Bulb Mites And Springtails

MissBotany · Oct 10, 2018

MissBotany said:
I decided to test two H202 mixes. Decided against testing any form of bleach application. It can take months for the clorate to completely decay. Any chemistry expert or enthusiasts care to chime in?

So here are two much safer testers.

1) 1/2 cup 3% H202 mixed with one gallon of water. adjusted pH to 5.8. Applied about 2 teaspoons to soil sample with bulb mites and springtails.

2) 1/2 cup 3% H202 mixed with one gallon of water. Added 1 teaspoon of neem oil. Did not adjust pH. Applied about 2 teaspoons to a second soil sample.

Both samples, after 5 minutes bulb mites were very active (probably agitated).

H202 with neem oil: After 30 minutes no movement from the larger bulb mites, the smaller mites were still active. Couldn’t find movement from springtails. No movement from bulb mite larvae.

H202 only: after 30 minutes slowed movement in larger bulb mites, smaller mites still active. Found one springtail. No movement from bulb mite larvae.

Will check in a few more hours.

Here is a picture of the plants. At this point I am assuming all are infected to some degree. The dinamed CBD is bottom left. She either has nute burn from the fertilizer spike or bulb mite damage.

Edit: I actually added 2 tablespoons of neem oil to one gallon of water along with the H202z

MissBotany · Oct 10, 2018

The H202 with neem oil solution appears to be effective against all stages of bulb mites (eggs unknown). I found zero activity, just a graveyard. I’ll continue to check over the next few days to see if the bulb mite eggs are still viable. There is a chance the eggs will hatch but I can either kill them with the soil drench and stop the life cycle that way or mix some diatomaceous earth in the soil. I might do both as a precaution.

The plain H202 soil drench was effective but not to the same extent, it appears to have killed the larger mites but the smaller ones are still active.

Ina · Oct 11, 2018

MissBotany said:
but I can either kill them with the soil drench

I was going to say that you can reduce the moisture for a while.But I had some kind of bug in my browser so I just quoted your post:)When I had similar..things in my soil I think they were appearing from too much moisture or it helps them live when the soil is contaminated with them.......Neem+H2O2 seems good idea!How the roots feel?

MissBotany · Oct 11, 2018

Ina said:
I was going to say that you can reduce the moisture for a while.But I had some kind of bug in my browser so I just quoted your post:)When I had similar..things in my soil I think they were appearing from too much moisture or it helps them live when the soil is contaminated with them.......Neem+H2O2 seems good idea!How the roots feel?

Good suggestion! Yes I am letting the soil dry out while I wait to apply the soil drench to my plants. I checked he roots, all white and healthy so far. Today I am testing the H202 with neem oil on two more sample to make sure the same results are repeatable. Then I am applying the soil drench to my plants. I am also waiting to see if the eggs hatch in the samples where I applied the H202 with neem in order to determine if a second drench is required. Also going to add diatomaceous earth to the soil of my plants to prevent any new eggs from hatching as a preventative measure.

Now that I had some time to think, I am positive the soil was contaminated and that’s probably why the auto in my last grow was so stunted. Moving forward, I am not buying that same soil again and I am going to quarantine all soil and test it for critters by putting a small sample in a sealed plastic baggy, wet the soil and check it in a few days with a scope. If there are critters, I am returning the soil.

MissBotany · Oct 11, 2018

Bulb Mite Doomsday!

I checked the soil sample that I treated with both H202 and H202 with neem. I couldn’t find anything moving in the H202. In the H202 with neem, I found 1 mite still crawling around. My hypothesis is that I didn’t fully saturate the soil or it was not in the soil and instead on the plastic inside the bag which didn’t get fully covered with the drench. So I applied another drench and checked it after a few hours and I couldn’t find anything moving. I’ll keep the sample for about 1 week to check for new larvae.

Knowing this bit of information that every millimeter of soil needs saturated, I poured 6 gallons of H202 with neem oil water over all 8 of my plants. I kept the water in the liner as it ran off and continue to recycle this water to keep the soil continuously and fully saturated. I’ll do this one more time, then vacuum the water out of there. While the plants are removed, I’ll use a 1:3 bleach to water solution to wipe down the inside of the tent. I’ve already bleached the floors and any equipment I could.

MissBotany · Oct 12, 2018

The plants survived the soil drench and bounced back from looking like droopy palm trees. I only got to check the soil in one of my plants, so far no bulb mite activity. I will take a sample from each pot today or tomorrow to check for activity. My test samples still show a bulb mite graveyard. However I have to keep checking because bulb mite eggs have an incubation period of 2-7 days. Diatomaceous earth will be added next week (when it’s delivered) to the top few inches of soil.

Jimster · Oct 12, 2018

I know many would shudder at the thought, but I have used malathion to control all types of root eating insects. I use a very light dose mixed with water. It decomposes quickly and is fairly safe, especially is used in small plants when any possible remaining malathion would be greatly diluted by the grown plant. A couple of drops in water is all it takes. Research it...its pretty safe.

MissBotany · Oct 12, 2018

Jimster said:
I know many would shudder at the thought, but I have used malathion to control all types of root eating insects. I use a very light dose mixed with water. It decomposes quickly and is fairly safe, especially is used in small plants when any possible remaining malathion would be greatly diluted by the grown plant. A couple of drops in water is all it takes. Research it...its pretty safe.

Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll look into it if this method doesn’t work.

MissBotany · Oct 13, 2018

Interesting update. The H202 only drench I tested on the soil sample with mites has young mites crawling in it. I am thinking the H202 didn’t kill the eggs and they hatched. The H202 with neem oil test samples show no activity so it seems that the solution withadded neem killed the eggs too.

I am randomly testing the soil in the pots and so far I haven’t seen anything crawling around. At this point I am tired of looking at soil so I will just sporadically scope the soil and keep checking my samples in the other room to see if anything comes up because they will tell me how to proceed with my potted plants.

WhtChocolate · Oct 13, 2018

Appreciate the info and data Miss B. Thanks for the updates!!!

thunderfudge · Oct 13, 2018

Get some hypoaspis and a bottle of
Beauveria bassiana and call it a day.

thunderfudge · Oct 13, 2018

And try to dunk pots until the bubbles stop coming out to saturate under the root ball.that is the problem with just a drench,the roots act as an umbrella and shields the fuckers.

MissBotany · Oct 13, 2018

Good advice! Hopefully it was an apocalyptic event for them. If I find the drench didn’t work then I’ll probaly use a 5 gallon bucket to dunk my pots. I’ve looked at 2 of the 8 pots that I drenched and no mite activity so far. I know I need to check all of them but I’m really tired of looking at soil up close and personal.

MissBotany · Oct 17, 2018

It’s been 5 days since I used the H202 and neem oil soil drench. It seems to have killed all stages of the bulb mites. However it did stunt the growth of all my plants and a lot of the older fan leaves died. I suspect the neem oil coated the roots, almost suffocating them causing the stunted growth and dead foliage. I flushed them today with plain water and a lot of left over neem oil was flushed out. Hopefully this will help and I’ll see better growth soon.

Final thoughts: I would think that this method is only feasible if your plants are in early veg and you have time to spare. IMO it’s not for use in late veg or flower because plants will need time to recover.

The issue with bulb mites is that there is no product marketed specifically to target them because bulb mites are immune to most insecticides. There is one predatory mite Hypoaspis aculeifer that feeds on all stages of the bulb mite. I didn’t have any luck finding a seller of these mites though.

IMO prevention is the best method. I learned the hard way and introduced soil that was most likely contaminated. I’ll always check my soil first and add diatomaceous earth as a preventative.

Here is another good reference:
https://ag.umass.edu/greenhouse-floriculture/fact-sheets/bulb-mites

MissBotany · Oct 19, 2018

I mixed one cup of food grade diatomaceous earth in the top 2” of soil in each pot as a preventative. Before I did, I checked the soil of each plant and did not see any bulb mite activity. This means that H202 drench with neem oil worked to kill all stages. Once the soil is dry (mine took about 5 days), a flush with plain water is necessary to remove the excess neem oil. If not, your roots will remain coated in neem oil and that will likely continue to prevent water and nutrient uptake.

I trimmed off the worst of the damaged leaves and the plants are bouncing back nicely after a week of stunted growth (any white powder on the leaves is just diatomaceous earth). I don’t anticipate to see significant growth for another week though.

I feel the reason this method worked well with cannabis is because the bulb mites were exposed in the soil and did not have the protective layers of a bulb to hide between.

Here’s a current picture. Not very pretty but no more mites!

MissBotany · Oct 20, 2018

Frustrating news, today I double checked the soil samples I took yesterday and I found a few bulb mites crawling around. Resilient little buggers. The neem oil and H202 does help control the mites but I am not confident the benefits outweigh the negatives such as stunted growth and waterlogged roots/soil.

My new plan of attack is to keep using diatomaceous earth to kill the larvae after they hatch to break the life cycle. I also plan to increase the duration of my dry cycles in hopes to kill mites that way too. The female bulb mite lifecycle is 40ish days (males are shorter) so I am looking into biocontrol such as beauveria bassiana to kill the non-larvae stage mites. Since I started using diatomaceous earth I can’t use predatory insects because it’ll kill those too.

My plan is to up pot the plants once my last two flowering plants are finished and make sure to get the diatomaceous earth all around the roots when I add the new (sterilized) soil.

This is all very frustrating but also a good learning experience :crying2:

MissBotany · Oct 20, 2018

Lastly, I know the exact error I made when I was originally testing the soil samples with the H202 and H202 with neem. Total rookie mistake. The evironments were different in which the experiments were conducted. The environments were not identical or as close to dentiticl as possible. In the lab environment, my soil samples were in sealed containers when I added my test solutions and the field environment my soil was in open container pots with access to air. This enabled the soil to dry out faster thus not killing all the mites. Live and learn.

MissBotany · Oct 20, 2018

There is a specific strain of Bacillus subtilis (strain QST 713) that viticulturists use at the end of the growing season to prevent black rot. This may be used to kill bulb mites as a soil drench. The brand most viticulturalists use is Serenade. However, I am interested in the brand Cease because their label specifically says it can be used in soil. It’s not too expensive at $75 for one gallon of cencentrate. It’s also certified organic. I’ll order it soon here to test.

MissBotany · Oct 22, 2018

I checked with the manufacturer and confirmed QST 713 wouldn’t be effective on any form of insect.

I’m going to attempt to kill these things one more time and if they don’t die then I’ll just ride this out the best I can.

I’m going to make a sulfur and diatomaceous earth drench. I read that sulfur is actually used kill bulb mites on infected bulbs. They are dusted with sulfur but I’m going to go for a soil drench. I’ll pribably use a 5 gallon bucket and dunk the plants until bubbles stop.

MissBotany · Oct 27, 2018

I noticed my plants are bouncing back with a normal growth rate. I did a diatomaceous earth soil drench maybe 4 days ago. I put 1 cup of DE in each of my gallon containers (in addition to the cup I previously mixed in with the soil). There was probably 2 cups of DE total in each 1 gallon pot. Watered the soil to make sure the DE got down in the pot.

I was curious today to see if the bulb mites were still alive so I checked two of the plants ( I scoped the soil really good) and I didn’t see any bulb mites.

I am hoping that between the H202 with neem oil soil drench and the DE soil drench I made their environment so inhospitable that they died. The DE should kill any larvae that will hatch.

I’ll still order the sulfur but will wait to use it until I find mites again (hopefully not).

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