After harvest update:
In hubby's garden which we eventually used the Conserve SC exclusively, the russests came back with a vengeance. We upped the amount to about 5mls and scoped. It took A LOT longer to work on them and it did not work as well as it did at first. We still had live mites after 2 more sprays a few days apart. My
guess is they must have built a tolerance to it. It is also entirely possible that we simply couldn't get it in all the nooks and crannies in order to have the best effect. These were some big plants we were treating. We sprayed in the cool of the evenings.
In my garden (it had the largest plants of all), which Met52 and OG Biowar were used
at least once a week, we stopped spraying just before the main harvest. (I think I may have sprayed the conserve once or twice earlier on before switching to bios exclusively. Don't recall and too lazy at the moment to look it up.) Still have some standing skeletons with popcorn and concentrate material on them. I continue to scope those and have yet to find another russet - or any other bad bug. Also have not sprayed anything else on them since the last treatment with OGB.
In the nursery, I used a little of everything in rotation previously listed. Russets came back when I stopped. Used Conserve for the first spray to knock em down. 3 mls per gal. Some burning on new tender plants under lights. No probs on older moms. After 24 hrs I still had very active mites. Some dead. Dusted everything with DE. More mites died. Washed that off after 48hrs then sprayed with Met52 and in 2 days OGB tea. Most mites dead again. *Kept up OGB every 4 days. Mites dead and gone - again. Unrooted clones were infested and I pulled them all. Dropped them in a bucket with DE and left for a couple days to be sure all were dead. Took new cuts from the now clean (hopefully!) moms. I submerged each cut in OGB solution then dipped ends in
Clonex and put in cubes.
Every 2 days sprayed them with fresh OGB. Still no signs of mites on cuts. They are beginning to root and look really healthy. I'll keep this up and continue replacing moms with the fresh,
apparently clean clones, until I am certain they (russets) are gone for ever. If such a thing is possible. Until then, no live plants will leave here. Everything tossed out is burned. I do not want to expose anyone else to this horrid monster. Worst I have battled in nearly 40 years of farming and growing weed. Seriously!!! Symphylans are a close second. With those you can just move your garden and the problem is solved - if you have the room to move, that is. Otherwise, you are fucked because they can't be killed off.
PLEASE People!!! If you have this or any other bug, keep it to yourself and DO NOT pass it on, regardless of the money at stake. WE ALL will suffer for it long term! Most people I have talked with feel they got this and other pests from imported clones. We never had this level of problem with pests until the last decade or so. It seems where money is concerned, ethics are thrown out the window. Nuff said. Done preaching.
*P.S. At first I was using the OGB once a week in rotation with other stuff. When I got religious and did it every 4 days, I saw a big improvement in the nursery. Too afraid to let the cuts go longer than 2 days though. It is all I am using now in the nursery. This year in my OD gardens, it worked the best long term.