Spider mites from hell

This year has been hell on earth for me with spider mites. I have cut down half of my plants and more and used just about everything under the sun and they just wont quit. This year I have a mite that has a black abdomen and yellow or orangish legs and head. I have never seen this prick before and it is far more formidable than all the ones before. I have seen black, or yellow and even kind red looking mites, and killed them off! But this bitch seems to be a hybrid or just the new cunt on the block. With temps down to 64 at night I thought they would go away but they just adjust to anything I spray or do. the High temp has been 68 for the past two weeks. by now I would be using a little heat to keep the building at 70, but I wanted to run the mites off. They just got used to the cold even when it went down to 59. I don't like using chemicals but I tried Malathion on the plants in veg, no it did not stop them for one for week. They were up running around in 5 days. Again I sprayed and 5 days later they were back and they are all this black and yellow hybrid motherfucker. The only thing they don't like is rubbing alcohol and ghost pepper extract, but I cant use it in flower. I can only hope by then I have killed them off by spraying this nose burning shit every 4 days for the next two weeks. I have used SNS and I think the fuckers got high on it. It had 0 effect. Any help would be very much appreciated. Oh I used hot shot strips as well and I sprayed the whole outside of building and inside floors with Malathion for a month every week.

Hotshot no pest strips.

edit: Sorry, i didn't see you alraedy used them.

some say neem oil works.

good luck in the mite killing.

add a humdifier to the room.. they hate humidity. Foliar spray with warm water and soap. Dr. bronners lavender soap, peppermint soap and dawn are ok. Or any other hemp or castile soaps. The soap will kill the mites instantly but not the eggs. So you have to spray every other day. I have a friend who swears by nuke em. its not organic. I'm an organic head so I try to use organic methods.

You can use lady bugs too. you want to release at least 5000 at a time. So they have to compete for food. If release too few of ladybugs. They get full and go hibernate for a few days and don't eat all the pests.

desertdog said:

This year has been hell on earth for me with spider mites. I have cut down half of my plants and more and used just about everything under the sun and they just wont quit. This year I have a mite that has a black abdomen and yellow or orangish legs and head. I have never seen this prick before and it is far more formidable than all the ones before. I have seen black, or yellow and even kind red looking mites, and killed them off! But this bitch seems to be a hybrid or just the new cunt on the block. With temps down to 64 at night I thought they would go away but they just adjust to anything I spray or do. the High temp has been 68 for the past two weeks. by now I would be using a little heat to keep the building at 70, but I wanted to run the mites off. They just got used to the cold even when it went down to 59. I don't like using chemicals but I tried Malathion on the plants in veg, no it did not stop them for one for week. They were up running around in 5 days. Again I sprayed and 5 days later they were back and they are all this black and yellow hybrid motherfucker. The only thing they don't like is rubbing alcohol and ghost pepper extract, but I cant use it in flower. I can only hope by then I have killed them off by spraying this nose burning shit every 4 days for the next two weeks. I have used SNS and I think the fuckers got high on it. It had 0 effect. Any help would be very much appreciated. Oh I used hot shot strips as well and I sprayed the whole outside of building and inside floors with Malathion for a month every week.

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You are past the point of organic where only something toxic will work. I started out organic (neem , azamax, mild soap), and they eat that stuff for lunch now. Avid is the one product that killed my infestation. I soaked the grow with it from the ceiling to the floor and soaked plants, pots medium. I put petroleum jelly on my light cords and creaveces and top rim of pots (so they get stuck in it and die). I do this preventative pest control weekly/monthly. Avid is a real expensive product (because it works), but people are selling it now on ebay and amazon in 1 oz doses (= 5gallons of treatments around $25).
Keeping the temps cool just slow them down a bit, but when it warms back up they are active again. I've frozen leaves with them on it and watched them come back to life as it thaws out (they are mother fuckers and very resilient).

You also need to be super diligent when treating...

Usually when I've gotten a bad infestation in the past the first thing I do is take each plant outside or in my garage and remove almost all their foliage(for sensitive plants, don't remove more than 1/3 of them at a time), focusing on the leaves with the most damage/mites on them.

I then shake the piss out of the plants, trying to get as many of those suckers OFF as possible.

Next, I spray the hell out of them(usually with neem and dr. brohmers) - including ALL SIDES and bottom of the containers.
(you can also DIP them, which some say works the best).

I repeat the spraying evey 3 days for two weeks.

It's a pain in the arse, it takes a ton of time, and your plants look like they have been through a war when your done, but it just may save your crop. I know I've saved plenty with this method.

Diabolical666 said:

You are past the point of organic where only something toxic will work. I started out organic (neem , azamax, mild soap), and they eat that stuff for lunch now. Avid is the one product that killed my infestation. I soaked the grow with it from the ceiling to the floor and soaked plants, pots medium. I put petroleum jelly on my light cords and creaveces and top rim of pots (so they get stuck in it and die). I do this preventative pest control weekly/monthly. Avid is a real expensive product (because it works), but people are selling it now on ebay and amazon in 1 oz doses (= 5gallons of treatments around $25).
Keeping the temps cool just slow them down a bit, but when it warms back up they are active again. I've frozen leaves with them on it and watched them come back to life as it thaws out (they are mother fuckers and very resilient).

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^this is ALL great advice as well.

Just always be sure to KEEP treating and be diligent. They absolutely LOVE it when it's HOT AND DRY, so make it cooler and raise your RH, and it will slow them from repoducing so fast

Squidbilly said:

^this is ALL great advice as well.

Just always be sure to KEEP treating and be diligent. They absolutely LOVE it when it's HOT AND DRY, so make it cooler and raise your RH, and it will slow them from repoducing so fast

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I did this at 1st (keep temps low and humid) and I got PM I'd take the spidemites over PM anyday
I live in Colorado and its hot n dry (spider mite heaven). Even when Im indoors I have had uber mites problems. These damn things get immuned to these pesticides really quick. OP if you are going to use something organic, switch back n forth between 2-3 products, or you can just get some avid and be done with them

YES^ it is always wise to rotate the products you use so mites don't build an immunity.

Ok dude. I'm not going to make some long winded thread and substantiate my answers and try to convince you what is going to work. I can tell you that the following DOES NOT WORK on mites. ESPECIALLY if your on the west coast.

Neem
Axamax
Massive co2
Rubbing alcohol
beneficial foliar (at this stage at least)

Take it to them and take it to them HARD or you going to have them forever.

Go on eBay and get yourself something to kill the adults 1. Avid. and something that is going to kill all the eggs and make any surviving adults infertile 2. Tetrasan 5 WDG

Mix them together at the appropriate doses..no need to go super strong.

Don your organic vapor cartridge mask ($25) and spray everything. The plants, the walls, the floor, the fans..Everything.

Take a shower and leave your house for a little bit.

Your mite problem is now OVER.

Thought I would follow up for those not in the know. Tetrasan 5 is a specifically designed ovacide for mites.

We were battling them in a LARGE room. Avid, flouromite, and Forbid 4f spraying on a 1 week rotation. We were going to flip in a week and said I had enough and got online and did a bunch of research. That is when I found tetrasan. I drove an hour to an agriculture supply warehouse and bought some.

I sprayed tetrasan mixed with avid (as per their instructions) and it was OVER..and I mean O-V-E-R

I live were it is HOT and HUMID all the freakin time.., tents stay 75 to 78 and RH is about 55%
Around here we only run lights at night, too hot during the day...
Organocide worked for me using it the way LegallyFlying did...
Mix it up, put on the mask and spray the crap out of everything and I mean everything.
Take your carbon filter outside first and replace the cover, clean, clean, clean and more cleaning!
Also pull out the fake floor and clean under it. I spray the house completely and spray as I'm walking out the door.
I never had spidermites till the dude living next door moved out. So CLEAN is the trick and I've never had them again in years.

Good luck dude...

Peace

Avid + Tetrasan dip

I will admit that I didnt read through all of the replies, so I apologize if this has already been suggested:

Mighty Wash

I used mighty wash and they kept coming back, also tried no pest strips- didn't work. I used a product called Wipe Out, its natural oils and it actually suffocates them, and never had them again.

churchhaze said:

Hotshot no pest strips.

edit: Sorry, i didn't see you alraedy used them.

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You DO NOT USE THESE in INDOOR LIVING AREAS, by FOOD or by CONSUMABLES. Those are for killing flies and bugs in fucking DUMPSTERS or say the JANITORS CLOSET.

That shit is toxic (acetylcholinesterase inhibitors are bad... mmmkay?). If you're going to use them, don't sell the finished product to anyone else. At least not without full disclosure.

Other less toxic solutions: Potassium salts of fatty acids\insecticidal soap, Pyrethrins (kills on contact), Spinosad, reports of cinnamon, clove tea\oils, sesame oil, other horticultural oils being effective as well as capsaicin and limonene.

You need to use a few of these and alternate usage. I have SM's myself right now and they're a bitch for sure. Pyrethrin\pbo should work and would be my last resort although you can use it at first sign of an infestation (which is always key). Not the Dr. Doom Fogger, because I don't think that contains the piperonyl butoxide which is an insectidice synergist. What it does is allow the Pyrethrin itself to penetrate the insect better and that makes it more effective. Safer brand makes such a product.

Pyrethrin is probably the most toxic thing on that list. It is derived from Chrysanthemum (flowers) but can also be synthesized in a lab. Either way it will break down relatively quickly and is itself non-toxic. Other insecticides are generally more toxic, but even pyrethrin is be toxic to beneficial insects (including bees and ladybugs). It can remain detrimental to beneficials for weeks after heavy application indoors, whereas pests aren't harmed by such trace amounts.

So if thinking about using ladybugs or leaf-dwelling predatory mites you can't have use any insecticides for a couple weeks or more.

No matter what you use, you have to reapply at the right time to kill any newly hatched, surviving or eggs you missed. They can hide in the smallest crevices of a plant so you have to apply thoroughly enough to the leaf and plant surfaces. If you're far along into bloom this is going to be a bitch, especially with large plants. Rather than spraying the next day you want to wait 5 days to a week (wait for the remaining\surviving eggs to hatch, but kill the new hatchlings prior to them laying eggs).

To make matters worse, female spider mites can exhibit a diapause this is how they survive the winter. They can stop reproducing and go "dormant" for a while until conditions are right, which indoors can mean them re-emerging after you thought they were gone.

I got rid of my spider mites , by not buying soil from my local hydro shop ,, but when I had them I used azmax for about a week every other day right before light outs out and it did the trick and but I caught then pretty early before they started webing but scents that grow I went hydro and haven't seen a pest scents goodluck

This will solve you problem
http://www3.syngenta.com/global/bioline/en/products/allproducts/Pages/ProductList.aspx

How do you suggest killing the beasts?

If you have a spider mite infestation, break out the nuclear weapons.

Nullis said:

You DO NOT USE THESE in INDOOR LIVING AREAS, by FOOD or by CONSUMABLES. Those are for killing flies and bugs in fucking DUMPSTERS or say the JANITORS CLOSET.

That shit is toxic (acetylcholinesterase inhibitors are bad... mmmkay?). If you're going to use them, don't sell the finished product to anyone else. At least not without full disclosure.

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