Spider mites Yay!

[LapRocket]

So, 4x6 mylar lined upper, panda film lower, freshly built grow box with 2 vented hoods running 600w each. There's a fresh air intake 6 inch boost fan, and 3 low speed clamp fans to circulate. My humidity stays around 50%, I keep the ambient temperature around 72°f. I use noir/perlite as a substrate, and Peak Harvest nutes-veg, humic, wetting agent, cal/mag.
I had started 2 plants from seed, and they were doing fanflippintastic, then came the clones of Gorilla Glue #12. I found it curious that one of the plants had some lower leaf yellowing, a gentle pull and she came right off. I looked them over quite scrupulously, and decided I liked the looks of things so I brought them home to loved, hugged, and called my very own only to be kicked in the face by a jack boot carrying the flippin Borge, AKA Spider mites.
Allow me to digress a bit, I got them all transplanted in some good substrate and treated them with a gentle nutrient feeding of 25% veg 4-2-3, and some cal/mag for obvious reasons. The yellowing persisted over a week only to be joined by the browning tips and claw leaf homeys that we all love so much. I know what your thinking, pH, start with pH. Well, I pH everything and am very strict about 5.8, that's my sweet spot. I test the runoff, perfect. I also EC/ppm my feeding nutes, and make sure they're proper like. So, there's something I'm not catching, I figure get online and read till my eyes bleed and I'll find something. Low and behold I found some pest info about cannabis. I did the research and ended up finding the little ninjas in my forrest!
I wanted to go straight for the throat so I grabbed some 3-in-1 made by Ortho. I checked the actives in it first obviously and found it to contain pyrethrins and sulfer. Both perfect, from what I understand for someone in my situation. Two 4 week old tangies, and some 2 week old clones. I sprayed under sides and overs, the lips of my pots, the bottoms, the catch basins, the panda film in my grow room, and topped off all the pots with a dusting of diatomaceous earth. Now I wait. I'll post an update as I progress or decline. Any input is always appreciated.

 

[LapRocket]

Re: Spider mites Yaaaay!

Well, about 32 hours after the treatment. The girls look great for what they've been through. I gave the 2 older tangies a feeding last night with a little additive to break down any salts and they both perked right up at lights on this morning. I'm going to use, Safer soap with kelp extract in another 35 hours or so as a follow up and a quick switch in the type of control method used to make sure they go bye bye. As a side note, I also picked up some yellow sticky cards and placed them, as well as picked up some azo as I want to be ready next time a pest problem first rears it's ugly F*#$!N face! Does anyone have any other input for this issue?

 

[TheFertilizer]

Re: Spider mites Yaaaay!

My only input is to keep their breeding cycles in mind. They lay eggs constantly, and faster if they know there's danger. The eggs hatch in two to three days, so there could be a lot of them waiting to hatch. I would use the Azotrol now, because then when they do and take their first bite, they're dead and won't be able to lay eggs with the neem. Plus it stays in the plants for a few weeks.

 

[LapRocket]

Wouldn't the safer brand natural pesticide soap spray be a better solution? It's different than the first treatment and not as harsh on the plant as azo derivatives. Plus, if I reserve the azo for a nuclear response to a persistent infestation, I'll have a very heavy hitter that the little Jenks aren't adapted to yet.... hopefully. Thoughts?

 

[Major PITA]

Wouldn't the safer brand natural pesticide soap spray be a better solution? It's different than the first treatment and not as harsh on the plant as azo derivatives. Plus, if I reserve the azo for a nuclear response to a persistent infestation, I'll have a very heavy hitter that the little Jenks aren't adapted to yet.... hopefully. Thoughts?

That is one option.
I haven't had great luck with soaps and herb oils for mites.
I went the opposite route. Hit 'em hard in the beginning to really knock the crap out of the little bastards. Then keep after them with the other things.
I prefer to use the nastier stuff early and not worry about needing them in bloom. Even Azamax seems gentle compared to some other sprays, and it breaks down quickly. The stuff stinks like what it is (neem), but the smell is completely gone in 2-3 days. I've had less phototoxicity with it than SNS or Monterey products.

 

[TheFertilizer]

Wouldn't the safer brand natural pesticide soap spray be a better solution? It's different than the first treatment and not as harsh on the plant as azo derivatives. Plus, if I reserve the azo for a nuclear response to a persistent infestation, I'll have a very heavy hitter that the little Jenks aren't adapted to yet.... hopefully. Thoughts?

Well the key to stopping adaptation is stopping reproduction. With basically any of these if you don't prevent the laid eggs from hatching and breeding then you're just going to be chasing the problem. I think mites seem like they get immune to some sprays because people are basically killing off a large percent of their population except those that are strong enough to survive, and then those strong mites reproduce, meaning each successive population is stronger than the last. So stopping reproduction is very important, with contact killers you definitely want to hit them hard, every few days several times otherwise their hatch-lings will get a foothold. That's why neem derivatives are so helpful because even if they do hatch, the moment they eat the plant they can no longer reproduce leaving them to slowly die off. No adaptation because there's no reproduction.

Insecticidal soap isn't as effective at killing them as pyrethrin, but it does have the added benefit of breaking down the outer walls of the eggs leading to less of them hatching.

Personally what I plan to do with neem if I get a bad infestation is mix in pyrethrin and insecticidal soap. Neem needs an emulsifer anyway so the soap will help with that as well as having its own insecticidal properties. Meanwhile the pyrethrin is the real nuclear agent in this equation, it's basically burning down the village while the neem salts the earth so nothing can grow. Survivors and successive generations are so effected by the neem that they stop eating, won't reproduce and slowly die off.

 

[DonaldGodfrey]

Well, to remove the mites completely their origin in the home must be attacked first. So for that, I think one must take the help of professionals. The professionals from the field can guide in the best way. My friend took the help of Pest Exterminator New Rochelle NY, to get rid of problems similar to yours.
I think the professionals are the ones who know knows very well about the effective chemicals to be used for effective removal of the mites.

 

[LapRocket]

NOPE! I do appreciate your time in offering a solution. While that very well may be a solution for some, it's not for me. I prefer to keep things in house, and do that by doing the research and employing scientific method. That said, I have the pest problem managed currently, and am going for complete annihilation of them in a week. I've used all natural products, and the death blow will be something they didn't see coming. Predatory Mites and mite destroyers. All of the details will be posted in my grow journal upon completion. Thank you again for your input and happy growing!

 

[Major PITA]

Removing "mites completely" is a fool's errand, IMO. Even an attempt to come close would get crazy expensive - not to mention the damage done to the environment. Once every last mite is gone from your home, neighbors and surrounding areas could repopulate a treated area in short order. Mites are everywhere. They can be brought in on other plants, clothes, tools, cars, the wind, almost anything. The better solution is to learn how to deal with them and keep their population under control while doing as little damage to ladybugs, honeybees and other beneficial insects and arachnids as possible.

 

[LapRocket]

I couldn't agree more Major, let explain my logic. I started with the usual treatments to stop the spread, increased humidity substantially to 80% for 4 days, then switched to a daily foliar feed to keep it humid, increased surrounding canopy fans, and now will be introducing nature's solution to my grow room to allow nature to do what she does. I wanted to leave as small of a footprint as possible.

 

[Mpfstc]

It's impossible to completely eliminate them. I had them a few months ago and I have no idea where they even came from. I tried a bunch of things to get control of them including Neem Oil and Azamax. No luck! A friend at my local hydroponics store recommended Hot Shot No Pest Strips and bam problem solved in a few days. I just put a few in the grow room and had all ventilation off when the lights were out for a few days.

Their cheap too! Now I just have my fans on the same timers as my lights and I leave the No Pest strips in there. As a bonus it took care of the fungus gnats too.

 

[LapRocket]

I have no doubt about the effectiveness of the product, but that is a fog/vapor release control method and shouldn't be around pets or people for any extended length of time. Those strips are highly toxic and are incredibly not awesome to smoke. I do appreciate the input however.

 

[Mpfstc]

It says don't be around them for more then 4 hours at a time which isn't an issue for me. I'm aware of the vapor release as well. Products of this sort are used very frequently for corn, wheat, oats, and other grains. Used a lot more frequently then I thought until I did some research. They don't produce a smell in the room and there was no discernible taste in the bud. Taste the same as it usually does. Be careful with pyrethrins for spider mites. While effect sometimes it also speeds up the reproduction rates in spider mites.

 

[LapRocket]

Not interested in a debate, it's just not what I choose to use, nor would I feel good about recommending it. It's just not worth loosing my crop to a test that comes up hot for pesticides. That's why I have chosen to reduce their population by natural means.

 

[Mpfstc]

I don't want to debate and I apologize if that's the way it came across.

 

[Major PITA]

I use those NPS in my grow room between grows. They work pretty well but nasty stuff. They were taken off the market for a long time then returned a few years ago.

 

[LapRocket]

I really appreciate your maturity. Often times, especially in a forum setting, I've found people to be easily offended because one may not employ an idea or thought. In my opinion, the only dumb idea or thought is one lacking the life of speach. On topic, the girls are really responding well to their treatments. I'll post some pics in a few.

 

[LapRocket]

A few pics of the girls after my TLC.

 

[Major PITA]

Gorgeous!

 

[Mpfstc]

Nice!