dukeofbaja
New Member
You guessed it....SPIDER MITES!!!!
I thought I would share my plan for getting rid of them and share my results.
BACKGROUND:
I had a bout with mites on my first ever grow this summer. I had to hide the plants outside for an hour during the annual inspection of our apartments. A few days later, spider mites were everywhere. My solution was to keep the lights on at night and import air from outside to keep my grow cabinet cool. I also sprayed the plants with cold water as often as I could. It seemed to work well enough.
This time around, it was a clone that I brought in that introduced these fuckers. In hindsight, I can't believe I let it happen because the clone had all the telltale signs of yellow dots and whatnot. I inspected it closer a few days ago and was astonished to see more mites than I have ever seen before. So many that they were even on the tops of the leaves ansd visible without the loupe. I immediately isolated it in an outdoor closet, thinking the 45 degree air with near 100% rH would get rid of them. I took a look today and only a very slight improvement. I checked the other 5 plants still in my grow cabinet that I started from seed. Despite looking healthy all around, the loupe revealed there were a few mites on 2 of the 5 plants. They are in isolation along with the clone in a seperate room.
All plants are abot 3 weeks from seed, still in veg. Funnily, the clone that sat in the outside closet in darkness for 2+ days did show sex, it is a female. At least some silver lining to a bug infested clone.
BATTLE PLAN
*Keep all plants, infested or not, in low temperature/high humidity environment.
*Spray as often as possible with cold water.
*Spray infested plants with 1:1 isopropyl alcohol/water solution often.
*Add pre filter to intake
*Clean entire grow cabinet with bleach solution, making sure to spray any nooks, crannies, and crevices especially well.
*Clean entire apartment in most thorough manner possible.
*Buy Hot Shot No Pest strip from HD tomorrow (damn you, Thanksgiving).
*Monitor progress continuously.
*Repeat entire process 3 more times in 3 day intervals to kill all the eggs that hatch (damn things are worse than fleas!)
OTHER THOUGHTS
I am going to try putting lemon peels in water for 24+ hours, and then spraying the plants with that. I heard somewhere that the oils in the lemon peels make it tough for the mites to respirate.
I would like to add ladybugs. I am not willing to order other predatory bugs online. I bet I can find ladybugs somewhere around town though.
I am going to look into diatomaceous earth. I hear it is like a powder that you put on the plants/soil that is extremely jagged and will rip the bugs apart as they crawl over it.
I am unwilling to use Neem Oil for now. I will always be unwilling to use Avid or toher heavy duty insecticides.
I wil update my progress over the coming days and weeks. Any suggestions are more than welcome! I am very thankful on this day for RIU and all the help found here.
I thought I would share my plan for getting rid of them and share my results.
BACKGROUND:
I had a bout with mites on my first ever grow this summer. I had to hide the plants outside for an hour during the annual inspection of our apartments. A few days later, spider mites were everywhere. My solution was to keep the lights on at night and import air from outside to keep my grow cabinet cool. I also sprayed the plants with cold water as often as I could. It seemed to work well enough.
This time around, it was a clone that I brought in that introduced these fuckers. In hindsight, I can't believe I let it happen because the clone had all the telltale signs of yellow dots and whatnot. I inspected it closer a few days ago and was astonished to see more mites than I have ever seen before. So many that they were even on the tops of the leaves ansd visible without the loupe. I immediately isolated it in an outdoor closet, thinking the 45 degree air with near 100% rH would get rid of them. I took a look today and only a very slight improvement. I checked the other 5 plants still in my grow cabinet that I started from seed. Despite looking healthy all around, the loupe revealed there were a few mites on 2 of the 5 plants. They are in isolation along with the clone in a seperate room.
All plants are abot 3 weeks from seed, still in veg. Funnily, the clone that sat in the outside closet in darkness for 2+ days did show sex, it is a female. At least some silver lining to a bug infested clone.
BATTLE PLAN
*Keep all plants, infested or not, in low temperature/high humidity environment.
*Spray as often as possible with cold water.
*Spray infested plants with 1:1 isopropyl alcohol/water solution often.
*Add pre filter to intake
*Clean entire grow cabinet with bleach solution, making sure to spray any nooks, crannies, and crevices especially well.
*Clean entire apartment in most thorough manner possible.
*Buy Hot Shot No Pest strip from HD tomorrow (damn you, Thanksgiving).
*Monitor progress continuously.
*Repeat entire process 3 more times in 3 day intervals to kill all the eggs that hatch (damn things are worse than fleas!)
OTHER THOUGHTS
I am going to try putting lemon peels in water for 24+ hours, and then spraying the plants with that. I heard somewhere that the oils in the lemon peels make it tough for the mites to respirate.
I would like to add ladybugs. I am not willing to order other predatory bugs online. I bet I can find ladybugs somewhere around town though.
I am going to look into diatomaceous earth. I hear it is like a powder that you put on the plants/soil that is extremely jagged and will rip the bugs apart as they crawl over it.
I am unwilling to use Neem Oil for now. I will always be unwilling to use Avid or toher heavy duty insecticides.
I wil update my progress over the coming days and weeks. Any suggestions are more than welcome! I am very thankful on this day for RIU and all the help found here.