Bulb Mites?? WTF!?

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AKFrost

AKFrost

13
3
Hello everyone! Good read on this thread right here. There is more info here on bulb mites than anywhere else on the web it seems like. I recently have come across this same looking pest in my root zone. I have been researching and posting questions about what is in my media for a while now on other forums. No one can confirm that they are indeed Bulb mites and how to treat. Preditory mites is the only answer I can get for bulb mites and seems to be the one of the only courses of action for bulb mites. I think it's eithera bulb mites or mould mites. I grow in rockwool grow cubes and they seem to be mainly feeding off the alge on top off the rockwool. They are definitely in my root zone though too as when I pulled a plant out of the pot. There they where moving around slowly in smaller numbers. It seems there are eggs on the bottom of my leaves though too which really has me going for a loop. I have been inspecting my plants everyday for about two weeks with a scope and still haven't been able to find a single bug on the plants. So I have come to the conclusion they are capitate sessile trichomes as stated earlier in this thread. But I could be wrong. My plants have slowed growth, heat and humidity sensitivities, lower yields, less odor from plants in flower, a constant/or slight cal/mag deficiency, and rust spots on older leaves. I recently have started new clones and am getting ready to start over with my rooms and plants after a good sanitation and bomb just in case. I still have some plants in my veg room at the moment and two new strains I have recently acquired. I have one plant in dirt that has surpassed my plants in rockwool....wtf. I do feed them Recharge at least once a week. There doesn't seem to be any of these pests in my plant with dirt. Maybe I keep it too dry for them? It is literally right next to the others. It too has some of the egg looking balls on the underside of the leaves just in smaller numbers. That's why I think they are just the capitate sessile trichomes. What do you guys think? Trichomes or eggs? What kind of mite is this? And finally what other course of actions should I take to make sure I get rid of these pests. I know predatory mites only suppress them and do not totally get rid of them as far as I have read.
 
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AKFrost

AKFrost

13
3
I forgot to tell you. I grow in a reculating system. A slightly modified Captn style grow setup. 1000w air cooled HPS. Feed/flush for 15 min once a day using GH, temps are 65-75, humidity is 40-65%, I used growweedeasy's feed schedule the last couple times around and when I tried to fix the cal/mag issue it seemed to lock out P using calimagic. I use Recharge at the very least once a week and use H2O2 once a week when I change the res water out. PH is in the 5.8-6.0 range. I have been trying different feeding schedules in search to find one that may be better than the other. Out of all my strains none of them like to go over the 750 TDS mark. I was able to get a decent yield even with these pests on my last crop. But not as much as it could be I know that. I've had better. Here are some more pics
 
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KlipschGuy

KlipschGuy

282
63
I've been fortunate and never gotten mites, and I never buy clones off the street for just that reason. I've known people who have had them and once you have a good colony of them you have a huge problem, from what I was told by a guy that got plagued by mites is sometimes putting them outside is the only cure, letting predators eat them up, while you spray you're whole grow area and sometimes even whole house with neem or a quality insecticidal spray, they don't necessarily stay only on you're pot plants once you've got them, their probably in you're carpet, curtains, house plants, practically everything and if you've been infected during bloom then you really need to put them outside if the season is workable , if not you're gonna be smoking mites because they get entombed in you're glads and what not. And from what I've heard is once you think you've gotten rid of them, they come right back because they were still in the house.
 
F

fari

3
3
Friends of mine used a grow tent which got infested with mites. The tent and all equipment has been stored away for 6+ months. I plan on using it (at a different location) so I scrubbed the tent and lamp with bleach, threw away the ducting and got a new cover for the filter. Not too sure how I can clean the fan other then using a vac?
So my question is what are the chances that these suckers will come back? Can they survive a 6+ month period without plants? Should I consider getting a whole new setup? I don't want to bring the equipment to the new location only to infest the house and make things worse...
 
MissBotany

MissBotany

567
143
Hello everyone! Good read on this thread right here. There is more info here on bulb mites than anywhere else on the web it seems like. I recently have come across this same looking pest in my root zone. I have been researching and posting questions about what is in my media for a while now on other forums. No one can confirm that they are indeed Bulb mites and how to treat. Preditory mites is the only answer I can get for bulb mites and seems to be the one of the only courses of action for bulb mites. I think it's eithera bulb mites or mould mites. I grow in rockwool grow cubes and they seem to be mainly feeding off the alge on top off the rockwool. They are definitely in my root zone though too as when I pulled a plant out of the pot. There they where moving around slowly in smaller numbers. It seems there are eggs on the bottom of my leaves though too which really has me going for a loop. I have been inspecting my plants everyday for about two weeks with a scope and still haven't been able to find a single bug on the plants. So I have come to the conclusion they are capitate sessile trichomes as stated earlier in this thread. But I could be wrong. My plants have slowed growth, heat and humidity sensitivities, lower yields, less odor from plants in flower, a constant/or slight cal/mag deficiency, and rust spots on older leaves. I recently have started new clones and am getting ready to start over with my rooms and plants after a good sanitation and bomb just in case. I still have some plants in my veg room at the moment and two new strains I have recently acquired. I have one plant in dirt that has surpassed my plants in rockwool....wtf. I do feed them Recharge at least once a week. There doesn't seem to be any of these pests in my plant with dirt. Maybe I keep it too dry for them? It is literally right next to the others. It too has some of the egg looking balls on the underside of the leaves just in smaller numbers. That's why I think they are just the capitate sessile trichomes. What do you guys think? Trichomes or eggs? What kind of mite is this? And finally what other course of actions should I take to make sure I get rid of these pests. I know predatory mites only suppress them and do not totally get rid of them as far as I have read.

Full grown bulb mites are 0.5 - 1mm long, they are shiny white to translucent with two brown spots on the body. They also have short red-orange legs. The mite in your picture is either not full grown or not a bulb mite but I suspect it is a bulb mite based on other similarities. I am currently researching practices used by different greenhouses and nurseries to fight bulb mites so i can apply those methods to cannabis.
 
MissBotany

MissBotany

567
143
Don’t know how I missed the brown spots on those mites. Yes, for sure bulb mites.
 
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Wolfe

Wolfe

491
143
Is there some kind of way you can cover the top of your soil with something like nat nix? Or maybe smother the soil with sand? Have you tried hot water? I know that sounds weird but sometimes I just hose the plants down everyday to stop bug populations growing if I have anything.
 
hyzerflip

hyzerflip

322
63
How did you distinguish between what you found and a hypoaspis miles or an immature RA? The bug in your pic could be either.
 
quirk

quirk

760
143
Orange Oil -2oz. per gal. Add a few drops of dish soap as a surfactant. Spray and drench. No more bugs. Period.
 
hyzerflip

hyzerflip

322
63
Orange Oil -2oz. per gal. Add a few drops of dish soap as a surfactant. Spray and drench. No more bugs. Period.

Don't listen to anyone who tells you to treat before you ID the pest. Pesticides are pest specific, nothing results in 'no more bugs' whatsoever.
 
Buttercup726

Buttercup726

121
28
What are the symptoms of bulb mites? Not a lot of info out there
 
Luckydux

Luckydux

44
8
I've unfortunely been diagnosed with having bulb mites this week and all I can say with certainty is that clones take much longer to root. Makes sense when you have a bug eating the roots as quick as they grow. I also have root aphids and lots of fungus gnats in a flower room. Its plausable that one or the other brought them along.

I haven't had an indoor pest since 2006 and now have my hands full. It's sort of exciting :)
 
1diesel1

1diesel1

Staff
Supporter
11,116
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I've unfortunely been diagnosed with having bulb mites this week and all I can say with certainty is that clones take much longer to root. Makes sense when you have a bug eating the roots as quick as they grow. I also have root aphids and lots of fungus gnats in a flower room. Its plausable that one or the other brought them along.

I haven't had an indoor pest since 2006 and now have my hands full. It's sort of exciting :)
Lol, I’ve found the bug infestations over the years have made me a much better and tentative grower.
 
Luckydux

Luckydux

44
8
I'll bet. I'm a believer in prevention but with this specific situation/set up it just wasn't possible. I imagined we'd acquire some critters but not 2 that I've never encountered and have barely heard of. Not to mention on the first grow here!
I do look forward to learning a lot about them though 🙃
 
BobfcknVilla

BobfcknVilla

5
3
any luck fighting them? I think I have these(I think)... Does anyone else have them crawling around the rim of pots/planters? Waiting on a higher powered scope but pretty certain this is what I'm dealing with as plants show phantom deficiencies. I recently got the biowar foliar and it seems to be helping the plants out. dont see many crawling on the soil now, thinking they might have started moving up on the pots to escape the foliar drench.
 
BobfcknVilla

BobfcknVilla

5
3
They don't seem to be much affected by pyrethrins, I've been spraying down the top soil and sides of plants and they just come back when it dries. I was thinking of trying an ivermectin/spinosad drench. you can get ivermectin as a cattle treatment, 5 liters for $60. It has a similar mode of action as abamectin but is safer and breaks down in soil in 7-14 days.
 
BobfcknVilla

BobfcknVilla

5
3
I did some research and it looks like Hypoaspis aculeifer is the best predator for control of bulb mites. This article from experimental and applied acarology shows H. aculeifer suppressing bulb mite populations at a 1/20 predator/pest ratio. The study found H. Miles to be ineffective for bulb mite suppression.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00145254
 
Luckydux

Luckydux

44
8
I do use caps packs but I also trashed anything that was suspect. Everythings been stable for a month or so but it may be too early to tell if I'm in the clear yet.

You wont be able to see bulb mites without magnification. A basic 60x will suffice. The 2 brown dots is the giveaway
 
BobfcknVilla

BobfcknVilla

5
3
Here's what they look like under 40x. I'm getting a better scope that goes up to 100x so i'll post some better pics at some point. They're super hairy and hard to see any real features under 40x, but I'm kind of uncertain whether they're bulb or mold mites given how hairy they are.
 
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