spider mites

[apbt4204life]

hello i have a question about spider mites i have them an cant get rid of them if i were to just stop all my indoor grow for a mounth or so would thay be gone????

[DocBud]

Originally Posted by apbt4204life

hello i have a question about spider mites i have them an cant get rid of them if i were to just stop all my indoor grow for a mounth or so would thay be gone????

I don't think that would help. I started an indoor grow in a space that had never grown anything, was pitch dark for months at a time, for 6 years prior to the grow.

I washed, painted and mopped with bleach prior to my grow, and still got spider mites.

So, if mites found their way into my grow, surely they can survive for a few months in your space.

I've managed to fight them back by doing the following:

1.)spray with einstein oil
2.)spray with Dr. Doom spider might knock out
3.)spray with Azatrol
4.)re-spray with Dr. Doom

I purchased some Floramite on e-bay, which is supposed to really kill that bastards, but I won't use it after week one of flower.

I'm going to bomb and spray the hell out of my room after this grow, then make it a practice to hit my plants with floramite as soon as they show sex. That gives 30 days protection.

Then, I'll do a "just n case" spraying of Azatrol (OMRI approved) about 25 days after hitting with the floramite.

That should get me though a grow.

[Flurple]

those critters never go away, there are actually ones that can survive outside in the winter so they will find their way in all year round. use preventatives and if you have an infestation take em out with azatrol avid azamax or somethin, some of those take 2-3 weeks to build up in plants so plan your treatment out. a bomb is a quick fix to kill adults but not the eggs.

[DocBud]

Originally Posted by Flurple

those critters never go away, there are actually ones that can survive outside in the winter so they will find their way in all year round. use preventatives and if you have an infestation take em out with azatrol avid azamax or somethin, some of those take 2-3 weeks to build up in plants so plan your treatment out. a bomb is a quick fix to kill adults but not the eggs.

Yep.

[Weed420]

As long as its not too close to harvest I hang a HotShot bug strip. Within 24 hours most will be dead and in 10 days they all seem to be dead.
Spidermites hibernate in the soil, so they can lay dormant for months.
hxxp://www.hardwareandtools.com/invt/6405757

[BWC BayArea]

If u can try to stay away from toxic and hazardous (to humans)pesticides like Avid. It works, but read what the manufacturer suggest u wear while applying it to ur plants. Mites are one of our worst enemies. I don't know if they can survive that long with out food. However, they may be living on other house plants around the house, hitch hiking in on clothing and pets (from infestations outdoors). U may want to look into Hot Shot (brand) No Pest Strips. U supposed to hang one of these in an area not to be occupied by people for more than 4 hours. any how check it out, i've read many good thing about this product. In fact It claims to kill all insects within range.

[DocBud]

Originally Posted by BWC BayArea

If u can try to stay away from toxic and hazardous (to humans)pesticides like Avid. It works, but read what the manufacturer suggest u wear while applying it to ur plants. Mites are one of our worst enemies. I don't know if they can survive that long with out food. However, they may be living on other house plants around the house, hitch hiking in on clothing and pets (from infestations outdoors). U may want to look into Hot Shot (brand) No Pest Strips. U supposed to hang one of these in an area not to be occupied by people for more than 4 hours. any how check it out, i've read many good thing about this product. In fact It claims to kill all insects within range.

I heard they work well too....but they have warnings all over them not to use around food, or plants that may be ingested.

I think they would work very well as a means to prepare a room for a grow, but I hesitate to hang them up in a room that I will be working in, and I don't want to smoke bud that has these poisons in it.

I have my mites under control....not erradicated, I still find one every few days if I search long enough....but no infestation or crop damage.

I used only safe methods to do so.

Here's what's in my arsenal:

1.)Einstein oil. Light misting every 7 days from early veg to early flower.
2.)Azatrol: use if infestation occurs during first 2/3 of flowering
3.)Doctor Doom: use up until 1 day before harvest
4.)Floramite: use up until end of first week of flower
5.)malathion: use up until 3 weeks from harvest

There also products called Forbid and Mite Rid which are supposed to be excellent. I may get one or the other....maybe both if I need to.

From what I've learned the key is to rotate products, don't spray more than twice per season with any one product, except Azatrol/Azamax, which mites can't get immune to.

There are mites in California that are completely immune to Floramite, Pyrethrin, and Neem. Too many growers used one product exclusively.

[BWC BayArea]

McBudz often endorses a product called Mite-Rid (if I remember correctly), he swears by it. PM him and ask when u get a chance. As for the no pest strips, I'd only use in veg, I too am skeptical about ingesting toxins absorbed by my plants. There are many different ways to fight mites. Use the search feature keyword spider mites. I think 1/4 of the new growers questions are related to pests (namely mites). We also have a sub forum in the FAQ forum called Pest and Disease Control. I think this would be an excellent place to start. Read thru the threads and u'll find plenty of info. That's I can promise. Good luck.

[Racefan]

Originally Posted by BWC BayArea

McBudz often endorses a product called Mite-Rid (if I remember correctly), he swears by it. PM him and ask when u get a chance. As for the no pest strips, I'd only use in veg, I too am skeptical about ingesting toxins absorbed by my plants. There are many different ways to fight mites. Use the search feature keyword spider mites. I think 1/4 of the new growers questions are related to pests (namely mites). We also have a sub forum in the FAQ forum called Pest and Disease Control. I think this would be an excellent place to start. Read thru the threads and u'll find plenty of info. That's I can promise. Good luck.

I've been using the mite-rid for well over 5 years now with great success. it never takes more than one treatment. mites need food to survive and I don't think they live in soil. They may fall into soil and get transplanted that way but they need foliage to survive as they live by sucking sap from leaves.

I found this great article written by a grower named trix.

Spider mites basic info and prevention...to a point
permalink

Basically though, mites are transferred in, through, clothes, wind, dirt etc... ready for a read??
ps this is RESEARCH...my own personal experience is not over yet...

Mites by themselves are not aggressive movers. They pretty much stay on the same leaf or nearby leaves for their entire lives. They are moved (vectored) by bird feathers, dog and animal hair, and clothing. They are usually worst in dry dusty conditions, although two spotted mites have been known to thrive even under very wet conditions.

Spidermites thrive in dry (20%-30% humidity), warm(70-80 degrees F) conditions. In temperatures above 80 degrees F, spidermites can reproduce in as little as 5 days, making early detection a necessity.

The most important step you can take to avoid pests is to keep your growroom clean, free of odours, free of bacteria and free of rubbish.
• Keep your environmental conditions as close to perfect as you can, maintaining variables such as temperature, humidity and air quality. Make sure that you have got good air exchange, and keep the air moving.
• After visiting a risk area and before entering your growroom, change clothes to reduce the chance of cross contamination.
• Try not to draw air into your growroom directly from outside if possible. If you do then filter the air, especially in summer.
• Do not let other gardeners or people who may have come from infected areas into your growroom.
• Quarantine any cuttings that have come from other growrooms for a few days (or until you are sure they are free of mites) before introducing them into your growroom.
• Keep pets out of and away from your growroom.
• Stick to quality growing media rather than compost and other bagged media from garden centers. Dedicated hydroponic media is much less likely to contain bugs than standard soil.

Mites usually start becoming a problem in late spring and reach a peak by late summer or just at the peak heat of the season. They are definitely hot weather critters. In cold weather they move and multiply much more slowly. In summer their life cycle is about seven to ten days, that is, hatchlings are laying eggs after a week or two. Any treatment must take this into account. Just killing the adults does little good. Repeat treatments are almost always necessary to kill the emerging mites. In winter they begin moving off trees and shrubs to winter over on grasses.

Mites, like aphids are easily dislodged from the leaf surface, at least before they have a chance to begin building webbing. A weekly hard blast of water can stop an infestation from occuring or slow it down once it starts. However, you must be able to spray the undersides of the leaves. Just hitting the top surface will do little or nothing. Concentrate your attention on the lower parts of the plant. Mites won't be found on the upper and succulent parts of the plant.

If you find more than an occasional mite, and most of the lower leaves have two or more mites and perhaps webbing, you are probably in trouble. Begin lower levels of control. First try blasting them off with a spray of water. Do this about every two or three days. It may or may not work. If the population continues to build, use an insecticidal soap designed for mites (it should be on the label), or introduce predators.

Once mite count reaches about 40 per leaf, the population will really explode and mites will begin moving to other leaves and plants. In the worst cases, they will even begin moving to other species that are usually resistant. Treatment with predator mites at this stage is possible, but difficult and expensive. At this stage you may want to take a more toxic route.

Red spider mites are pretty easily dealt with. You can usually knock them out with water sprays. The big problem is that there are few effective ovicides for mites, so you must follow up in five to seven days with a repeat treatment to kill the hatchlings. Usually three treatments are necessary to end an infestation. Read and follow all label instructions carefully. Do not use more or less than the recommended amount or concentration. Using less can result in breeding mites with resistance to that chemical.

If you have two spotted mites, your job is even harder. These mites are very difficult to control and most are resistant to most miticides. Don't bother using typical over the counter insecticides, they will do nothing. These mites can build a resistance to pesticides very quickly, so repeated use of the same one just breeds new problems for the rest of us. These two spotted mites can still be killed it just takes a more serious approach.

Critics have said that while predators may work in a nursery situation, it won't in a small yard as long as your neighbors are engaging in chemical warfare. I think it is worth a try as long as you have a yard that will provide a complete environment, which usually means some exposed soil, trees and shrubs. In fact predator mites are more useful to small scale operations, than to larger ones such as mine. They can be used to treat individual plants, but long term control means changing the environment, including establishing a population of predators.

You must choose the right predator mite for your situation. There are several species available that are adapted to a particular climate. They have a rather narrow range of humidity and temperature requirements. Predator mites are available from several bio control companies

Predator mites can be expensive. At times, somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 a gram, or $50 to $80 per thousand mites.
Effective treatment is dependent on getting the proper predator mite. Green Methods lists about six, Nature's Control lists three. The most important parameters are temperature and humidity, but there are also other factors such as fast knockdown, early introduction, longevity, etc.
If you have ONE infested plant, I'd say forget it, the mites would cost as much as the plant, but if you have a good size collection and mites are a general problem, including your landscape, it might be a feasible method of control.
Additionally, yes the mites do stick around because bio controls do NOT eliminate the pest but simply set up a dynamic between the two species which keeps the pest from getting out of hand. If you want total control (read elimination) you must use chemicals.

[Racefan]

TWO-SPOTTED SPIDER MITES


Ric Bessin, Extension Entomologist, University of Kentucky College of Agriculture


Two-spotted spider mites are occasional pests that can cause serious damage to some vegetable crops during hot dry weather. Mites can injure tomatoes, beans, muskmelons, watermelons, and sweet corn. Extended periods of hot, dry weather favors mite buildups. Infestations usually first occur at the edge of a field, typically near rank weed growth or dirt roads.

Generally mites feed on the undersides of leaves. They use their sucking mouthparts to remove sap from plants, giving the upper leaf surface a speckled or mottled appearance. Leaves of mite infested plants may turn yellow and dry up, and plants may lose vigor and die when infestations are severe. The undersides of affected leaves appear tan or yellow and have a crusty texture. Heavy infestations of the two-spotted spider mite produce fine webbing which may cover the entire plant.

Mites can be identified by shaking symptomatic leaves onto a sheet of white paper or by observing infected leaf areas with a hand lens. In hot dry weather, mites can cause plants to drop leaves in a few weeks. Fruit from severely infected plants are often unmarketable because defoliated plants tend to yield small, poor quality fruit.

Biology

The eight-legged female mites are yellow to dark green with two to four dark dorsal spots. At 1/60 of an inch, they are almost microscopic.

Males are smaller with more pointed abdomens. The tiny, spherical, eggs are laid on the undersides of leaves, often under the webbing produced by the mites. A six-legged, colorless larva that emerges resembles the nymph and adult, but is only the size of an egg. Both of the eight-legged nymphal stages look like the adult, but are smaller and not sexually mature. Under optimum conditions of high temperature and low humidity, the life cycle may be completed in 7 days. Females can lay 200 eggs.

Management

Natural enemies of mites are present in and around fields and can keep mite populations low. Many insecticides used for control of insect pests severely reduce numbers of beneficial insects that keep mite populations in check. Therefore, apply insecticides only as-needed, rather than at regularly scheduled intervals. When possible, select pesticides which will have the least impact on beneficial insects.

Destruction of weeds adjacent to and in fields should be done in the fall or early spring. Growers should manage weeds around fields carefully during the season. Grass should be mowed regularly. Spraying or mowing of weeds after growth has become rank may increase the movement of mites to cultivated plants.

Use of overhead-sprinkler irrigation may provide some short- term relief of mite infestations.

Miticides are available for some vegetable crops but should be used only where justified. As with aphids, mark infestations with flags, and check them again every 3 or 4 days. Mites can easily be moved to infested plants on clothing, so always examine infested areas last during inspections. If the infestation is not spreading, treatment will not be required. Because mite populations often are localized, spot spraying may be effective. If you spray only a portion of the field, spray a buffer zone of 100 to 200 feet beyond the mite infested area.

Resistance to pesticides has increased the difficulty of controlling of these pests. Because mites primarily occur on the undersides of leaves, applications of contact miticides need to be directed at both the lower and upper leaf surfaces. Mite eggs are resistant to some miticides, so repeated applications are often necessary to control infestations. Two applications spaced 5 to 7 days apart may be necessary.

[irishboy]

1oz BTL FLORAMITE SC. if your not into flowering this stuff works killer on mites one use and their gone, stays on ur plants for 4 weeks. its alot better and safer then avid from what ive been told.

also no pest stripes seem to work great.

[BWC BayArea]

Originally Posted by BWC BayArea

McBudz often endorses a product called Mite-Rid (if I remember correctly), he swears by it.

I meant Racefan, not McBudz. My bad Racefan. I knew it was some1 on grow support.

[Racefan]

No problem BWC. As long as the message helps is all that really matters.