Spider mites!!! Are these methods affective?!?! Need help plz!!!

[symbiote420]

I've heard that Heavy 16's Foliar is great at keeping pest off your babies ......I've been dealing with the borg for a minute now on and off, a homie at another forum told me to start using hemp/peppermint oil soap aka Dr. Bronner's, the reason he says is the neem is only as effective as the emulsifier you use with it.
Dr B's allows the neem to stick to and evenly cover the leaf surfaces!

I have a bottle of Organicide and it works great, completely fries the mites and eggs on contact while leaving the leaves nice and shiny, I've been using it for my mid to late flowering plants. I have some Sea-90 sea minerals that I only use during the veg cycle but I may experiment on a bloomer or two soon!

 

[chromedoggy]

Hmmm...I think they are resistant to the Neem, I have used Sm-90 as an emulsifier. i certainly can try Bronner's peppermint. What is Organicide?

Have you eradicated the mites? Or are you still spraying regularly?

Thanks!

 

[chromedoggy]

Yikes! Found this on rollitup:

NOT USE THIS GARBAGE!!!

For some fucked up reason I went with "Organocide" from home depot because my hydro shop was closed & I couldnt find neem on a Sunday.

BIG FUCKING MISTAKE!!!

With Organocide, my buds hardly smell like bud.. They still smell like fish. The smell lingers around bad. it slowed the spider mites a little.

Neem oil has very little stink. The slight smell is gone in a week. And it did a nice job on the spider mites last time.

I just had to crop 2 weeks early because this garbage didnt get rid of the mites. Now I have BUNK WEED!


Anyone wanna smoke up a 1/2 lb of fishy hay??? LOL.. I had to toss the other 1/2 lb because it was so infested with mites that it wasnt smokable, or it still had too much fishy smell.


I had to spray them in week3 and week 5 of budding. I had no choice.

Damn I should have just went with Neem.

 

[incognito]

I would like to express my condolences for your crop loss. Just to make loosing your stash worse, the power bill comes due. I have felt this pain myself. I wish for you that your next bloom is the best chronic you've ever grown :)
My experience tells me that there is not much one can do when a mite outbreak occurs during bloom. The only solution I have found is to dump 1,500 ladybugs into your grow area and watch them go to town. I love Ladybugs! I release Ladybugs at the start of every bloom. This works! I haven't seen a mite in my bloom in 18 months. Oh I still get mites. I have metal halides in the garage feeding my mothers. Although the garage is clean, the door is occasionally opened. Pests get in. I spray my veg ladies every 7-10 days with Neem. I put a few drops of organic dish soap in my Neem spray. The dish soap works as an emulsifier(needed because Neem is oil based) and to help the Neem stick to your plant's leaves. When outbreaks have occurred in the garage, I have never changed clothes or showered prior to entering my bloom. Still, no mite outbreaks! Sure I take some mites in with me, but the Ladybugs are so voracious that a few delicious spider mites don't have a chance. The Ladybugs eat better during mite outbreaks.
I know that it doesn't take away the sting you feel now, but I hope this may help prevent another catastrophe in the future.

 

[chromedoggy]

Thanks for the empathy. Sounds like major spraying to eradicate the borg, THEN release predators in early veg to keep populations down. How do you get the ladybugs to stick around? In theory, if they are effectively eradicating the pests, they'll get hungry and leave in search of more food?

 

[incognito]

Great question. Your Ladybugs will eventually escape and die off(they live up to a year). To supplement their protein, keep moist, chopped raisins on a saucer in your blooming area. Keep a moist sponge around for them to get a drink. I refresh the raisins twice a week and moisten the sponge daily. You can get 2000 Ladybugs for $17 delivered from eBay. I buy four packs a year, releasing every three months. When I reload, I vacuum up the carcasses. Dealing with Ladybugs is a small price to pay for a mite-free bloom.

 

[symbiote420]

Neem doesn't actually kill mites. it attacks their internal organs and stops them from reproducing!
Thanks for that tip too, I have only used the organicide on the leaves I don't like spraying anything on my buds except water ........a nice water spray keeps em in check. Sometimes I'll get some pH 10.0 water from the health food store for that!

I haven't gotten rid of them totally yet but that's due to me being lazy and slipping on my regimen, gotta get serious as this is as important a part of growing just like watering, I hope everybody gets their rooms back in order soon!

 

[chromedoggy]

Yeah, it is AMAZING how resiliant the little fuckers are, I feel like I have been pretty good about spraying, but something would come up and make me a day or 2 late and the whole cycle is blown, have to start all over.

Now I can see some beneficials and some beneficial eggs among the borg...I have 3 weeks til harvest, I don't want to kill the good guys but I don't trust them to eradicate the borg in time...supposedly N. Fallacis is resistant to pyrethrin, so I may just spray with that and hope some of the good guys make it. goddamn, there's a reason people pay for this shit, it ain't as easy to do as one might think! Glad I'm not growing vegetables at $2 a pound, i might get suicidal.

Interesting that the ladybugs have worked for you, they sound cheaper than the predator mites, and cuter, too...Do they eat eggs or just adult spider mites?

 

[incognito]

They eat both. I'm sure of it. I wanted to know what was really happening. I purchased a cheap stereoscope. You can get a decent one for $150 or so. I have watched Ladybugs attack a fan leaf infected with mites. I pulled the fan leaf and took a good look at it under the stereoscope. It was amazing. You see the carnage up close. I have seen half eaten mites and mite eggs. Ladybugs don't seem to be picky. It appears that they like both equally.

 

[incognito]

I researched other things to feed Ladybugs. I found this homemade ladybug food recipe. I am going to try it out right away :)

http://insects.about.com/od/insectpests/p/recipes-attract-good-bugs.htm

 

[chromedoggy]

I am really curious about Ladybugs vs. these predator mites.

 

[Green machine]

if your going to put more bugs into your room, predator mites are better than ladybugs. ive tried both. i was just telling someone else that i've been doing this for over 8 years now and i started using this new organic product called mighty bomb for my topical spraying and if ive missed anything, i use neem powder as a root drench and it shuts down the reproductive organs, so no more breeding which means no more mites. Break The Cycle!!

 

[pugliese63]

I highly recommend Spinosad. It's a great product. Use it with a wetting agent for even greater effectiveness. I use castile soap from Dr.bronners. Spinosad is a bacteria that has some residual effect. Unlike contact insecticides mites ingest it where it becomes lethal. Spray every three days for two weeks. Its also not harmful to beneficial insects so you can use it along with lady bugs.

Heres a couple of links for those who might be interested.

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/southern-ag-conserve-naturalyte-insect-control-p-2094.html
http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/hiyield-spreader-sticker-p-1898.html

Good luck.

 

[Green machine]

I know spinosad is a good product. I've used it before. it works great on thrips. it didn't really work as good for me with mites. I'm just giving you guys my opinion and telling you what I think works best.. there's times where I mix some of these products together to avoid the mites from building up an immunity. I'm just telling you that I've tried everything on the market and mighty bomb and need powder work. guaranteed !!!
as for spinosad not killing beneficial bugs, I don't see how that's possible it shuts down the nervous system of all kinds of bugs. I had over 2000 ladybugs in my room, sprayed them with Spinosad and a lot of them didn't make it through... I'm speaking from experience this isn't only my opinion ...

 

[woodsmaneh]

Floramite and Azamax are the best friendly killers.

Azamax is a super duper neem concentrate.

Neem is not a knock down killer so it will not work very well. If you use neem from the start it will prevent them but to late if you got them'

Now if you want to just destroy them use Avid. I can hear it all now O my god that's stuff will make your head explode ect Bla bla bla. Read the safety sheet and than you will know what your talking about. I have used Avid for 15 years when needed and the stuff works. Avid is systemic so will kill all generations.

Avid is used in greenhouses for food we eat and is safe to use up to 3 days before harvest. No mites. Just my 2 cents worth.

Now if you want to worry about something than worry about what happens to any of the mite killers when you burn it just what does it turn into? That is the question.

Peace

 

[Green machine]

Mighty Bomb guys!!! Best bargain for the best results!! Add a neem based productas a drench (I prefer the powder for the concentration levels of neem) and Boom!! No More Mites!!! I've been bug free for over a year now ...!!!!

 

[ArtofHydro]

THE ONLY WAY TO GET RID OF MITES!

 

[iamhellsangel]

How come NO one mentions,growing BEANS..did you no that BEAN plants attract MITES.the cool thing is that once mites migrate to beans you throw em out.

 

[Seamaiden]

I never mentioned it because I didn't know that. But, now that YOU mention it, I have noticed that I do get spider mites on my POLE beans, past two years in a row in fact. But, would the beans serve as bait, or what?

 

[iamhellsangel]

I talked with a botanist and she told me to do so yes it works..they get attracted to the beans ...a simple solution ..really....spider mites doubl spotted and the like..