f$%k ,f$%k. spider mites

GreenNotYellow said:

spraying is always a decision of potentially take some of the pesticide remains into your lungs, but has to be done I suppose. I've heard from dem blocks that some mites might actually be scared away by some rugs with animal smell like of a cat or a dog, not sure if that has anything to do with the reality

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I personally wouldn't rely on smelly rugs or similar things. Taking precautionary measures is the way to go.

While most living creatures are attracted by a certain smell, they can also be deterred by certain smells (cat litter/rugs keeps mice away), however it's only a temporary solution with no guarantee to success.

And in many situations, you won't have time to hope that something works, you need to know.


Now I've never ran into a pest issue during flower, only during veg (gnats, spider mites & white flies). But personally, before I'd throw away the whole plant because of an ongoing infestation, I'd risk over-spraying it with *insert your go to spray* and lower the quality of the end product, if that means I'll still be able to harvest.


Scratchy Buds > No Buds

calvin.m16 said:

I'm not saying trash your equipment. Trash the plants and reset (clean everything). You could do a bug bomb after throwing away any plant material, the room the tent is in is probably contaminated with their eggs and living adults. Weed with mites in it will not burn right you will hear bug eggs crackling and the potency/quality is going to be sub par because the plants are fighting an attack at all times.

Part of being a grower is making responsible decisions and not just nuking your plants and room with cancerous toxic poison. IF you can't grow without spraying shit like Eagle20, avid, etc then find a new hobby sorry but that's the cold hard truth.

I know someone who tests pounds he buys on the blackmarket and lots of the weed in Michigan is dangerously loaded with poisons that will literally make people sick and cause cancer.

The Black List: Pesticides - Confidence Analytics

In addition to the tests required under WAC 314-55-10, new testing requirements are being implemented for Medical Cannabis as it comes under the purview of I502. The new section, WAC 246-70-050, requires testing for 13 prohibited pesticides for all flower, trim, leaves, or other plant matter...

www.conflabs.com

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so i guess ill have to go against advice and stay the course , i could begin with a reminder that i am not spraying gobs of chemicals , i am using citric acid , i shall take my chances with how healthy it may or may not be to smoke .

i should address the eggs in buds and quality , from reading threw threads here it was my understanding that spider mites attacked the leaves not the buds . heck if i know , so the worst case scenario is instead of smoking buds ill make a tincture or a concentrate , hash or whatever .

lets just say i was to chop it all down today , i for sure wouldn't trash it , i have no weed to smoke so id be smoking it just as soon as it dried anyway so what is the harm in spraying more citric acid and staying the course for four more weeks and hope i continue to gain the upper hand .
i cant see a downside to letting it grow.

lastly and i do my best to not argue to much in the future , i cant fund another grow yet . mites probably came from the soil i used , which i dug up from my yard . its got worms living in it so finding other bugs or pests isn't exactly a stretch .

so to start over correctly ill need pretty much everything , new pots , no way i am re-using what i have . a new grow medium and appropriate countermeasures for the creepy crawlies and fungal invasions . oh and some seeds to pop .
all things i don't have .

iliketoast said:

so i guess ill have to go against advice and stay the course , i could begin with a reminder that i am not spraying gobs of chemicals , i am using citric acid , i shall take my chances with how healthy it may or may not be to smoke .

i should address the eggs in buds and quality , from reading threw threads here it was my understanding that spider mites attacked the leaves not the buds . heck if i know , so the worst case scenario is instead of smoking buds ill make a tincture or a concentrate , hash or whatever .

lets just say i was to chop it all down today , i for sure wouldn't trash it , i have no weed to smoke so id be smoking it just as soon as it dried anyway so what is the harm in spraying more citric acid and staying the course for four more weeks and hope i continue to gain the upper hand .
i cant see a downside to letting it grow.

lastly and i do my best to not argue to much in the future , i cant fund another grow yet . mites probably came from the soil i used , which i dug up from my yard . its got worms living in it so finding other bugs or pests isn't exactly a stretch .

so to start over correctly ill need pretty much everything , new pots , no way i am re-using what i have . a new grow medium and appropriate countermeasures for the creepy crawlies and fungal invasions . oh and some seeds to pop .
all things i don't have .

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Definitely give it a try and see how they turn out!

I've spoken to my buddy yesterday about spider mites, he recommended me to use a mixture of water and isopropyl (9:1) ratio (now there are 70% and 99% bottles, he does it with 99%).

He had good results with it and said the alcohol simply evaporates and doesn't leave anything on the buds afterwards. Not sure if this is 100% true tho.

This should be as effective as citric acid if not more and a bottle of iso will last you a long while.

No Pest Strip is your only option that will actually work if you are already in flwer.. You should treat with one or more of the miticides in veg next time and keep NPS on ready.

Hopefully you've found a solution but here's my advice:

I brought 2 spotters in from outside last year, check out Green Cleaner, shit works as long as you follow the IPM practice of spraying every 3, days for 3 rounds. I include another round 5 days after the third and monitor you plants leaves for as long as you thing you should (usb microscope is a good investment). GC also works for the worse of the worse broad and russet mites, though you gotta up your IPM game if those fuckers make it into you environment.

I think it goes without saying but clean every surface, bucket, anything that goes near that tent

Some insects hate the smell of garlic you can google what companion plant is good for mites

While Ive not used it, this is supposed to be good, for a non chemical attack.
Something else that works is to alternate Forbid, and Avid. But one shouldnt smoke it for 6 months. But, it will wipe them out.

As a recent victim of attack during flower , I prevailed by ditching the source immediately, and using some tenacious IPM and appropriate measures of a washable nature, such as citric acid and other non-toxic means. Then I bombed the space from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

Man it’s a shame about the allergy to peppers.. I cannot believe how effective the homemade chilli spray works at eliminating them. I had a HEAVILY infested couple of plants and they are now just.. gone. So happy.

i think i have the upper hand , using just citric acid i cant find any more mites , i will keep up with the citric acid every 4 days .

all is not perfect in my garden of Eden though, one plant has taken things a bit harsher then the other . ill see how things go but i might just chop it a little early and let the other finish out .
maybe itll perk back up , i think i still have 4 weeks minimum to go

I've moved from the city to a rural area and want to start a indoor grow tent grow this winter. I never had a issue in the city with bugs and thus never sprayed anything in years of growing. However out here in the country there's bugs everywhere..lol. What can I do before I start even putting up the tent to help make this a success from mites etc? I assume spray the outside of the house around the foundation and inside around the baseboards with some broad spectrum insecticide? What's some prevention strategies before one even starts?

taproot said:

I've moved from the city to a rural area and want to start a indoor grow tent grow this winter. I never had a issue in the city with bugs and thus never sprayed anything in years of growing. However out here in the country there's bugs everywhere..lol. What can I do before I start even putting up the tent to help make this a success from mites etc? I assume spray the outside of the house around the foundation and inside around the baseboards with some broad spectrum insecticide? What's some prevention strategies before one even starts?

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don't have much input to help except to say scorched earth is going to be my philosophy next time around . also not sure of a rural or urban location makes much if any difference

I wondering something like the following before starting as in a preemptive preventive:

1. Bug bomb the room you plan to grown in?

2. Ozone shock it?

3. If you have carpet, put down a tarp to keep carpet clean?

etc?

I've been using Arber
I battled the borg all last season. The only thing that took them out was acephate. I had to toss everything after, except clones. The acephate is a systemic,so the plant absirvs it triugh the roots.

I've been using this every other week,and I haven't seen one little hooked footed bastard since. It's only $10 a bottle for the arbor. It's got some kind of bacteria nonsense in it.

cannabiscrusader said:

I've been using Arber
I battled the borg all last season. The only thing that took them out was acephate. I had to toss everything after, except clones. The acephate is a systemic,so the plant absirvs it triugh the roots. View attachment 5395160

I've been using this every other week,and I haven't seen one little hooked footed bastard since. It's only $10 a bottle for the arbor. It's got some kind of bacteria nonsense in it.

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Interesting, wonder how this is different than the spinosad everybody hates..both are soil derived bacteria? I'll look into this, keep us updated on how it works.

taproot said:

Interesting, wonder how this is different than the spinosad everybody hates..both are soil derived bacteria? I'll look into this, keep us updated on how it works.

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The arber you mix 1 tbsp per gal and spray the leaves. They also make one for mold and mildew that is the exact same as Athena for 1/4 of the price. That shit works. I was battling pm when both of my dehumidifiers went at the sane time. The arber finally got rid of it without breaking my checking account.

Definitely DO NOT buy this stuff…..
I sprayed it on an outdoor vegging plant one evening right at dark. Over the next few days many of the leaf edges turned completely black and crispy.
I bought this bottle at Lowe’s out of convenience because I ran out of Dr. Zymes Eliminator. I won’t be using again. Dr. X has always worked well and never burned or hurt the plant.

iliketoast said:

im not going to lie , if i could afford it id be all over the docktor doom .

yeah i am sure they are spider mites . you younger folks probably wont understand how this slipped by me . not excusing myself here by any means but im well past old enough to need reading glasses . a few days in a row of things look good as good as i can see without my cheaters on and bam its bug city .

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That will nuke your whole harvest pyrethrins are no Bueno to smoke

When I had mites.. I must of had my cat bringing them in constantly because I fought them for 8 monthes during covid.. they became resistant to EVERYTHING. I did
Mighty wash
Sns 203
Iso
Prevacyn (capcasin) strait pepper sprayed my whole house had to evacuate.
Dr zymes
Cpt Jack's
Shop vac
And a few other and cycled daily..and they whooped my ass .. I ended up burning 27 plants after I did the fucking bullshit 30 minute dunk ... still were there.. I gave up and hadn't grown since 2020.. I'm back on the saddle tho

Fano_man said:

When I had mites.. I must of had my cat bringing them in constantly because I fought them for 8 monthes during covid.. they became resistant to EVERYTHING. I did
Mighty wash
Sns 203
Iso
Prevacyn (capcasin) strait pepper sprayed my whole house had to evacuate.
Dr zymes
Cpt Jack's
Shop vac
And a few other and cycled daily..and they whooped my ass .. I ended up burning 27 plants after I did the fucking bullshit 30 minute dunk ... still were there.. I gave up and hadn't grown since 2020.. I'm back on the saddle tho

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I and everyone else here feel your pain. Hope your next grow is more manageable. We all hate spider mites passionately.