How to keep spider mites away?

To my understanding it's the worst that could happen besides getting raided by the police.

So if I'm having "all eggs in one basket" and I want to PREVENT mites from ruining my crop, how do I go about it?

I have not seen any mites yet fortunately, but I want to keep it this way.

Please share your knowledge.

Dont go straight in your grow with dirty clothes from outdoors.
Keep pets out of grow.
Filter incoming air.
Dont take plants you get elsewhere into your grow without a quarinteen period.

Dont bring outside tools in your space.

Keep your temps and humidity in control.
Keep your grow clean.
Use neam or some other method of prevention as directed.

Alternate any chemicals you use so they dont build resistance.

clean your area between grows thouroughly.

Thank you for the information.

May I ask what kind of relation do mites have with temperature and humidity?

Sure.
Im not privy to the exact numbers but they are prolific breeders in hot dry climates.
Cool humid climates slow them down substantially.
Of course if you never get them temp n humidity ire irrelevant.

Okay, but what kind of filter should be used for this purpose?

For a passive intake I use the green you cut yourself furnace filter. Ill find a pic n pist it in a minute. I spray it once in a while.
They sell filters for ducting if you are running fan forced air at the hydro stores.

Found this pic online.
Im sure there are bettrr choices but these work for me.

Okay, basically I should start changing my clothes before entering the room like in laboratories... and I should start filtering the air intake.

Sounds like fun to me

Hot shot "no pest strips"
I ALWAYS have them in my grow room. Vegg or flower. Keep em around.

AND.....
All the things charface said

Helmut79 said:

Okay, basically I should start changing my clothes before entering the room like in laboratories... and I should start filtering the air intake.

Sounds like fun to me

Click to expand...

In a perfect world it sounds great but I dont always change my clothes or keep the room perfectly clean.
But if you can than more power to you.

Some of the biggest mistakes that New growers make is to " over analyze " the situation. My first biggest mistake was taking a plant from outdoors, indoors, never do that! Never take a clone from someone without thorough inspection, Infact, i almost feel like never taking a clone from someone ever again. Spider Mite eggs are very small and can be easily over looked. Grow from seed, or keep a mother plant, and never worry about introducing spider mites. The odds of bringing spider mites in on the bottom of your shoes is Highly unlikely; however, it still possible. Clean your grow space with disinfectants, Bleach, Bug Bombs, before you start, after that you should be fine.

rinse off in the shower before entering grow room. especially if you just came in from outdoors and it's the summer time when more pests are out.

polo the don said:

Hot shot "no pest strips"
I ALWAYS have them in my grow room. Vegg or flower. Keep em around.

AND.....
All the things charface said

Click to expand...

Have you looked at the relationship of dichlorvos (the active ingredient in hot shots) to break down with oxygen.

Dichlorvos is a carcinogen and know cancer causing chemical.

I've used hot shots before but only for certain amounts of time before resealing them in a bag for later use.




J

Helmut79 said:

To my understanding it's the worst that could happen besides getting raided by the police.

So if I'm having "all eggs in one basket" and I want to PREVENT mites from ruining my crop, how do I go about it?

I have not seen any mites yet fortunately, but I want to keep it this way.

Please share your knowledge.

Click to expand...

Keep everything clean,you want everthing kept clean all the time get sloppy and they will end up in the room,bleach all the walls floor every where after every grow i use the spray bleach and just spray everything and then mop the flooor clean the walls and then just put lights and fans on to dry the room out.

Try and get genetics that you have done your self by doing it from seed or if you know a decent grower that will do you clones then get them,but before any money changes hands check every leaf if it has mites then don't tek em.

Once you get them in your room you are pretty much stuck untill you have got rid of all the plants cleaned the room several times.they are really hard to get shut of i have tried everything when i had them the only thing that worked was to get shut and re start from fresh.

I have lady birds in my room all the time,they do no harm at all,well they never have up to now.if you have got em then fight them with predators like lady birds[ladybugs].

Just keep on top of the cleaning sterile part of growing why i like black and white polli every where easy to clean.

I wanted to thank you all for this great information.

All ways have lady birds in the room spider mites or not,there a great predator are lady birds.

Awesome idea. Just thinking about how many different species of insects are there in our world, it doesn't seem to be too far fetched of an idea to breed a certain type of insects that would effectively feed on spider mites and have them put aside as an alternative to bottles of chemical sprays - "counter attack".

People say that when mites appear, it's virtually impossible to get rid of them, but maybe there are insects that would be able to do the work?

Pests can do big harm to a cultivator. How great would it be if there was a way to fight back?

P.S. There are estimated to exist between 1-10 million different species of insects on planet Earth and about one million of them are being documated/discovered.

Predatory insects are great.

I too tend to throw a few ladybirds in my room from time to time.

However if you don't have a food source for them they will eventually die.

Hypoaspis miles are pretty good at reproducing within a grow room as they feed on decaying matter when their food source isn't available. They can fight against thrips, fungus gnats, root aphids or other soil dwelling pests.

Predatory nematodes will attack anything it finds in the soil whether its another predatory insect or a pest.




J