think I might have spidermites but not sure

I have 10 plants in a 5'x5'x6' closet and I'm almost 3 weeks into veg since sprouted. My plants look very healthy and I've been trying to keep clean so far and haven't even thought to check for bugs yet. It is dry and hot though like 20 - 30% humidity and 78 - 83 degrees. Well, I topped some plants yesterday and I took the topped part and was looking at it and something just happened to catch my eye moving on the underside of one of the leaves. I looked really hard (didn't have a magnifying glass) and I saw a little white speck crawling around on the underside of the leaf. So I looked really good all around the topped piece and only saw one other white speck. I ran it under water to get rid of them and then threw it away. I checked the undersides of the rest of my plants but couldnt find anything on them. I got paranoid and sprayed plain water on the top and bottom of my plants. I also sprayed them this morning and looked more for them but didn't see any. Did I find spider mites at the early stage or could this be something else? I don't see any spots on leaves or any webs or nothing..

Also, I read about spidermites and someone said mist some baby oil on the plants every couple days or something and I was thinking about trying that only because I have some baby oil already and its early on if it even is spidermites.

Should I try the baby oil or just keep spraying with plain water everyday?

Does it hurt the plants to spray the foliage with plain water a few times a day?

What does everyone recommend I do to help prevent any major infestation?

Here is a pic of the plant that I saw it on and that I topped.

You should take a pic of the underside of your leaves.


These are spider mites.

I doubt you have an infestation, but just in case you see more of them bastards here's what I did: I used Neem oil spray to get rid of them once before and it worked good. It should be available at most nurseries and is safe to use. You can help keep down infestations by spraying the underside of leaves and keeping a nice breeze blowing across the plants.

ReelFiles said:

You should take a pic of the underside of your leaves.


These are spider mites.

I doubt you have an infestation, but just in case you see more of them bastards here's what I did: I used Neem oil spray to get rid of them once before and it worked good. It should be available at most nurseries and is safe to use. You can help keep down infestations by spraying the underside of leaves and keeping a nice breeze blowing across the plants.

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It's hard to see them for sure, i need to get a magnifying glass. They look all white but hard to tell. The two that I saw were so small that they looked even smaller than those things do in the pic. Could they be baby spidermites or possibly something else? I really hope they arent spidermites but I don't know what else they could be so im assuming they are.. How big of a magnifying glass or scope should I get?

If there's something on your plant and you can see it moving, hit it with Neem Oil every 3 or 4 days for a couple of rounds.

Trust me Cage, it's the only hway.

You don't need a crazy magnification glass, something cheap should do. You would see spots on the top of the leaves, where they ate from the bottom. Also the eggs are easy to spot, there would be a bunch of little black spots everywhere. It's all speculation without a good pic though.

how do I get a good pic though that up close? I have a sony 12mp digital camera with macro mode and 5x zoom but not sure if that would turn out or not... guess I could try with that..

until I have time to pick up some neem oil, could I use the baby oil instead like someone else mentioned in this forum?

Kcannabis said:

until I have time to pick up some neem oil, could I use the baby oil instead like someone else mentioned in this forum?

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if u use baby oil, turn the lights out for about 4 hours to prevent cooking your girls.

since you are in veg, you can also just mix up tobacco and/or cayenne pepper to spray them down w/. make sure you hit the whole plant, especially under the leaves.

another cheap easy fix in a small area like that is to increase the humidity. if you have a humidifier (yeah, like the kind u put in a room when you're sick), set that up for a few hours. when you return, you'll prob find carcasses, but nothing alive & moving. then use tweezers to pick off bug, eggs, webs. I like this method b/c it takes care of other mites in the room that u might miss w/ spray. this can be done during flowering too, but prbly increases the chance of mold, so u want to put a fan on them right afterward.

also remember that with any technique, other than the systemic poisons, you will have to nail the little fuckers again in 3-5 days when the eggs hatch.

You can take a large dimension pic with auto settings and crop the pic closer, but I prefer macro shots. Just use the auto focus and indoor lighting if you have a setting for that.

DON'T LISTEN TO ANY OF THIER VOODOO BULLSHIT!!!
USE NEEM OIL! ITS THE ONLY CHOICE!!!

trust me

Well, after looking at them real good again I am starting to think they are not spidermites. I looked at all the leaves and there was nothing. Them I looked at the soil and saw them crawling around the edge of the soil and inside of the pot. They are tiny and white and look like they have antena and maybe six legs but I dunno. I will get a magnifying glass real soon to get a better look. Does anyone have any guesses as to what they are?

I guess thrips.



Neem oils works, some suggest pyrethrin.

ok i was able to get a magnifying glass and take some pictures with a 12mb camera. they look white with round bodies and six legs with antenna. Here are some pics of them. Do you think they are soil lice or springtails or what? Should I do something about them or leave them alone?
Thanks again everyone.

oh and they just crawled around really fast and more would start to come up when I turned the fan off. I never saw one jump or anything and I tried blowing on them and they would just stop for a sec and then keep crawling around. I can see quite a few running around the rims of the pots and in the soil. My plants seem fine though and I didn't see any of these on the plants.

Kcannabis said:

oh and they just crawled around really fast and more would start to come up when I turned the fan off. I never saw one jump or anything and I tried blowing on them and they would just stop for a sec and then keep crawling around. I can see quite a few running around the rims of the pots and in the soil. My plants seem fine though and I didn't see any of these on the plants.

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Yeah they look like that. Not the first picture but the set of 3 pictures.

Kcannabis said:

ok i was able to get a magnifying glass and take some pictures with a 12mb camera. they look white with round bodies and six legs with antenna. Here are some pics of them. Do you think they are soil lice or springtails or what? Should I do something about them or leave them alone?
Thanks again everyone.

Click to expand...

The picture in the middle looks like what I have

Kcannabis said:

ok i was able to get a magnifying glass and take some pictures with a 12mb camera. they look white with round bodies and six legs with antenna. Here are some pics of them. Do you think they are soil lice or springtails or what? Should I do something about them or leave them alone?
Thanks again everyone.

Click to expand...

ReelFiles said:

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Spidermites like I originally posted, yours are just younger that's why their body is more translucent. Use Neem oil before it's too late.

That actually looks like it may be a predatory mite:



I had some of these little buggers running around recently. The fact they are in the soil and buckets makes me think they are not spider mites. If that was the case they should be on the plants themselves and not the buckets. Nothing there for them.

Ya I think if they were spidermites then they would be on the plant. That would be cool if they are preditory mites. So should I let them be?

Filling the top inch or so of the pot with fine sand will keep anything from living in it. i would prefer nothing living in my pots but my plants.

About the closest thing I could find online that looks like the bugs I have is the Montdorensis thrips predator (Typhlodromips montdorensis), link:
http://www.bugsforbugs.com.au/product/41

I think I am just going to leave them be for now.