?

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OldMedUser said:

What does it say on the label for yours or do you have a link to where you got it?

The label on ours has been destroyed but I know it was standard feed grade for animal use.

Pool and spa filters use the other form of DE and it is sold in bags but should mention which it's used for.

I know those damn mites go dancing across the resin glands that are supposed to be protecting the plant from such invaders but it doesn't faze them a bit. I have one of those 1000x USB scopes and it's a horror film watching them.

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70's natureboy said:

Call me a skeptic on DE. I have never heard of using it for mites until now. I would go with the neem oil

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70's natureboy said:

Call me a skeptic on DE. I have never heard of using it for mites until now. I would go with the neem oil

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mr. childs said:

works well for fungus gnats & caterpillars & other crawling bugs, but i am not sold on using it for spider mites yet. if i can find a nice accordian duster i will try outdoors this year.

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Jimmy the vest uk said:

Its from ebay uk and its called multi mite DE.
cheers for support old med user

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DaFreak said:

Well I just googled it and found a great video because I had never heard it used other than a top dressing.

Informative video. The way they do a foliar coating is very different than described in this thread. Very cool.

Unfortunately I also found humans with skin mite problems use it to help with that......I didn't even know that was a thing, now I have that in my head.......because you said you were a skeptic, thanks nature boy.

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DaFreak said:

Well I just googled it and found a great video because I had never heard it used other than a top dressing.

Informative video. The way they do a foliar coating is very different than described in this thread. Very cool.

Unfortunately I also found humans with skin mite problems use it to help with that......I didn't even know that was a thing, now I have that in my head.......because you said you were a skeptic, thanks nature boy.

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