Small white somethings - Spreading fast

[Radogast]

Background - over the past 5 months I was battling spider mites.
was - past tense.
There may be some mites if I look long enough and hard enough with a loupe, but no obvious mites issues were noticed for several weeks.

I controlled the mites with 1% neem oil in water with soap emulsifier, fixed up fresh every 2-3 days and sprayed under and over leaves.

2 weeks ago I stopped the intense spraying.

After the mites were not around, I noticed trichome head sized clear and cloudy round somethings in the main fold on the top of leaves. I think they had been there awhile, but I ignored them since the spider mites were worse and they might be spider mite eggs or something. The clear dots would start out just barely visible as a group of 10-20 and grow into a larger mass of perfectly spherical mostly clear balls. Some appeared opaque white, but mostly the whole mass looked opaque while individual spheres looked clear. They were on the tops of leaves only, clumped along the centerline of the leaf.

Here is a photo of clear spheres on the BOTTOM of a leaf - much like what I was only seeing before on the TOP of the leaves in the midline crack of the leaf a week ago. There is a green shield bug shaped rapidly crawing bug with two black spots near it's middle. The spheres are about the size of a trichome spherical head..

Here is an example of how they used to clump together along a leaf spine - although they used to be more concentrated on the center line.

In the past 3-4 days their character has changed.

The white spots are now appearing sprinkled across the leaf. In 40x detail (not pictured) they appear like fuzzy white pillows instead of clear spheres. In this photo there is the same green shield bug shaped rapidly crawing bug with two black spots near it's middle. I ony saw one of these bugs wandering around. It is about half as long as a trichome stem and was ignoring the fuzzy white pillows

Spreading rapidly, this is an example of typical day 1, day2, and day 4 spread. In the top green leaf I see fuzzy white pillows.
In the middle yellow leaf I see connected white blotches, flat and not fuzzy. In the small day 4, it looks like white patches that have been eaten out of the leaves simmilar to leaf miner wounds.

This is a closeup of the day 2 flat white patches again - now accompanied by black spots - none of which seem to be moving.

I resumed spraying with 1% neem oil solution tonight. This slows but does not seem to kill the clear spheres.

Dabbing the clumps of xpheres with 100% neem oil seemed to make them die and disappear. It also did a lot of damage to the leaf where the neem oil was puddled, so I switthed to defoliating all the obviously infected leaves on 2 of the 5 infected plants.

Maybe the spray was effective against the clear spheres but I couldn't tell since they were replaced with the white fuzzy pillows.

I went back to the 1%neem oil spray just in case it helps.

- - - - Bottom Line - - - - - - -

I don't know what is going on or how to stop it from eradicating the plants in my flowering room.

 

[Marzbadrock]

Sorry but it's mites. The white spheres are eggs. Are your plants in a area that is being lived in? If you can, use a hot shots pest strip in the veg room for a few weeks, get your flower room emptied out, bomb it and start with a clean slate. Also SNS 209 works well. I'm a organic guy but sometimes you gotta bust out some chemical warfare!

 

[Marzbadrock]

Also, once you think you got them all killed off continue treeting your veg plants with a good organic spray. I like to use "all seasons organic spray oil" not only does it keep pests away but my plants love it! Plus it's cheap!

 

[FeralA9X]

I was also thinking mite eggs or larvae, id keep up with the neem oil if its working and keep a close eye on the girls you defoliated making sure they dont spread, would hate to lose your crop.

 

[Radogast]

The white and clear spherical objects are manageable and getting scarcer. The 1% neem oil seems to work.
Mixing the neem oil is cheap. I use 5ml when I spray and I have over 1.5 liters of the oil. That is over 300 treatments.

The fuzzy white objects are what is spreading now.

 

[FeralA9X]

you will probably find its just in a different stage of development, going from my pest control textbook (i was in pest control for 16 years lol), not personal experience as i have only ever dealt with different species of mites but should be under the same category:

The development of a mite involves an egg, larval, nymphal and adult stage. Some species form a hypopal stage, which may, depending on the species, be able to move. The hypopal stage is really a type of nymph that has no mouthparts and its legs are reduced in size. As it is able to resist dryness, i can survive short periods of adversity. The larvae have only 3 pairs of legs, the nymphs and adults 4 pairs. The life cycle usually occupies 2-4 weeks, but this depends on the species and weather conditions.

To me from what i see it looks like the "white pillows" are the damage they are causing to the leaves, probably in a nymph stage so would be almost invisible to the eye.

 

[Radogast]

Also, once you think you got them all killed off continue treeting your veg plants with a good organic spray. I like to use "all seasons organic spray oil" not only does it keep pests away but my plants love it! Plus it's cheap!

The mixing guide for all seasons mineral oil are about 6 times higher than my neem oil. Since they work by suffication, I'll try mixing 6x stronger.

 

[Radogast]

I have been putting my leaves in the worm bin.

What do you think about putting the leaves in a plastic bag to rot before feeding them to the worms.
If I leave them bagged for 60 days, will that be enough to break the cycle?

 

[FeralA9X]

I have been putting my leaves in the worm bin.

What do you think about putting the leaves in a plastic bag to rot before feeding them to the worms.
If I leave them bagged for 60 days, will that be enough to break the cycle?

I would think that would do the trick, when we used to work with bird mites removing nesting etc we used to dispose of them in sealed black plastic bags, supposedly the heat and lack of fresh air kills them almost instantly. 60 days should be plenty of time considering their life cycle is roughly 2-3 weeks, by then all eggs should have hatched and died off.

 

[ShiggityFlip]

The little bug is a spider mite as others have said. Look up two spotted spider mite and you will see it looks the same. I am reading that spinosad is effective vs mites at a higher concentration. Have not tried that myself.

 

[Radogast]

I applied 7% solution of neem oil as a foliar spray on 1-9 and tonight, 1-11.

I was going to look at spinosad and neem cake, but the last wo days were taken up with a work crisis, mourning David Bowie, visiting teenage boyfriend of the girl, single plant harvest, and a visit to orthopedic surgeon. - so life. I will get to this. Thanks for the helpful advice.

The spread has slowed - one plant is visibly better, one plant is wirse where it's leaves were touching/shaded by adjacent infected plant. I sprayed more carefully tonight.

 

[ShiggityFlip]

David Bowie. So much talent and innovation. He reinvented himself so many times. Here's a bowl to you Ziggy Stardust. Say hello to Major Tom for us on your way to the heavens.

 

[Growlow]

Maybe I missed someone saying it but I'm thinking they are Broad mites. I've seen a full recreational outfit infested. Just as bad as Spider mites. If the infestation is small it should be manageable mate A friend of mine in WA had a small case and treated it with EcoSmart Organic Garden Insect Killer. Applied right before the lights came on and right after the lights went off. It's mostly just essential oils but it worked for him. Hope this helps me ol mate!.... even if a few months late haha

 

[Radogast]

No worries, the mites are still with me.

I'm shutting down the grow for few months and will restart growing garden herbs only in a new location.

If the mites survive the move, I guess I'll be replacing the soil. They are under control with a 1% solution of neem oil in water srayed once every 3 days. I don't see the mites with 2 spots unless I miss spraying for 5 or 6 days.

 

[Growlow]

No worries, the mites are still with me.

I'm shutting down the grow for few months and will restart growing garden herbs only in a new location.

If the mites survive the move, I guess I'll be replacing the soil. They are under control with a 1% solution of neem oil in water srayed once every 3 days. I don't see the mites with 2 spots unless I miss spraying for 5 or 6 days.

Well done mate! keep at it. Bloody mongrels!