Removing and Preventing Spider Mites

[RRLBT420]

hey guys, sorta newbie here to the thread and the grow altogether. I'm on my second grow, 34 days into flower with four ladies going. Just today i confirmed my suspicions of a mite presence on two of the four, which are of course, the weakest two. On one there were webs at the bottom of the stalk and going up about 2 or 3 nodes, and the little white bastards crawling around. On the next, there were no visable webs, but i did a shake onto a white piece of paper and two little black things (mites?) fell and started moving fairly slow. Checked with a magnifying glass and look like mites to me. I wiped all the webs and did a hefty spray of good old H2O. Since it wasn't too overwhelming, I'm not in panic mode....yet. So now, my questions:

- Why don't people like to spray (assuming its organic, which I strictly adhere to) after the third week of flower? It's the same as if an outdoor grow gets some rain, no?

- Anyone have a good organic spray recipe to help me control these suckers?

- Based off my description, could one of these mites be preditory? And therefor good? Sorry for no pics, I did my sweep as soon as I spotted them, and I doubt the pic would be good anyways.

If anyones interested, there are pics of the current grow available. I'll repost them here, or you can check out my other threads.

well, technically you can still spray after the third week of flower for some sprays. the primary concern really isn't mold, it's because most sprays will affect the finished bud in a negative way as far as flavor, smell, and appearance. if you have a very bad infestation, you can use some organic sprays late into flowering, but wait at least a week before you harvest. if you're at day 34 already, i would recommend wiping the leaves/buds gently with a soft damp cloth, to remove the webs and many of the mites. i would do this every day till harvest if you can. also, i'm testing a different spray that claims it can used up to a week before harvest and is based on essential oils. it also claims residual control for 7 days. i'll post my results for this spray in about 10 days, till then i don't really wanna name names.

 

[RRLBT420]

wow, you make it sound so bad. i may have to re-evaluate it's use in my garden...at least i know it totally eradicates the mites when used properly so i can use it as the last line of defense if populations get out of control.

has anyone used ed rosenthal's zero tolerance with any success?

as a last line of defense, floramite is very effective, but be very careful in it's use. still haven't tried the zero tolerance myself yet.

 

[xdrgreenthumbx]

Thanks RRLBT420, your orig post was VERY informative, by the way.

I only saw maybe three noticable webs, and they were VERY small...so I think Ill stick with the soft cloth wiping as long as I can.

Let me know how how the new spray works out, and I'm fixing to make an organic spray ( Tobasco, cinnamon oil, soap dilution ) and see how that works.

peace

 

[RRLBT420]

thanks i try to help. just beware that by the time you have webs, you're on your way to a serious problem. try to look for the white/brown spotting on lower leaves as the first signs that you have a problem, and take action immediately. your spray could work, just be sure to spray on a test leaf or 2 before doing your entire garden just in case.

 

[guappy17]

thanks i try to help. just beware that by the time you have webs, you're on your way to a serious problem. try to look for the white/brown spotting on lower leaves as the first signs that you have a problem, and take action immediately. your spray could work, just be sure to spray on a test leaf or 2 before doing your entire garden just in case.

agreed, if you see webs, you are probably already into the second generation of mites. those little bastards multiply so freaking fast. example...1 mite can lay several hundred eggs in a matter of days. those hundred of eggs hatch in a few days and another few days later they are mature enough to lay their own eggs and again hundreds of eggs each...do the math.

rrlbt, sounds like you are trying out mite-rid? works ok, i keep it in my arsenal. i wish it came in a larger bottle though cause i use a whole bottle every time i use it (not all mixed at once of course, i follow the recommendations but have to mix up a few batches to get all my plants).

drgreenthumb, let us know about that tabasco cinnamon mix...what about adding a little clove oil to that?

 

[RRLBT420]

agreed, if you see webs, you are probably already into the second generation of mites. those little bastards multiply so freaking fast. example...1 mite can lay several hundred eggs in a matter of days. those hundred of eggs hatch in a few days and another few days later they are mature enough to lay their own eggs and again hundreds of eggs each...do the math.

rrlbt, sounds like you are trying out mite-rid? works ok, i keep it in my arsenal. i wish it came in a larger bottle though cause i use a whole bottle every time i use it (not all mixed at once of course, i follow the recommendations but have to mix up a few batches to get all my plants).

drgreenthumb, let us know about that tabasco cinnamon mix...what about adding a little clove oil to that?

lol good guess on the spray. i heard a few good things from the people at my local hydro store so i decided to try it out. but it's pretty pricy so it better work lol. if it does it will certainly make it into my regular controls in severe cases for flowering plants. my only concern is that is says not to spray it more than twice in the same crop

 

[xdrgreenthumbx]

clove oil, citrus oil, mint oil, ground oregano, i literally have a shopping list of organic items i COULD use...but I dont want to just mix EVERYTHING together ya know?

as far as spotting...do you mean this?


posted this about a weekish ago in another thread, and no one helped

hope its not too late, cause they are looking good ( as far as buds go)

 

[RRLBT420]

clove oil, citrus oil, mint oil, ground oregano, i literally have a shopping list of organic items i COULD use...but I dont want to just mix EVERYTHING together ya know?

as far as spotting...do you mean this?
View attachment 1214667

posted this about a weekish ago in another thread, and no one helped

hope its not too late, cause they are looking good ( as far as buds go)

yeah you definitely have mites. the beginning of this thread has my instructions and you can probably find some good help in subsequent posts. unfortunately, there's no exact science to killing off mites.

 

[DrFever]

hey all well last night i was all hammered up so anyways went and did a close look at a few plants and sure enough noticed a little web under a leaf only 2 plants i noticed had these so i isolated them.
Being im in 3rd week can i just go with 1 to 3 strength of rubbin alcohol and water mix and spray the plant. i bin readin lots of ideas i just need to know what will get rid of them and not harm plant , can i over spray plant with raid ??? like i said the plants were cloned sept 6 and i am jus goin into 3rd week of growth.
There in potted soil . thank you all for your help

 

[RRLBT420]

hey all well last night i was all hammered up so anyways went and did a close look at a few plants and sure enough noticed a little web under a leaf only 2 plants i noticed had these so i isolated them.
Being im in 3rd week can i just go with 1 to 3 strength of rubbin alcohol and water mix and spray the plant. i bin readin lots of ideas i just need to know what will get rid of them and not harm plant , can i over spray plant with raid ??? like i said the plants were cloned sept 6 and i am jus goin into 3rd week of growth.
There in potted soil . thank you all for your help

i've heard that the alcohol spray works, but personally i haven't tried it so i don't wanna advise you to use something i'm unfamiliar with. i have heard if you mix it too strong it will burn leaves, but this is true of any spray. stay as far as you can away from raid unless you wanna smoke poison.if they're still in veg growth, you can use almost any control spray, i recommend neem oil as a first line of defense. the beginning of this post has my procedure for mite removal, and you can probably find a few other tips in following posts. you've done well to isolate your infested plants, the next thing i would recommend is to remove any severely damaged leaves, then wipe the remaining ones down to remove webs/eggs. even if you can't see the webs, they're usually on the underside of the leaves where the mites have been crawling.

 

[Medi 1]

im yesting some bug juice out right now on 2 plants i have. im not sure if another of the Dr Doom products was mentioned. its their Botanics. has the highest levels of Pyrethrins at .20% and kills on contact and is organic so safe to use right to harvest.
there will soon be a new product her ein north america that also kills on canct and includes killing the egss wich none do yet..on conatct. it is also a food. so is all around safe and good for the plant. once i get more details on it ill post them.
so far this Botanics has been doing as they claim. just not dealing with the eggs and seems to be the downfall of all sprays

 

[DrFever]

thanks RRL i think i caught this problem early the web is really small where does a guy get ur ingredients

 

[RRLBT420]

im yesting some bug juice out right now on 2 plants i have. im not sure if another of the Dr Doom products was mentioned. its their Botanics. has the highest levels of Pyrethrins at .20% and kills on contact and is organic so safe to use right to harvest.
there will soon be a new product her ein north america that also kills on canct and includes killing the egss wich none do yet..on conatct. it is also a food. so is all around safe and good for the plant. once i get more details on it ill post them.
so far this Botanics has been doing as they claim. just not dealing with the eggs and seems to be the downfall of all sprays

if it will kill eggs i would love to see it... the mites are the easy parts it's those damn eggs that hatch almost daily that makes them so damn hard to control

 

[RRLBT420]

thanks RRL i think i caught this problem early the web is really small where does a guy get ur ingredients

i pick the neem oil up at my local hydro store, i use Dynagro brand, most would recommend Einstein oil which is probably better, but costs twice as much. the castile soap and my cinnamon and clove oils i pick up at Sunflower Farmer's Market, but it should be available at most health food stores if you don't have one of those around. and the seltzer water is available at every grocery store.

 

[Medi 1]

you bet. to be honest all we need it water, mild soap to remove the bugsand wipe down the leaves. its always the eggs. through my research we find the eggs can lay there for up to close to 1 year and hatch again. kinda like being dormant then come back. and very hard to remove all of them. like trying to rid a carpeted hom from fleas. they hidfe in the smallest crevaces. and if a plant is in good health they cant get bugs nor diseases. nature deals with them on their own.
when im back at work on monday ill ask if i can release the new info yet. we are still awaiting getting it5 aproved for north america. we just found it in spain at a recent show there.

 

[cowboylogic]

Doktor Doom fogger followed up every 3 days for 3 cycles with DD Knockout spray, done! Its all about breaking the breeding cycle. Its pretty easy to kill the adults but the nits are a different story.

 

[RRLBT420]

you bet. to be honest all we need it water, mild soap to remove the bugsand wipe down the leaves. its always the eggs. through my research we find the eggs can lay there for up to close to 1 year and hatch again. kinda like being dormant then come back. and very hard to remove all of them. like trying to rid a carpeted hom from fleas. they hidfe in the smallest crevaces. and if a plant is in good health they cant get bugs nor diseases. nature deals with them on their own.
when im back at work on monday ill ask if i can release the new info yet. we are still awaiting getting it5 aproved for north america. we just found it in spain at a recent show there.

the dormant cycle for the eggs makes sense. i'm not an entomologist but i believe the eggs have to be exposed to a hot dry environment in order to hatch. it would explain why in the past i've kept them down for months, but for a couple days my temps got outta control (95-100 degrees) and then they came back with a vengeance. all the more reason to invest in controlling temps and looking for signs of mites daily.

 

[GoldenGanja13]

AZATROL. It's Organic and Kicks ass. Look it up.

 

[DrFever]

ok stupid question where did these fckers come from to begin with ?? wondering if they were on clones to begin with my room is litterally a operating tble i mean u could eat off the floor could they come threw my air intake vents ??? got two 4" vented i dunno

 

[Medi 1]

99.99999% of the time they come from infected cuts. is why i would never take a cut from anyone till i inspected a room, and all cuts i take i quaranteen anyways and treat even if i see nothing.

azatrol and others are about all the same but over prices and a weeker solution than the botanics. they do work just slower and not always sucessfull depending on infection. all they do is slow the breeding and eating so is a slow process to rid the plant. kill on contact is my preffered choice.