Spider Mites

Amoeba

Amoeba

Well-Known Member
So I'm a little less than two weeks away from harvest on my two shiva skunks and I noticed I have a spider mite problem, it's pretty bad towards the lower part of the plant. The buds look healthy, fat and juicy but the leaves have started to droop just a little and of course I have white spots on some of the lower leaves.

I do not like what I read when I google and search this site, seems too risky to spray them with anything but I am a total noob and am looking forward to my first harvest. What can I do to safely get rid of them this late in the game? Right now I'm going to disenfect my cab with bleach and wipe down the SS's with plain cold water, is there anything else I can do?

Also I have 2 OGs which also have the same problem but are about 4 weeks flowering, the buds are not nearly as big, easier to control then?

Any and all help is much appreciated!
:wall:
 
sam8tron

sam8tron

Active Member
grab a net, head outside and catch some fuckin ladybirds!!!! it works.

to prevent this from happening again mist under leaves daily, you can do this to the OG's cos the bud production may be smaller but its also quite risky cos it could enduce mould.

Im not too familiar with the sprays you can get to kill your mites and how much damage it will cause your plants, but to control the problem for now, get two wet sponges and sandwich each leaf between them and just slide it out, it should be quite effective in removing eggs and some mites. You may wanna check the top of the soil to see if there are more there

let us know how it goes

safe
 
OregonMeds

OregonMeds

Well-Known Member
You are better off not doing anything right now or you will mess up the taste of your smoke, or make it poison to you. Even spraying water on them to keep them from breeding puts your buds at a very high risk of mold this late in the game.

Try to get the temperature down in there, and even more fans. That will slow down their breeding at least. Then after you chop and the plants dry out they'll scatter from the bud looking for moisture. Once you've seen them dissapear and your weed is bagged up then bomb once a week with pyrethrum bombs a couple timese and spray neem etc preventatively on your plants from now on.

Always stop spraying the last couple weeks of flower, even the sprays that say safe for last day. (Just because they taste and smell nasty)

I'm still fighting them over here and it looks like I'll never be able to fully get rid of them, only control them. And I've tried everything....

Sad, but that's life.
 
Amoeba

Amoeba

Well-Known Member
My box is pretty small i think once these plants are harvested the problem will be much more manageable. I wiped off all of my plants today including the few in veg with cold water, which sits directly above the ones infected with the mites but in another chamber. The ones in veg including a few clones were infest but I wiped them down. Also cleaned the entire cabinet with bleach and rubbing alcohol.

I can't imagine how hard this would be to control if I was using an entire room for my grow. I feel sorry for anyone who has these bastards!!

+rep for the helpers :)
 
thchero

thchero

Well-Known Member
i had the same problem and used a mixture of 1:1 rubbing alchohol and water I sprayed every 3 days 3 times and now i just give them a spray once a week cheap and effective
 
W

waterboy

Active Member
Amoeba said:
So I'm a little less than two weeks away from harvest on my two shiva skunks and I noticed I have a spider mite problem, it's pretty bad towards the lower part of the plant. The buds look healthy, fat and juicy but the leaves have started to droop just a little and of course I have white spots on some of the lower leaves.

I do not like what I read when I google and search this site, seems too risky to spray them with anything but I am a total noob and am looking forward to my first harvest. What can I do to safely get rid of them this late in the game? Right now I'm going to disenfect my cab with bleach and wipe down the SS's with plain cold water, is there anything else I can do?

Also I have 2 OGs which also have the same problem but are about 4 weeks flowering, the buds are not nearly as big, easier to control then?

Any and all help is much appreciated!
:wall:
Click to expand...

Unless the spider-mites get totally out of hand you should be ok. You don't have to kill them all, just keep their numbers under control. Where I live it is impossible to avoid spider mite infection. The little bastards are everywhere, hell I think they hitch rides on flying bugs to get to my plants.

Very few products will get rid of spider-mites, but many will decrease their numbers. Permethrin is one of the best, cheapest and effective. Dissipates rapidly and is not harmful to humans or plants. No taste that I or anyone using my herb can detect. Check out wikipedia for information on the product. One treatment should handle it for the balance of your grow. Good Luck
 
pinkus

pinkus

New Member
thchero said:
i had the same problem and used a mixture of 1:1 rubbing alchohol and water I sprayed every 3 days 3 times and now i just give them a spray once a week cheap and effective
Click to expand...
Wow, that seems like a great solution! I have a couple of questions though. Have you ever done this late in flowering? Also, since alcohol is such an efficient solvent for thc, couldn't that drain it from the resin glands?!

That last aspect kind of worries me because I am days from harvest.

I'd love to hear what people think on this.:bigjoint:
 
Y

YaK

just some guy
BigBudBalls said:
https://fifthseasongardening.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=526_664_696&osCsid=b0eb9cb28a701ac52c8da4900ab80569

Its pricey. But you ca pop off the fogger nozzle and use a 'normal' aerosol nozzle. This way you don't use it all up in a single use.

You will need 2 or 3 rounds. Works great. (well, did for me)
Click to expand...
I love this idea! I bought a grip of pyrethrium (sp?) foggers because I dont want to take any chances on infestations. I get clones from dispensaries that usually have eggs. I have to wait for a problem to appear and then try to obliterate them. So I fog the fuck out of my grow room.

I also have CO2 in the flower section of my grow room. Does anyone know if a high concentration of CO2 would also kill the eggs? I also forget the concentration of CO2 that would kill them all.

Good luck killing these things, today for the first time I have come across spider mites, after a year of growing. Pretty stressful, makes me want to nuke the bitches.:fire:

I took this picture with an "EyeClops" I got it off of amazon.com for 29.99 it takes pictures to a usb thing, and has 100x, 200x, and 400x magnification. cool toy!
 
BigBudBalls

BigBudBalls

Well-Known Member
YaK said:
I love this idea! I bought a grip of pyrethrium (sp?) foggers because I dont want to take any chances on infestations. I get clones from dispensaries that usually have eggs. I have to wait for a problem to appear and then try to obliterate them. So I fog the fuck out of my grow room.
Click to expand...

Yup. They guy in the shop said people have done it, but didn't advise.
Its 4% and good for up to 1500square feet. Kind overkill for a closet. So I bought 2. One to 'play' with and the other for standard application, if still needed. (the nozzle trick is the trick!) One can took care of flower and veg rooms with about 20% left over.

I also asked if there was another spray, but all he showed was the pump bottles. My plants are WAY to dense for that to work well. Needed the fogger aspect.

But if you get clones with th eggs on them, maybe just the dunk method would work fine for you.


As a footnote: Anyone else notice that the spider mites stick to the very tops of the plants?

Also heard people say a small prob with the spider mites. Thats like being sorta pregnant. :)

.
 
buzzzzz

buzzzzz

Active Member
Has anyone tried those little electronic pest controllers like you use for hunting or camping? I've seen em' advertised on hunting programs to get rid of bugs when your a sittin waiten fer a deer to come by.
 
Bonghitter420

Bonghitter420

Well-Known Member
thcheaven said:
How about malathion? Has anyone ever used it on marijuana?
Click to expand...
we had spider mights. If you need something cheap, we used soapy water. It worked wonders and it wont harm your plants at all. Just mist under the leaves and everything. You should be good to go.:weed:
 
FoukeMonster

FoukeMonster

Active Member
Bonghitter420 said:
we had spider mights. If you need something cheap, we used soapy water. It worked wonders and it wont harm your plants at all. Just mist under the leaves and everything. You should be good to go.:weed:
Click to expand...
I had used dish soap and olive oil solution, sprayed under the leaves my first (and last) grow years ago. Seemed to work well IIRC.
 
growinman

growinman

Well-Known Member
......or get tired of all of these 'controls' and get rid of the mites once and for all--AVID or Floramite w/attractant. Yes it's toxic, yeah, yeah.......... and dont use them on budding plants......in fact, just on rooted clones and keep them out of your grow area until you can work all of your budding plants out of there, then sterilize, sterilize again(I even repainted). And once you go through all of this you will be rid of them and be more than willing to take whatever precautions necessary to not let them back in there.....which is another story.
I know the majority of people dont want to use the bad chems., but there are safe ways to use it and keep your strains too. Nobody wants to smoke it! I dont want to smoke mites dead or alive...... I 've been mite free for over a year and ....... what a relief!

Best of lucK!!

growinman
 
codwalop

codwalop

Active Member
in australia theres a pest control spray called beat-a-bug or something, based on chilli & garlic and, from what i remember, natural stuff, there must be something similar outside of australia

its tried and true that planting chillis, tomatoes & garlic will keep mites away to a certain extent, the main one is garlic, although i do grow an awful lot of chillis in and around my plants also

mint & onion is also helps a little with mites, but more effective with other bugs

regards
 
codwalop

codwalop

Active Member
this taken from the beat-a-bug website (this is not a product plug)

1. Contains natural pyrethrum (extract of the daisy flower) which kills all common insect pests on contact including ants, aphids, thrip, caterpillar, white fly, leaf hopper, cabbage moth, scarad fly
2. Contains garlic and chilli to irritate and repel insects. Chilli also increases the effectiveness of the natural insecticide, pyrethrum
3. Contains plant oil which makes the product adhere to leaves, even in the rain
4. Contains plant food to provide nourishment for leaves at the site of attack by insects, allowing improved resistance and more rapid regrowth

keeps them under control, but not a complete cure, helps preventatively as well


and safe for flowering being organic, and from experience no bad tastes

as i mentioned above, there must be something with the same idea as this around


regards
 
BigBudBalls

BigBudBalls

Well-Known Member
codwalop said:
in australia theres a pest control spray called beat-a-bug or something, based on chilli & garlic and, from what i remember, natural stuff, there must be something similar outside of australia
Click to expand...
Only a nudge, but arsenic, hemlock, and night shades are also 'natural' but poisonous. (just a note that 'natural' doesn't mean safe to humans by default)

So is the venom from king cobras and other poisonous creatures. (considered
'natural')
 
codwalop

codwalop

Active Member
BigBudBalls said:
Only a nudge, but arsenic, hemlock, and night shades are also 'natural' but poisonous. (just a note that 'natural' doesn't mean safe to humans by default)

So is the venom from king cobras and other poisonous creatures. (considered
'natural')
Click to expand...
so you're telling me if i raise a cobra organically, its venom is still poisonous?

:-o
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top