Great news to report - Spider mites officially under control!

[jonnynobody]

I sourced a ton of different info on the best sure fire way to get rid of these nasty little things and I wound up buying a can of Doktor Doom, some Azamax, Wipeout, a a no pest strip which was removed after less than 1 day. (had second thoughts about that thing)

I sprayed with azamax the first day then waited 3 days and sprayed with the DD....yesterday I pulled all the plants out again (doing this daily now) and used a 10% bleach solution to wipe down the interior of my tent walls as well as a wash on the floor mat.

I have not seen a living spider mite since a day after the azamax spray and absolutely no new webs. You actually could never tell any of the nugs had webs so I lucked out there I think. Tonight they will be sprayed with the wipeout, and I'll continue to monitor them with my magnifying glass every single day till harvest.

I had to prune a few lower branches to get rid of some rather unproductive junk at the bottoms of the plants and I thought for shits and grins I'd go ahead and trim these itty bitty premie nugs then dry 'em and smoke 'em...well today I packed me up a bowl of what was dry and I must say, for 3 weeks premature it baked me out enough that I didn't finish the bowl.

I do believe I have officially saved this harvest...nice reporting some good news after a traumatic last week and a half dealing with these little buggers.

 

[millie]

Good to hear man. Yesterday i discovered an infestation in my plant. Webs everywhere. I sprayed it with organic dish washing liquid mixed with water and scraped them from the bottoms of the leaves. Going to spray tomorrow and the next day and by then hopefully i have them under control. Wish me luck.

 

[infinitalus]

You sprayed you flowering plants with doktor doom and azamax?

I thought the same thing.. your bud is prolly gonna taste like chemical residue..

Spray should be a preventative measure, not an aggressive treatment during flower.

Spray half way through the veg phase and just before going into flower. Once the buds start forming, the taste of whatever you spray them with will linger.

Still, getting rid of bugs is a difficult and delicate situation.

 

[jonnynobody]

I thought the same thing.. your bud is prolly gonna taste like chemical residue..

Spray should be a preventative measure, not an aggressive treatment during flower.

Spray half way through the veg phase and just before going into flower. Once the buds start forming, the taste of whatever you spray them with will linger.

Still, getting rid of bugs is a difficult and delicate situation.

I certainly hope you never get bugs in the middle of flower b/c you'll be screwed just letting them feast on your plants, homeslice. I on the other hand would rather save my harvest from spider webs that would render the entire grow useless. Azamax is safe all the way up to the day before harvest. The residue safely washes off with a misting rinse of a spray bottle. And if the alternative to using the DD was a lost harvest, I'll deal with the DD and any residue. BTW, I thoroughly dry the plants with a high velocity fan before they make their way back into the tent. No dripping buds or anything like that once their back in their home.

I've never had spider mites before so I thought I was on my game using PM against the fungus gnats I got last time, meanwhile these little fuckers violated my ladies with webs. Next time, this will not happen as I will not have 6 plants in my tent for 1 thing and I now know what to look out for and what products to use to protect and rid the garden of these things.

I actually just smoked some junk ass crap I cut off from the bottom of my plant and dried and not only did it get me baked, but it didn't taste like anything out of the ordinary. Thanks for the comments though.

 

[jonnynobody]

You sprayed you flowering plants with doktor doom and azamax?

Not on the same day. You rotate your defense products in cycles so the mites don't grow resistant to 1 single item used constantly.

Every 3-5 days I treat the plant. From here on out it will be mighty wash and azamax only.

 

[Firstoffallen]

Does that pepper method work thats posted on RIU ?? seems like that would be the best. ive only had lil gnats before that was due to lots of very wet soil i keep my temp real low in my room bugs seem to stay away thankfully, and i can move my plants in and out of the room throughout all stages which allows me to clean and sterilize my room during all times of my grows.

 

[james2500]

spiders........yeah i had to chop my white rhino a week early due to those bastards.....saw them during veg and azamaxed em....towards the end I was brushing them off with a paintbrush, yeah i know i was spreading them around but i kept after the webs, they never got established..chopped and cured the rhino...today I dr doomed the room with the bomb and washed the room with bleach, also later today I'm repotting my next grow to move into the flower room.....these are a mix of femmed seeds about a month old....I have the azamax ready and i'm going to bomb the room again in 3 days, also the bleach wash.....goodbye bugz hello nugz

 

[james2500]

oh yeah i have a gallon of mighty wash too....good thing i have a bunch of loyal customers to provide me with some cash to buy this shit.

 

[jonnynobody]

Hope you don't have any patients, or plan on smoking this herb... You just ruined it. Good job.

And I congratulate you on being a douche bag. Provide some evidence that these products do any harm and I'd be happy to review the material. Until then, keep your bullshit tin foil hat argument and commentary to yourself.

 

[james2500]

And I congratulate you on being a douche bag. Provide some evidence that these products do any harm and I'd be happy to review the material. Until then, keep your bullshit tin foil hat argument and commentary to yourself.

tmb sounds a bit snobby to me too jonny....i've googled the hell out of flowers and azamax and there's growers on both sides of this...but maybe you shouldn't hold back and you should tell him how you really feel..hahaha

 

[Firstoffallen]

And I congratulate you on being a douche bag. Provide some evidence that these products do any harm and I'd be happy to review the material. Until then, keep your bullshit tin foil hat argument and commentary to yourself.

HEY! i take offense to the tin foil hat comment as i wear mine daily! But to really solve this argument get your shit tested when its ready see if its truly clean. cant argue with facts ya digg. id be very interested in the results as i have no opinion due to lack of education on the matter.

 

[RodriguesIV]

You should at least disclose to your patients if you used chemicals, you never know what allergies someone might have. Many probably wouldn't care but they deserve to know.

 

[jonnynobody]

http://www.doktordoom.com/healthnsafety.htm

They tell you to wash anything that comes in contact with the stuff...think it's safe to smoke or eat?

Ya, the wash is this terribly hard to obtain substance...something called H20 from what I hear. Crazy concept, I know.

BTW, this is the product label sheet for the product I used which is safe up to the day before harvest.

http://www.doktordoom.com/php/pdf/us/US_SpiderMite_FoggerLabel.pdf

 

[infinitalus]

I certainly hope you never get bugs in the middle of flower b/c you'll be screwed just letting them feast on your plants, homeslice.

I have, its no fun task. I would rather have equipment breakdown or malfunction (and it has) over dealing with bugs. I transplanted my teenaged ladies into their final 7gallon pots on my last grow using Fox Farm Ocean Forest instead what I had been using, which was sunshine #4 with added perlite since my local grow shop was out and I didnt have the time to order since they were ready to go under the screen I had the trifecta of mites, thrips, and fungus gnats all at once because they all rode along in the FFOF packages.

I combated the mites with 1tsp/gal pure rosemary oil and 2 tsp of dynagro neem oil with a couple drops of dr bronners liquid castile soap as emulsifier.

The thrips were taken out very quickly with a package of lady bugs. Once the thrips were gone, the lady bugs died off.

Gnats are some vicious, voracious, vindictive little bastards. My spray mix didnt work on these. The lady bugs didnt take to them. One thing that helped was a decent layer of diatomaceous earth covering the top of the soil. This made it so that the bugs couldnt reach the soil to lay their eggs, and the larvae were pretty much eaten alive when they body came into contact with this stuff. Only problem with this is it seriously deoxygenates your roots and kills drainage. There were still a bunch of adult gnats that made it to my house plants at this point. Yellow sticky traps helped take care of more adults. The population was never eradicated until after harvest and a very deep cleaning took place. I actually cut a little early because the plants were fading too fast too early and I would rather have a little less but still decent bud vs more bud and not as good. Looking at the roots, the network was ate up so bad they only looked like 5-6 week old plants.

To counter having serious bug issues with gnats again, I switched to using coco. I dumped my house plants out and tossed the ones that looked real bad, replanted with coco and they recovered fairly quickly.

I know that you gotta do what you gotta do to keep your harvest. They say Roundup (chemical pesticide) is safe too when washed thoroughly.. the thing is there are markers of it found in urine and these chemicals are known to tax the liver and kidneys. If they tax them for a long period of time, what is the result? The decision for a 'safe' product is a 3 month study to see if there are any problems. When GMOs (and the chemical pesticide Roundup to go on the specially designed GMO produce) were first introduced in the 90s, a first ever spike of cancer rate increased. I believe any level of toxicity is poison regardless of who says there is a safe level of it. Thats just me, though its information to be wary of.

Heres to wishing you the best with your current and future grows. *tokes*

 

[HomeLessBeans]

Mites are never "under control". You start thinkin that and u will find out different.

And u sprayed your BUD with doctor doom?? Really?
I'm a firm believer in doing what is needed to save a crop,but damn dude.

 

[bloodytrichomes]

wouldnt smoke them budzz

 

[jonnynobody]

Mites are never "under control". You start thinkin that and u will find out different.

And u sprayed your BUD with doctor doom?? Really?
I'm a firm believer in doing what is needed to save a crop,but damn dude.

The spider mite version is safe and breaks down. I won't be using it again or anything non organic from here on out as I've read enough on solid organic solutions from here on out. The number 1 issue is PREVENTION and continued maintenance to prevent an infestation from even beginning. Neem Oil is great, Azatrol is solid, Liquid ladybug looks good, and mighty wash as a last resort. I also noticed variations of Ed Rosenthal's "Zero Tolerance". It's an extract of cinnamon oil and a few other organic ingredients and it's supposed to be a good one two punch for these little bastards. Lastly, ladybugs seem to be a good deterrent as well. I plan to buy some ladybugs tomorrow and I will seal my intake ports (only way out for the ladybugs) with a thin mesh that will keep them contained to my tent.

This has been a real learning experience for me and I will be all about pest maintenance from the get go here on out. If I do use dirt again, I will sterilize it in the oven to 160 degrees F. I will then use PM solutions throughout the veg phase and beginning of flower. I also plan to start my grow with beneficial nematodes from here on out as well. Very small investment for a rather large payoff.

 

[jonnynobody]

I have, its no fun task. I would rather have equipment breakdown or malfunction (and it has) over dealing with bugs. I transplanted my teenaged ladies into their final 7gallon pots on my last grow using Fox Farm Ocean Forest instead what I had been using, which was sunshine #4 with added perlite since my local grow shop was out and I didnt have the time to order since they were ready to go under the screen I had the trifecta of mites, thrips, and fungus gnats all at once because they all rode along in the FFOF packages.

I combated the mites with 1tsp/gal pure rosemary oil and 2 tsp of dynagro neem oil with a couple drops of dr bronners liquid castile soap as emulsifier.

The thrips were taken out very quickly with a package of lady bugs. Once the thrips were gone, the lady bugs died off.

Gnats are some vicious, voracious, vindictive little bastards. My spray mix didnt work on these. The lady bugs didnt take to them. One thing that helped was a decent layer of diatomaceous earth covering the top of the soil. This made it so that the bugs couldnt reach the soil to lay their eggs, and the larvae were pretty much eaten alive when they body came into contact with this stuff. Only problem with this is it seriously deoxygenates your roots and kills drainage. There were still a bunch of adult gnats that made it to my house plants at this point. Yellow sticky traps helped take care of more adults. The population was never eradicated until after harvest and a very deep cleaning took place. I actually cut a little early because the plants were fading too fast too early and I would rather have a little less but still decent bud vs more bud and not as good. Looking at the roots, the network was ate up so bad they only looked like 5-6 week old plants.

To counter having serious bug issues with gnats again, I switched to using coco. I dumped my house plants out and tossed the ones that looked real bad, replanted with coco and they recovered fairly quickly.

I know that you gotta do what you gotta do to keep your harvest. They say Roundup (chemical pesticide) is safe too when washed thoroughly.. the thing is there are markers of it found in urine and these chemicals are known to tax the liver and kidneys. If they tax them for a long period of time, what is the result? The decision for a 'safe' product is a 3 month study to see if there are any problems. When GMOs (and the chemical pesticide Roundup to go on the specially designed GMO produce) were first introduced in the 90s, a first ever spike of cancer rate increased. I believe any level of toxicity is poison regardless of who says there is a safe level of it. Thats just me, though its information to be wary of.

Heres to wishing you the best with your current and future grows. *tokes*

Major props on a solid post there dude. Great information to use in my arsenal!

 

[st0wandgrow]

jonny,

I would highly recommend you do a water cure on your buds when you chop them. If you only sprayed azamax I wouldn't be so concerned as it is omri listed, but the doktor doom stuff is no good to be smoking. The water cure will affect your buds by lowering your weight, and slightly changing the appearance and taste ..... but to me it's worth it considering the other option of smoking toxic buds.

Let me know if you need any advice on the water cure process.....

 

[kountdown]

The only active pesticide listed on that Doktor Doom is pyrethrins, which are organic compounds that come from chrysanthemum flowers. They break down from exposure to light and oxygen. I think if you originally said you used pyrethrin, rather than "doktor doom" there would be less people telling you you poisoned your bud.