Lady bugs don't like eating spider mites because they are so small and usually cant control a breeding population, they are more effective against aphids. If you wanna use a predatory mite they work the best but you have to set the proper humidity and temp for them otherwise they will die. And you cant apply them to any plants that have been sprayed with insecticide within 4 weeks. With azamax you can't spray at all because the predatory mites loath its residual oil on the foliage and die soon after exposure. Mesoseiulus Longipes are the most tolerant of predatory mites but will not work on a heavy infestation. Get down to a point were you only use isopropyl alcohol on your plants every week and have a light infestation(they will travel down to the base of the plant gradually as you spray and move up to the top when they are colonizing, so keep them from going up) at this point wait a week after you spray isopropyl and then introduce
1000-5000 longipes early in the morning at lights on with a light mist of RO water. To ensure proper feeding and traveling make sure 1 fan leaf of each plant is touching another plant. They immediately go to the bottom of the foliage(as this is were SM nest) to feed. Oh and they usually are sold in a corn maze substrate to increase surface area...DO NOT SHAKE OVER FLOWERING PLANTS! The corn gets stuck on the tricomes and you end up smoking that shit later which is nasty.
If the conditions are good for the longipes they will reproduce and spread to every plant, you will never have to buy them again until you accidentally do something to kill them :[
