Spider mites - need advice

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waterproof808

Well-Known Member
Venerate CG by marrone bio. Approved for use on cannabis by the state of california. Spray up to week 2 then release beneficial insects.
 
Seawood

Seawood

Well-Known Member
My head is starting to hurt...lol.

I just did round two of bug b gone insecticidal soap (the fatty acid one). Plants are doing well. Ordered the mighty wash and will use that for round three and any spot treatments, if needed.

Options are very limited around these parts. Thanks for all the great feedback.
 
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Prlc66

New Member
Hot shots every time either a differ or a hanging strip I've used all that is mentioned even tabaco it won't work your going to make a bigger problem HOT SHOTS PEOPLE they work great!!!!!
 
Thegermling

Thegermling

Well-Known Member
SSHZ said:
I'll give you my OPINION, as you can ask 100 people and everyone has a different solution. I fought mites for many years, and used just about every product on the market at one time or another. There are many threads here on RIU about fighting mites and you might want to check them out too. Most anything sprayed on plants while flowering will have a negative effect on plants and maybe your health. As you probably know it's always better to try and eliminate the issue before flowering. But you have to be careful in flowering, especially with "oil-based" or citrus products as most will kill back the bud stigma's. Here's my specific recommendation:

Buy a product called PurCrop1. It's sold at MonsterGardens. It's expensive, but you only need 2-4 tablespoons per gallon for a spraying. It's oil based but developed under a different process that won't harm your plants if applied properly. You can find a lot about it under a google search. Spray when the room and plants are cool and well watered. Shake the sprayer often to keep everything mixed, and spray like your life depends on it. Spray everything, inclusing pots, walls and flooring. It's more important to spray UNDER the leaves and along stems rather than the above canopy. If you need to turn lights on, wait 1-2 hours until everything is dry. Turns fans off too, let it all dry naturally. If you already have a problem, and are in flowering- apply at the 1 fluid oz (2 tablespoons) per gallon.

In veg, I use the 2 fluid oz per gallon rate until bud start to form, then reduce down to 1 fluid oz in flowering. I like to spray in the morning, after a thorough watering the day before and the room is at it's coolest point. I spray weekly, if you have an issue, you can spray a couple of times a week.

Lastly, do not spray one product on top of another (on top of another). Most will interact in a negative way with each other, but not all. Thoroughly research it first.
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I second PureCrop1. That stuff killed some powdery mildew I had on some plants when green cleaner and atak(from optic foliar) both a double strength didnt do jack shit. Its a pesticide and fungicide. If you email monster gardens on here about samples they might hook you up (if they still have samples that is) good luck.
 
Seawood

Seawood

Well-Known Member
I’m gonna get cancer if I don’t stop worrying about my plants. Poor things....

Just finished round 2 on all the ladies with the soap. I’m not going to keep doing this. I’ve accepted the fact I can’t get rid of them all.

I’ve got 6-8 weeks until harvest. Can I keep the borg at bay enough with Mighty Wash and regular hosing with water to see this through?

Note to others: I got mites bugs from introducing a grocery store bought tomato plant to the crop.
 
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SSHZ

Well-Known Member
Mighty Wash didn't do shit for me........regular hosing will cause mold to form.

The best way to proceed is cool the room down to slow down the mites reproduction. This will give you a chance to fight them and greatly reduce their numbers.
 
MrPuffTuff

MrPuffTuff

Active Member
SSHZ said:
Mighty Wash didn't do shit for me........regular hosing will cause mold to form.

The best way to proceed is cool the room down to slow down the mites reproduction. This will give you a chance to fight them and greatly reduce their numbers.
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I agree about the temps, hot temps can supercharge their reproduction rates... but personally, I did notice some effectiveness of Mighty. I was wondering if the stuff they sell now "Mighty" was the same as "Mighty Wash" so I called NPK and they said it was exactly the same. What may be some other not-too-toxic products to rotate with Mighty? It seems those bastards can quickly get a resistance to just one product.

But overall, not introducing cuts or plants from outside, keeping a clean/sterile room and equipment, filtering any air brought in from the outside, and keeping temps down seems to be the best prevention that has worked for me.
 
Seawood

Seawood

Well-Known Member
My plants are outside in pots so regular hose-downs are not an issue but lowering temps is. I’m in the NE so hoping temps start to come down soon. It’s been a very hot and dry summer. I’ve sprayed high pressure water, 2 rounds of insecticidal soap, a round of Mighty Wash and now back to the straight water. If I can keep the little pricks at bay until the weather breaks and cools then hopefully I’ll be ok. No sign of them lately but that doesn’t mean there’s not a few lurking...
 
Seawood

Seawood

Well-Known Member
Update:

So I went out early this morning and hosed down all my plants as they were looking a little ‘rode hard’ after the beating I put them through the past couple weeks.

Couple concerns...take a look at the pics...some of the plants look slightly ‘bleached’ or ‘washed out’...almost like an N deficiency. Leaves are quite pale. Also, pistils showing on one strain all turned brown. Plants are preflower.

Hoping none of this is anything serious to be worried about and won’t ultimately impact harvest and/or overall plant health.

First pic is GG4. Have 3 of these and they look the worst. 2nd is a young Blue Ninja strain which looks healthy. 3rd is a larger/older Blue Ninja that has some decent looking foliage and some not so much...this is the one with brown pistils.
 

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Seawood

Seawood

Well-Known Member
MrPuffTuff said:
Looks like it needs some nitrogen... You'd see results VERY quickly I bet with a foliar application of a soluble N product.
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That’s what I was thinking but not sure as I’m a green horn so this is all new to me. I gave them a feeding this morning with a mix of bloom and veg nutes to increase the N a bit. Never did a foliar feed before and was afraid to with the MG nutes I’m using (only option available locally). Using at 1/3 strength once a week in soil right now. Can I still give a light foliar feed if I just fed them this morning or will that be too much...trying not to stress them anymore than they’ve already been. All have bounced back pretty good except for one GG4. All newer growth seems fine but the older fans took a beating from the insecticide, I think.
 
SPLFreak808

SPLFreak808

Well-Known Member
I simulated winter and noticeably slowed them down once, worth a shot if you dont want to spray anything.

Over eons of time, spider-mites have learned to go dormant when the length of hours of daylight start getting lower, seemingly aware that cold temperatures will soon follow. Other factors enter into it, such as temperature, but photo-period appears to be the main cause. The specific amount of hours of daylight required to bring on dormancy varies according to latitude (farther north, where it gets cold early, they go dormant sooner), but it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 13 hours a day of light everywhere. They don't all go into diapause at that same exact time, either, as individual spider-mites have quite a variance in their response to these stimulations. This ensures that if there's an early winter some will already be in hiding, and if it's a normal or late winter, some die-hard spider-mites are still there munching on plants as long as possible, but generally, they tend to go dormant at daylengths lower than about 13 hours a day. It's a system that's worked real well for spider-mite survival, and virtually guarantees that spider-mites will be a continuing problem for gardeners. Come spring, when the number of hours of daylight increases above their trigger-threshold, they come back out, turn normal color, and resume all normal spider-mite activities, ready for a new season of eating plants.

Unfortunately for indoor gardeners, spider-mites don't necessarily go through this same cycle when they're inside heated indoor and greenhouse environments, so a wintertime reprieve from their damage can't be counted on. That's because, just as cold temperatures help spider-mites go into dormancy, warm temperatures can prevent it, so they can continue staying active all year round irregardless of daylight length. In fact, nature has built in so much adaptability in spider-mites that they just seem to "know" when conditions will be suitable for their success, and they usually seem to show up, often just about the same time every year. Although the cooler temperatures of wintertime slows down spider mite breeding (they don't seem to actually stop breeding unless it's cooler than about 52¡)

http://www.naturescontrol.com/spidermitedormancy.html

It helps buy you time, but you'll still need to vacuum ect whatever is still moving. I did 11 hours on @ 65f.
 
MrPuffTuff

MrPuffTuff

Active Member
SPLFreak808 said:
I simulated winter and noticeably slowed them down once, worth a shot if you dont want to spray anything.

Over eons of time, spider-mites have learned to go dormant when the length of hours of daylight start getting lower, seemingly aware that cold temperatures will soon follow. Other factors enter into it, such as temperature, but photo-period appears to be the main cause. The specific amount of hours of daylight required to bring on dormancy varies according to latitude (farther north, where it gets cold early, they go dormant sooner), but it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 13 hours a day of light everywhere. They don't all go into diapause at that same exact time, either, as individual spider-mites have quite a variance in their response to these stimulations. This ensures that if there's an early winter some will already be in hiding, and if it's a normal or late winter, some die-hard spider-mites are still there munching on plants as long as possible, but generally, they tend to go dormant at daylengths lower than about 13 hours a day. It's a system that's worked real well for spider-mite survival, and virtually guarantees that spider-mites will be a continuing problem for gardeners. Come spring, when the number of hours of daylight increases above their trigger-threshold, they come back out, turn normal color, and resume all normal spider-mite activities, ready for a new season of eating plants.

Unfortunately for indoor gardeners, spider-mites don't necessarily go through this same cycle when they're inside heated indoor and greenhouse environments, so a wintertime reprieve from their damage can't be counted on. That's because, just as cold temperatures help spider-mites go into dormancy, warm temperatures can prevent it, so they can continue staying active all year round irregardless of daylight length. In fact, nature has built in so much adaptability in spider-mites that they just seem to "know" when conditions will be suitable for their success, and they usually seem to show up, often just about the same time every year. Although the cooler temperatures of wintertime slows down spider mite breeding (they don't seem to actually stop breeding unless it's cooler than about 52¡)

http://www.naturescontrol.com/spidermitedormancy.html

It helps buy you time, but you'll still need to vacuum ect whatever is still moving. I did 11 hours on @ 65f.
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Good info, thanks. Those fuckers are a pain... I have always wondered if anyone else has used a vacuum to suck em up, apparently that's a thing? I had an attachment that I rigged up that worked pretty well back when I had a bad infestation, but I was worried I was just contaminating more equipment.
 
Seawood

Seawood

Well-Known Member
Well I haven’t seen a sign of one in over a week so hopefully the spray worked...or maybe they have gone dormant but I can’t find anything on any plants and I’m sure I’ve checked every leaf! The weather also cooled off so I’m sure that helps.

Can’t wait to see what the Ganja Gods have in store for me next...mildew, fungus/bud rot? Maybe the rippers or LE will show up. God the stress...
 
Seawood

Seawood

Well-Known Member
Well the little fockers are back. Haven’t seen one for over 2 weeks. 4 weeks into flower now so not spraying anything except water, especially after the beat-down those poor girls went through the first couple rounds of insecticide. They just starting coming around this past week. I’ll keep putting the water to them and the weather should turn cooler soon which should hopefully keep those sapsucking pricks at bay until harvest in late September. Wish me luck...
 
Budzbuddha

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member
I Stop using bottled shit some time ago .... I made this and I get mite corpses.

Rubbing alcohol
Water
2-3 drops of dawn

I do two versions .... one at 80% alc to water and 100% for the Borg mites.
I able to use during flower also as alcohol vapes off quickly. It has quick , quick knockdown and will cut into eggs. I verified that after treat ( louped ) mites are quickly shriveled up and eggs turn dark.
Then I mist ( wash ) fans to clean off the dead.

3 days later do again. Al5hough I run maybe 6-8 plants ( limited space ) I am able to fully control any outbreaks. Plus ..... this spray works beautifully to spray tent surfaces and drip areas. For preventative AND for after grow cleanups.

I manage to save a few crops from the trash can. After harvest , simple bud wash ( dunk ) and hang . Simple.
 
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