Advice for thrip/mite problem 4x4 tent

[Phate008]

I am 1 week into flower with 1 big plant and 3 clones. I noticed damage on the leaves on 1 shoot of the big plant (green crack). I examined the leaves and found mites, also found a couple adult thrips on the leaves. I had other stunting growth which I attributed to fungus gnats that I found. I treated them with nematodes last night and found the others today. The infestation is not horrible yet, but I know it can be pretty fast. I cut off the effected leaves and put 4 good fans in there. I was planning on wiping the leaves with an alcohol water mixture tonight and topping the soil with dietemateous earth. Then I was going to order something with Neem or pyrethrum and treating the plants every couple days for a week or so. Is this a good plan? People advise foggers but my tent is in a 1 bedroom apartment and I can't really bomb the place. I would rather get something sprayable that I could take the plants outside and then put them back in the tent. If anyone has any advice or products I would appreciate any help.

 

[mancorn]

Tons of mite threads (like this one that just posted). Do a site search.

Post in thread 'Does anyone know how to make Doctor Zymes Eliminator'
https://www.thcfarmer.com/threads/d...e-doctor-zymes-eliminator.130706/post-2675008

 

[Ponky]

Safers 3 in 1. Organic spray. Drench the plates top to bottom once a week. Until week 3 of flower.

 

[Phate008]

Mancorn, I read a couple of them. I probably have read 100 different posts today. That one you mentioned was asking about the recipe that I assumed may be for bugs, but wasn't sure it would help with all the live bugs I had, or if it was just a preventative spray. My problem is that I have a small tent right in my living room. The posts that I read were all different situations and most of them didn't apply to someone in my position.

I will look into the Safers 3 in 1 spray as well as the one mentioned in that other thread. Here is what I did though so we will call it a test until I get something stronger.

I removed the 4 plants and put them in my bathroom. I cleaned the tent thoroughly vacuumed and then wiped all sides with a bleach water mixture. I took the plants and wiped down every branch and leaf with a 1 part isopropyl alcohol to 9 part water concoction. I then mixed up 4 tbs of castille soap with 1 gallon of water and put it in my pressure mister. I sprayed every leave and branch with this soapy water mixture, top and bottom. I then combined 1 cup of diatomaceous earth with 3 cups of potting soil and topped each of the pots with the mixture. I returned them to the tent promptly when the light turned off for the night with 4 very good fans for circulation.

The alcohol/water, castille soap/water, and the DE were all advised on different sites and posts. Not sure how well the treatment I used is going to work, but I figured it is a good effort. I know how resilient these bugs can be so I am not sure. Yesterday I treated the soil with nematodes and fungus gnats were the only thing I saw. I assumed the couple yellow leaves were from them. Then I noticed a small branch with some holes in the leaves. Looking deeper I found mites. I got my new usb microscope in the mail today and I examined the leaves and sticky traps from last night. What I thought was dirt on the traps turned out to be tons of some other insect. Also a couple small thrip. Maybe the couple thrip were keeping the mite population in check. I will attach a picture of the sticky trap maybe someone knows for sure what they are.

 

[Phate008]

I think the greenish ones are thrip, but the small black ones I'm unsure about. Maybe the pupa form of fungus gnats. The sticky traps are on the inside sides of the pot so either they got blown there from the fans or they were crawling to escape from the nematodes.

 

[Ponky]

Nah those are something else. Bet they're easy to kill.

 

[mysticepipedon]

Unless it's a beneficial that I put in my grow,

I am 1 week into flower with 1 big plant and 3 clones. I noticed damage on the leaves on 1 shoot of the big plant (green crack). I examined the leaves and found mites, also found a couple adult thrips on the leaves. I had other stunting growth which I attributed to fungus gnats that I found. I treated them with nematodes last night and found the others today. The infestation is not horrible yet, but I know it can be pretty fast. I cut off the effected leaves and put 4 good fans in there. I was planning on wiping the leaves with an alcohol water mixture tonight and topping the soil with dietemateous earth. Then I was going to order something with Neem or pyrethrum and treating the plants every couple days for a week or so. Is this a good plan? People advise foggers but my tent is in a 1 bedroom apartment and I can't really bomb the place. I would rather get something sprayable that I could take the plants outside and then put them back in the tent. If anyone has any advice or products I would appreciate any help.

Try Nuke 'Em, as directed for the mites and thrips. It's quite safe (acetic acid). Your nematodes will take care of fungus gnats within about 2 weeks. I have no idea what those other critters are, but if they're in the soil, nematodes might bother them a lot, too.

 

[Phate008]

Unless it's a beneficial that I put in my grow,

Try Nuke 'Em, as directed for the mites and thrips. It's quite safe (acetic acid). Your nematodes will take care of fungus gnats within about 2 weeks. I have no idea what those other critters are, but if they're in the soil, nematodes might bother them a lot, too.

Thanks. Just bought a big bottle from Amazon. Will treat it next week, hopefully what I did slows them down till it gets here. I probably will spray it occasionally as a prevention thing too.

 

[mancorn]

I think your alcohol and Castile soap wipe down is a good start. If you look at the ingredients from Lost Coast Plant Therapy it has Isopropyl Alcohol and Peppermint Essential Oil, two of the ingredients in the spray from the linked video. (Which was a mixture of Castile peppermint and tea tree oils, isopropyl alcohol, and hydrogen peroxide.) I’m sure it’s easier just to put the alcohol in your sprayer with the soap. Adding the peroxide (which is super easy to source) will give you the same spray as the video. Obviously you can’t spray the alcohol once the plants start budding, but fine during veg/early flower.

 

[Aaflexy]

The other bugs look like spring tails

 

[Phate008]

The other bugs look like spring tails

Hmmm you may be right. These plants spent about 2 week outdoors while I was on vacation. Will never bring a plant from outside inside again. I saw a picture of the life cycle of springtails and their pupa stage is very similar to them.

 

[Phate008]

As an update to this the first treatment of alcohol and Castile soap worked very well. I was unable to see any creatures left after a couple of days. I received the nuke em in the mail and treated the plants last night before lights out. It smelled strongly for a couple hours but by morning the plants were dried and the smell was gone. I plan on treating them again in 3 days to be safe, but so far so good. All my clones are in perfect health. I don't even think the bugs touched them so it may be a genetics thing. The clones are sunset sherbet and gelato. The full plant is green crack and it was the one with the visible damage from the pests. The leaves all started turning a pale green and lots of the fan leaves have begun turning yellow. I know this is most likely from stress, but assuming the bugs are all gone when can I expect the plant to start looking healthy again?

I have to buy a new trellis net because I had to cut it to relieve tension for adding the large fan and plant removal.

 

[Ponky]

If Nuke Em works like they say I'd expect them to be looking good in 10 days. It's potent. We aren't allowed it here in stores. The insects mouth and excretion can cause fungus. So trim off badly damaged leaves. To prevent issues.

 

[Phate008]

Hmmm. Why don't they allow it in stores? That makes me a little nervous.

I checked on the plants before leaving the house and decided to examine a bunch of leaves. Unfortunately, there were a few very small elongated yellow bugs on the backs of the leaves. Think they are thrips. The things I thought were thrips were larger than these, but it turns out I did have them. Think I'm going to add a bunch of sticky traps around the pot and on top of the dirt to catch anything that hatches and tries to get on the plant. Will also spray them again tonight before lights out. It's not like there are thousands, but even seeing 20-30 makes me nervous. These guys decided to go on the healthy clones which I'm not too happy about. Hopefully a couple more treatments will eradicate them.