Spider Mite Question

[Tight Lines]

Hi all,

10 minutes ago I completely trashed my entire grow because of spider mites. I was in veg and decided to just scrap everything and start over.

2 things,

1. I was wondering if spider mites will just sit in a room or grow tent, which is clean, and be able to survive without any plant material in there. In other words, now that I've taken down my entire grow and cleans the room, can I wait a month and expect that there will be no mites in the room or do they lay dormant and wait for plants to come into the room again?

2. Any suggestions as to how I should clean my grow room to try and stop the mites that might still be in there lurking? Bleach then bug bomb? How much bleach? Can I use a spray bottle and straight bleach and literally spray the inside of my grow tent all over to kill them instantly?

Any suggestions to kill these bastards before I start a new grow would be super helpful

Todd

 

[rillos]

use some neem oil next time. Can't answer your other questions.

 

[Weaselcracker]

This is my take on the situation. Yes the adults can go dormant. And yes the eggs can/will also be around ready to hatch out. I had several mite invasions. They arrived on some clones I was given. Then moved into my house and garden greenhouse from there, where they continued to reinfest my grow.
To clean I would completely strip my two grow rooms and scrub everything I could with hot water and soap, and spray with 50% bleach water solution till my eyes were burning. I also took the opportunity to give the rooms a complete coat of paint.
This would presumably kill any mites that were in the direct line of fire. It wouldn't get the mites or eggs that may be stuck to clothes, or whatever/wherever, or the odd mite that was crawling around somewhere just outside the room, or maybe in my house plants. In any case the mites would always come back after a while, carried in from my house or garden.
What eventually solved the problem for good was spraying a systemic pesticide on the plants in grow as well as garden. Systemic means it's absorbed by the plant and continues to be effective for awhile, as opposed to just being a surface spray that washes off. In my case the pesticide I used was called Mite-Rid, which is a concentrate of the active ingredient in neem oil. I don't think it's certified as organic, but seems pretty non toxic and natural. I reapplied it a few times two or three weeks apart to be sure. Other folks will be able to reccomend other good pesticide options.
With a very good cleaning as described and repeated spraying or dunking of the plants you should be ok- as long as you're not being continually reinfested from somewhere outside the room. Neem oil, safers soap, or pyrethrin may work for you. It depends a lot on the particular mites I suspect, and whatever immunity they have developed. Whatever you do, repeat it at least 3 times, five days or so apart (or more depending on what you're applying), to kill the next round of hatchlings. The eggs apparently can survive nearly anything.

Basically-
No - I don't think you can outwait them.
Clean everything to try and attain something like a hospital level of sterility.
I didn't have any luck with bug bombs or soaps or pyrethrin, it was the cleaning followed by the systemic type pesticide that did it for me-
ie - any newly hatched baby or stray mite that survives and wanders in,
crawls to plant to feed.
And is killed
Yay

Good luck!!