Indoor pest prevention

I've done a fair bit of reading on pest prevention but am still unsure as to my best approach. Most of the threads regarding pest prevention are to do with outdoor growing, whereas I am growing in a tent.

I have already had some pest problems - I have found holes in my plants that look like something has been eating them, but I cannot find any other evidence of what pest it is. I am going to get some sticky traps but these wouldn't attract caterpillars I wouldn't have thought, just flies.

I sprayed 6 days ago with pyrethrum but have just noticed a small hole in some new growth on one of my plants so I will have to spray them again tomorrow.

I don't want to be constantly fighting this, so what can I do to best clear and then *prevent* any pests? I will be going into flower soon so my time is running out!

Foliar neem oil spray? Horrid stuff, does this leave a taste on your hash / buds / leaves?

Cedar wood planks? Is there a danger of importing pests by bringing in a cedar wood plank, such as spider mites?

What about some kind of bug bomb for doing a 100% clearance before flowering? How do the plants react to that? Does this leave any residual nastiness that I don't want to be smoking?

I am using a pair of pantyhose as a makeshift filter on my air intake duct, but I think most of the nasties have got in when I have been opening up for watering etc. I see cat hairs drifting off my clothes into the tent and wonder what else is getting in there.

bummmp

Filter your intake definitely; clean the room that the tent is in as thoroughly as you can (vacuum, etc.). Try to keep pets as far away as possible. Sticky traps are a good idea. Buy a 30-60x magnifier or use any magnifying glass available to inspect the plants, particularly the bottoms of the leaves, center of the leaves and at the nodes (places pests can hide).

You can use insecticidal soap for prevention in veg, or even just something like Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Castile Soap. Pyrethrins are good for treating leaf-eating pests (spider mites, thrips, aphids) but it is helpful to know what you're dealing with. Pyrethrins break down rapidly and can be used in bloom as well. Usually it comes with another ingredient (piperonyl butoxide) to increase effectiveness by making the pyrethrin more active in the insect. Don't use near pregnant woman.

u need to spray every 4-6 days to break the growth cycle for several weeks. I do routinely as maint. then u need to sterilize ur space. bomb then wash with bleach etc. good luck

I started with a sterile space...is it necessary to move my plants out to re-clean the tent?

I will keep the pyrethrin spray up, could veg another 3 weeks tops so hopefully will kill the bastards. Getting some sticky fly paper tomorrow. Will bomb before flowering.

Can you use pyrethrin bombs later on in flowering too, or are they best avoided as with the spray?

Your making something easy seem difficult. Dont worry about decontaminating the grow room unless you plan to perform open heart surgery in there. Dont bomb the plants, spray oils on them or anything else that will harm the plants. Hairs, spiders,flies wont affect the plants in anyway.
Only be concerned with spidermites and whiteflys if you have them.

I agree with buds.. dirt and shit gets on them while they're outside. I wouldn't worry about cat hair. I get dog hair in mine..

I spray with neem oil around my plants and the general perimeter weekly. I've heard that it deters spider mites (in addition to killing them) Better to keep them out ahead of time. How true this is, I don't know. Other than that, just keep the tent and area around it from from clutter, dead leaves etc. Don't over complicate it, you'll drive yourself crazy.

It isn't the hair on the pet that is the problem... pets can introduce pests to your grow room, especially dogs and cats that spend time outdoors.

Sorry, I may have mis-communicated my issue here, allow me to clarify:

1) I have had some form of pest already, possibly a caterpillar, and have treated with pyrethrin spray.

2) I am wary that having pets is one of many ways in which bugs could enter the environment (via me, I don't let the cats in the tent obviously!

3) I would like to use whatever sensible preventative measures are at my disposal to stop any pest problems before they begin, as opposed to just reacting to problems after the fact.

With that in mind, what would you suggest?

There is NO insecticide that has the residual you are looking for. The best prevention is an active and ongoing spray with something like Safer Soap or use the pyrethrins you've been using. Since you only have a tent it shouldn't be hard to sterilize it and then you will only have to spray occasionally.
It would help if you knew what kind of insect you were spraying for.

dannyboy602 said:

There is NO insecticide that has the residual you are looking for. The best prevention is an active and ongoing spray with something like Safer Soap or use the pyrethrins you've been using. Since you only have a tent it shouldn't be hard to sterilize it and then you will only have to spray occasionally.
It would help if you knew what kind of insect you were spraying for.

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That's half the problem, I have no idea what the pest was. I opened up one day to water them and there were holes all over the plants! Sprayed with pyrethrin and no new holes have appeared since.

Weekly pyrethrin spraying it is. Not too much of a chore at the moment but as they get bigger it will become more difficult.

http://www.liverenewed.com/2011/05/naturally-repel-bugs-ants-insects.html

Check out this link. These are simple home remedies to help keep the bugs away!

SNS209. That's what you want sir. Amazing product. I swear by it. I used it on 7 out of 8 plants every other day for a week, and within 7 days the 8th plant was covered in bugs and the rest were clean. Put some sticky tape up with them and wait for intruders to disappear. GOOD LUCK!

If u can't see any bugs perhaps they're living in the soil. It might be a larval form of something that comes out at lights out to feed cuz it's cooler...so a drench of pyrethrins might be the answer.

The easiest and most efficient way to combat soil born pests is to cover your soil. Most larve will live in the top 1-2 inches of soil. Cover the soil with 2 inches of sand and the larve never make it to the soil and die. Use this in addition to neem and you will be golden! Flying insects are attracted to yellow. Yellow sticks traps work wonders at catching these guys! A natural, not so sexy, method to kill gnats is a cup of urine. The drown...lol. Now for mites there is a chink in their armour. The cant handle rapid humidity changes. Let grow medium get real dry, treat leaves with spray. Then raise humidity fast hot shower bathroom trick works great. Repeat every 4 day! This is very important!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth


the above stuff is cheap and works by drying up the larve

Also you said small holes. There are leaf cutter type insects that actually lay the eggs inside the plant leaf, not the soil. Remove and discard any affected leaves at once

i just put a few ladybugs in with some sugar water in a bowl of hydroton so they can drink/eat without drowning. Havent had a problem since.

The absolute best pesticide is Co2, run it up to about 10,000 ppm for about an hour and everything but your plants in the room will die

Have you physically seen any pests? Can we have pics? Sometimes holes just show up on otherwise healthy plants - especially, I've found, in nutrient rich growing media. A quick way to tell if it is pests is if the edges of the holes are brown. Though this is not always accurate. Good luck. Best wishes.

Shippey123 said:

The absolute best pesticide is Co2, run it up to about 10,000 ppm for about an hour and everything but your plants in the room will die

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that's an interesting concept, have you used that for mites?