Thank God

I have never had spider mites. This is my 2nd ever grow. My 1st grow never matured, but thats a different story

Anyhow, I never had spider mites. My only beginner question is, how and why do you get them?

2nd batch of questions, which are pretty much stupid is, how do you GET them? Where do they come from?

Usually they are accidentally introduced to an indoor grow. They can be tracked in on clothing and shoes. They can hitch a ride on anything that you bring into the building. Once they are in it is a struggle to get rid of them and usually involves sterilizing the rooms involved with the grow and sometimes other rooms adjacent to the grow. I have never had them, but I have seen their devastation and know of a barn grow that was completely ruined by them.

In nearly 20 years of growing I never had a real problem with them either. Up to now.
I mean I had them, but they weren't at all as impossible to get rid of as the most recent borg infestation.

The most common way is via infected clones, house plants, on your clothes or animals.

They even just blow in the wind. They spin a web string long enought to catch the air and they can just take off on a breeze.
They just get tossed around until they find a nice home.

My problem here seems to be that they are just all over this neighborhood. I have the same problem with plants outdoors and having the pro's come spray, but my neighbors are too cheap to spray or don't want to so I can never fully get rid of them it seems.

I've heard the best way to avoid contamination is put filters on any extraction vents that go outside, and wear different clothing when dealing with your grow (equipment, plants, everything to do with it). It sounds like good advice to me. Better safe than sorry.

I refuse to grow in a sterile envoirnment. That will be next - put on this jumpsuit and the head gear and don't forget your boots. Test your respirator before entering the grow. Oh my - just like ET. Rather takes the relaxation and enjoyment out of it.

LOL, yeah but you get to look like darth vader... which is good.... right?

Naw, yeah I see where you're coming from, I guess precautions like that really only apply to people who've had the problem before. I can imagine after a crop is ruined you'd do just about anything to have it happen again, possibly to the degree of overkill.