......lady bugs wont take care of your mites, Bamm, nor will any ninja mantis----you'd need the "Triple- Threat" Spider Mite Predators to keep "control", before they gets out of control, which they may be if all through your garden. Mite Predators can be received by your grow shop(they should already have an acc. set up) within 24hrs for about $40. And they take time to do their job. And they only eat the 'Two-Spotted' mites.
The BORG! I am just now back up running after having to completely shut down because of the mites. And I tried everything! They will f*ck your whole grow up, slow it down, stress it, then build tents on your beautiful buds. I used Neem, Ed's Zero Tolerance, every organic thing in book. The Predators never got a good enough hold on them to wipe them out--I didn't have that kind of time(I got 2 orders of 1000 for an 8x8 area and gave up and went back to the sprays, soaps, etc)I literally drenched each leaf in three day intervals to get the eggs as they hatched. And I rotated my methods so to slow them from building immunities to each(AS THEY DO).
Then I had to get serious. And somebody already mentioned it.....and it's a BAD word-----BUT NOT IF DONE RIGHT! AVID OR FLORAMITE w/attractant. It will kill every mite. It is chemical. It is non-edible/non-smokable!--->very hazardous shit.
But this is what worked----> I kept them(mites) "under control" with the sprays, soaps, etc until I could havest my bud(the mites hate cool temps and high humidity too).....then I took cuttings from all of my mothers I had in veg and got them in the dwc cloner and killed everything else in the room(I even got rid of my house plants in the house!). I put the cloner in my mas bath tub w/ a cfl. I set off every kind of bomb I could find(raid, etc) in the room. Got rid of all my ffof soil(even the new bags in the room). I bleached everything in the room(what i didn't throw out) and then repainted with Kilz again(I had already taken out the carpet). I resealed everything in the room fresh. In the two weeks this all took, my clones had rooted. I had cleaned each one individually before going into the cloner: the Frickers had mites already! It only takes one! I planted them in fresh FFOF. NOW COMES THE AVID!!!! Just mist the tops of the leaves day 1. Again day 5. I am now back in control of my room: not one mite. And I keep it as clean as a hospital now. I never go from outside to the room without changing close(I live in the woods) and my pets go nowhere near it anymore. All of the leaves with the Avid were removed as new growth came on.
I have six very awesome strains and I just got my first harvest from those clones. I am still amazed at how much my grows were stressing from the mites-----they've grown twice as fast, 10 times as healthy, and my harvest easily tripled.
And then there are the people that get the mites, and some of these other things seem to work for them. This long winded post was my experience. The BORG!!
You have an awesome looking grow, I wish you the best. I think you said your in an apt? Your pets probobly dont get out where they contact other vegetation, so they should be fine(if they dont eat your grow
), but I 'd recommend to quaranteen any clones you may take in----and if you go around other's grows to shake your close off good when you come home.....
Happy growining to you!
growinman