Savage Henry
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- Sep 27, 2015
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Hello all,
So I've been fighting broad mites for a little over a week now and I figured I'd share my actions, progress and research.
I had been fighting root aphids on and off for almost a year which led to me misdiagnosing broad mite damage for at least 6 months, thinking it was nitrogen burn from salt build up in the medium due to lousy uptake from RA damage.
After coming up with a system to deal with the RAs in a preventative manner I was still seeing damage specifically black pistils around week 2-3 of flower. So I took to the boards here until I found pics of similar damage, bought a scope, and sure enough there the bastards were.
I had a bottle of big time exterminator (BTE) on the shelf leftover from the RA war. Their website had instructions for broad mite control:
http://www.bigtimezyme.com/html/faq.html
So twice a day, every other day at 10ml/20oz (or roughly 64ml/gal) with a wagner 590 paint sprayer.
After 3 applications like this I began to see some new unaffected growth on some of the plant, but not all. Mind you, the plants effected are in weeks 2 and 4 of flower. They're still chugging along but the buds on the ones from week 4 look like hell.
Called the number on the BTE website and the guy said to change it up to one spray every other day with the BTE in ice water alternating with plain ice water on the off days. Do this for 10 days he said and the cold will interrupt the breeding cycle. Been doing this the past couple days and it seems fishy to me as the ice water only temporarily cools the plants and therefore broad mites.
So off to google scholar to research some other modes of action and I found this study:
Fascinating. Avid (abamectin) is obviously the most effective but spraying this in my house is not an option. What caught my eye were the other controls especially orange oil (d-limonene) and canola oil which at 3 days after application were 97% and 98% effective against adult broad mites.
So, off to the races it is, going to rotate these two new and one old (BTE) modes of action every 3 days and will log my results. Scoping all leaves and counting bugs on them is unrealistic so random sampling from the worst effected plants as well as observing for further damage will be the way to do it I suppose.
Also I will find a leaf with broads on it, dip it in mighty wash, and then scope it to see what effect it has. If it kills em then MW will be added to the rotation.
Any input is appreciated.
Note: with repeat application of BTE the worst effected leaves will curl up and die. The rep told me this is a result of the proteins from the product interacting with the damage already done to the leaf from the broads. But, IMO, those leaves should be removed anyway.
So I've been fighting broad mites for a little over a week now and I figured I'd share my actions, progress and research.
I had been fighting root aphids on and off for almost a year which led to me misdiagnosing broad mite damage for at least 6 months, thinking it was nitrogen burn from salt build up in the medium due to lousy uptake from RA damage.
After coming up with a system to deal with the RAs in a preventative manner I was still seeing damage specifically black pistils around week 2-3 of flower. So I took to the boards here until I found pics of similar damage, bought a scope, and sure enough there the bastards were.
I had a bottle of big time exterminator (BTE) on the shelf leftover from the RA war. Their website had instructions for broad mite control:
http://www.bigtimezyme.com/html/faq.html
So twice a day, every other day at 10ml/20oz (or roughly 64ml/gal) with a wagner 590 paint sprayer.
After 3 applications like this I began to see some new unaffected growth on some of the plant, but not all. Mind you, the plants effected are in weeks 2 and 4 of flower. They're still chugging along but the buds on the ones from week 4 look like hell.
Called the number on the BTE website and the guy said to change it up to one spray every other day with the BTE in ice water alternating with plain ice water on the off days. Do this for 10 days he said and the cold will interrupt the breeding cycle. Been doing this the past couple days and it seems fishy to me as the ice water only temporarily cools the plants and therefore broad mites.
So off to google scholar to research some other modes of action and I found this study:
Fascinating. Avid (abamectin) is obviously the most effective but spraying this in my house is not an option. What caught my eye were the other controls especially orange oil (d-limonene) and canola oil which at 3 days after application were 97% and 98% effective against adult broad mites.
So, off to the races it is, going to rotate these two new and one old (BTE) modes of action every 3 days and will log my results. Scoping all leaves and counting bugs on them is unrealistic so random sampling from the worst effected plants as well as observing for further damage will be the way to do it I suppose.
Also I will find a leaf with broads on it, dip it in mighty wash, and then scope it to see what effect it has. If it kills em then MW will be added to the rotation.
Any input is appreciated.
Note: with repeat application of BTE the worst effected leaves will curl up and die. The rep told me this is a result of the proteins from the product interacting with the damage already done to the leaf from the broads. But, IMO, those leaves should be removed anyway.