Mites: in check ?

[bluter]

curious if anyone else has had a similar experience..

i came across mite damage in my veg room yesterday. pretty heartbreaking but i've been expecting it. it is the height of the outdoor mite season here, and i have a real open type of environment, with passive ventilation to outdoor. they likely migrated from outdoor.

i spent hours combing thru the plants with the loupe, pulled a few suspicious fans, and finally spotted a couple. but that was it so far. two live mites out of all the plants. they were the common two-spotted type.

i simply couldn't figger why i only caught two. didn't make sense, if you see one there are generally thousands. i stared at the plants a while contemplating, soaps, iso spray, insecticides, or tossing the whole grow, trying to make sense of it.

that's when i saw him.. a red mite, visible to the eye, boogying across a master kush leaf like a crazed commuter late for work. those guys are pretty much always predatory, eating the ones we hate.

so i scaled back all the attack plans. i don't want to take him out with the bad ones. right now i'm in a holding pattern, gonna watch for a couple days and see where it progresses.

i'm wondering if my little red friend(s) has been keeping the others in check.

question is, has anyone stumbled over a similar situation ? and would you just start with the chemical attack right away regardless ?

 

[bluter]

ok, ... screw it.

saw another one during inspection. doing a bit of trimming of infected leaves and gonna iso spray tomorrow.
hopefully i caught it in time.

haven't got to the master kush yet. hope the little red guy makes it. i'm fairly certain he's been helping. actually it's probably a she thinking about it.

 

[bluter]

i'll add a couple pics for interest tonight. wish i had a macro lens.
will at least give an idea.

 

[bluter]

this is an example of the damage i picked up from the mites

it has not gotten too extensive yet

and the dot to the left on the underside of this leaf is one of the little buggers. the translucent dot on the right hand side is probably an egg.

you can see some of the damage coming thru the leaf higher up as well. this guy was the only active mite found on the plant the leaf came from.

i sprayed the plants down with 50/50 mix of 99% iso and tap water last night. could still smell it this morning. gonna do another application tonight.



btw - thanks to the mods for moving this. was thinking the thread should be in this forum.

 

[bluter]

so i been hitting these guys for a couple weeks with the iso. plants aren't thrilled, they are taking it ok but i'm burning leaves with it. still find the occasional egg, but haven't seen any live ones yet. the ones i do find are super messed up and dead. there has to be some hiding tho, as i find both eggs and a tiny bit of damage still.

ordered neem oil as a hair product... it's banned as a pesticide here. it works the same and is pure cold press neem oil. bought a tiny bottle (30ml) for over $20 cdn (YIKES) at a local supplement and health food store. they can sell it as an essential oil if any one is looking and desperate. the stuff i ordered was twice the price but 473 ml, so worth it to have on hand.

making this post for those trying to figger how to get the stuff.

it's a good idea to alternate treatments with these things, they can build a resistance to a single type of treatment.


found the predatory mite, or it's offspring. it was hanging out looking for food, but not a lot for it lol. made sure to note the plant and leaf.