okay...spider mites

[Noworries]

I kinda freaked myself out, I walked into my veg area and noticed a spider web on one of my plants, no biggie right....then i see all these little white specks moving around :mad:

sooooo, im hoping its more controllable than i think it is and i'm just over stressing it.

my floor is concrete, so i flooded it with a neem oil/water/pesticide over the entire floor. I sprayed all of the plants plants thoroghly with neem oil at a mixture of 9ml of neem per gallon of water

My flower room is still clean, i run 1500 ppm co2 and its kept between 70-83 degree's.

If I spray my plants daily with neem oil at this mixture can I effectively eradicate the mites? If they are kept in check will they still kill my yield?

 

[neverbreak]

have a look at the leaves with a magnifying glass. if ya can see little mites running around the place, you know ya have a problem.

never tried controlling mites with neem before. i expect it would help control but not eradicate them but i might be wrong.

neverbreak

 

[Noworries]

whats your eradication method

 

[cookiemonster]

Are you in flowering? If your not floramite will do the trick. Follow up with a neem 5 days later, and continue every five days with the neem. Those mites are tough.

 

[Noworries]

only veg plants are infected right now- will get ahold of some floramite

 

[Seamaiden]

I kinda freaked myself out, I walked into my veg area and noticed a spider web on one of my plants, no biggie right....then i see all these little white specks moving around :mad:

sooooo, im hoping its more controllable than i think it is and i'm just over stressing it.

my floor is concrete, so i flooded it with a neem oil/water/pesticide over the entire floor. I sprayed all of the plants plants thoroghly with neem oil at a mixture of 9ml of neem per gallon of water

My flower room is still clean, i run 1500 ppm co2 and its kept between 70-83 degree's.

If I spray my plants daily with neem oil at this mixture can I effectively eradicate the mites? If they are kept in check will they still kill my yield?

Reduce the temperature, too, as that will slow down their reproductive rate which will allow you more time to eradicate.

Yes, if the neem you're using is affecting their numbers at all, then spraying daily should work well.

In my experience, high humidity and low temps can really hinder spider mites, to the point of no proliferation. Keeping your handling of veg plants and flowering plants in one direction really helps prevent infestation at the worst point (flowering). I always handle my flowering plants first, then move onto the vegging plants.

If the neem isn't working, you might want to try lavender extract and/or JMS Stylet oil. You can also use a mixture of isopropyl alcohol and water, starting at 50/50.

 

[Noworries]

does 50/50 isopropyl alcohol have no effect on the plants? I know I read to change what you are spraying frequently because they become resistant to whatever you are using-- so that would be another available option for me to alternate to

 

[CelticEBE]

Ok....I've had to battle the Borg a few times and this is what I did to finally rid myself of the nasty little bastards....cause every time I thought I had won.....they came back.

This may set back your next harvest, but I pretty much guarantee that you will be mite free afterwards.

Buy the following. Avid, Floramite, Forbid, and Saturator. Mix up a solution of saturator and one of the miticides. Take cuts and dunk the cuts in the solution, swirl it around a bit and make sure that you shake off any air bubbles on the leaves.

4 days later dunk them again only use a different miticide, and then repeat with the last miticide four days after that.

Kill off everything else in your veg room and clean the shit out of it. You may want to set off a few pyrethrin bombs after you clear things out.

This is a last ditch effort type thing. There are other ways to battle the borg, but from what I know and my experience it is just that.....a battle that is never won. Once I had mites I fought...and I fought....and I fought. Then I took some bad advice, because I got them in flower. Trust me when I say, that is NOT the time you want to deal with mites. Get em gone and start protocols to ensure that you stay mite free in the future.

Good Luck!

 

[Thoth]

If you're going to use chems, make sure it's actually a miticide you use and not an insecticide. They have differ modes of action as they are targetting different organisms. Most insecticides won't affect mites as they are arachnids, not insects.

 

[Noworries]

alirght, I used some stuff from lowes that was neem oil, some type of word that starts with a B ( i cant remember, i've seen it referred to on some thread as a fogger) said it kills spider mites.

anyway... I pulled every plant clone/pot etc out of my veg room, started with the room- cleaned everything out, sprayed everything down with a random ass BS mix of stuff i threw together, physan 20, neem oil, and water (walls, floors, flood trays)

then one by one sprayed down every single plant and pot from top to bottom underneath etc etc and put them back in one by one.

do any of you have any experience with beneficial bugs? Lady bugs arent very expensive and I could like go overkill as hell with those things in there.

 

[Noworries]

also...about going overkill with the lady bugs, is there a down side of going overkill? like say...45,000 lady bugs for an 8x8 room?

dunno if they will end up cannibalizing instead of clearing out eggs and whatnot

 

[Oregon Panda]

Oxidate is organic and is good for mite and Powdery Mildew.
http://www.biconet.com/disease/oxiDate.html

Please dont use synth-chems, they hurt everyone.

 

[Seamaiden]

I use OxiDate, and I don't recall instructions for treating mites of any sort.

does 50/50 isopropyl alcohol have no effect on the plants? I know I read to change what you are spraying frequently because they become resistant to whatever you are using-- so that would be another available option for me to alternate to

No harm, it evaporates too quickly. You should include a surfactant, perhaps a few drops of Dawn dish soap, or Dr. Bronner's (I like organic, but it's fucking $10/qt where I am, too expensive, Ivory is just as good). Just a LITTLE. Or, if you're worried about soapy flavor or residue, then go with JMS Stylet oil.

 

[Oregon Panda]

I use OxiDate, and I don't recall instructions for treating mites of any sort.

Its a corrisive and it burns the everlovin shit out of the little bastards, as it will you if you dont use proper protection. I think I diluted it at 40ml per gallon, but I smoke alot of weed so that might have been 40ml per litre. If the gallon doesnt do it, try the litre. Trust me it kicks their little asses.

To add you can use it to the day you harvest and even AFTER. If while your drying (god forbid) you encounter any problems of the fungal sort, SPRAY IT! Its totally safe.

 

[Oregon Panda]

Futhermore, if your not liscensed to buy and ship hazmat required goods, you can pick up some Hydrogen peroxide from the craft store. Once again, at high enough concentrations it will burn you bad. Use protection, wear goggles.

http://joemacho.hubpages.com/hub/Hydrogen-Peroxide-for-Plants

 

[JohnBudd]

Sorry to hear of your mites. In my past experience, mites live/breed in the soil as well. My suggestion is to treat them and get crop finished, and then clean the @#$%^ out of your room, buckets, walls, everything in the room. Drop the temp really low.....will stop the breeding.
Good luck!

 

[Noworries]

I run a perpetual unfortunately. I ordered 18,000 lady bugs. My flower room is air conditioned and has co2. right now, while I wait on my lady bugs, I have no pest stick strips everywhere and am going to do a second spray of everything tomorrow night.

I am considering buying a 10x10 tent and putting it in the back of my flower room so it will be both climate controlled and have co2. If I keep seeing spider mites after all that start doing 10,000 ppm co2 for an hour every other day for a week? Maybe 10 days?

Unfortunately I've never had a pest problem other than nats, I really was slacking on preventatives. Live and learn I guess.

 

[neverbreak]

whats your eradication method

high humidity to slow 'em down long enough for me to get my hands on some predatory mites and then i use them to wipe 'em out. i've used a water based pyrethrum spray to knock them off too, but iirc they came back.

also used miticides but prefer not to

neverbreak

 

[Noworries]

gnats***

I see, I read about the predatory mites a few minutes ago-Phytoseiulus persimilis

if my lady bugs/neem oil/co2 purge fail i will buy a ton of those. Everything will get frequent neem oil coatings from here out

any tips/advice etc is always appreciated

I will be putting 8 plants to flower in a week that had mite activity, hoping to keep everything under control so I dont lose a crop

 

[Noworries]

I run a perpetual unfortunately. I ordered 18,000 lady bugs. My flower room is air conditioned and has co2. right now, while I wait on my lady bugs, I have no pest stick strips everywhere and am going to do a second spray of everything tomorrow night.

I am considering buying a 10x10 tent and putting it in the back of my flower room so it will be both climate controlled and have co2. If I keep seeing spider mites after all that start doing 10,000 ppm co2 for an hour every other day for a week? Maybe 10 days?

Unfortunately I've never had a pest problem other than nats, I really was slacking on preventatives. Live and learn I guess.

I'm kinda looking for input here from someone who has experience with the bold section. (experience first hand killing mites with high co2 ppm)

If that sounds like a 100% ignorant idea it may be. right now I have seen absolutely no sign of any mite in my flowering room. I just checked all my vegging plants and i saw little red bodies but none moving. nothing but gnats on my sticky strips.

I couldnt find anything moving on my plants but you guys know as well as i do shit that small is easy to miss.

so just to clarify for some input:

I've already hosed down veg room and everything in it extremely thoroghly, plants with neem oil, walls/floor/tables with neem oil/physan 20.

additional neem oil treatments until lady bugs arrive thursday next week.
one quart of lady bug predators coming (18,000)

with a back up plan being 10x10 tent in flowering room and turn the co2 up to 10,000 ppm for an hour every other day for 7-10 days?

I need to get these bitches GONE