Having a Big Ol' Thrip Party and You're all Invited!

I wans't going to complain about my latest problem...THRIPS! But I had to.

O.K. I am 33 days in flower. It is a 56 day strain. I've got predatory mites on the way...the investation is fairly bad, all fan leaves.

What should I do in the 48 hours or so it will take for my predators to get to my door? Or am I far enough along in flower that I should leave all chems ans stuff alone and just wait for my evil fuckin' aliens to get here(predator mites?)

Thrips Predators

Thrips Predators

Good Morning, Benito,

Please be sure what you ordered was a Thrip-specific predator.
The latin name for the Thrips Predator is Amblyseius cucumeris

if you got "predatory mites" they may be spider mite specific..
Spider mite predators, if i am not mistaken, only eat spidermites and when they run out of food, they simply die.. while the Thrips Predator feeds on pollen and spidermites once IT'S food source is deplenished...

also, the thrips predator males eat 2-3 thrips larvae per day, females supposedly lay 2-3 eggs per dayat the underside of the leaves.. the nymphs will hatch and begin feeding on pest eggs and the smallest thrips..

as my father always told me, and in this sport find myself saying to myself ALL the time,
always use the right tool for the job.....

As far as what to do until then,

Get yer bum to the nearest "Big-Box" Home store's Garden/Extermination aisle and pick up some Hot-shots no pest strips.. Please refer to a post in the cannabis infirmary (its current) authored by "4H" entitled "I got mites PLEASE HELP".. in this thread IM BOggled outlines the different brand-names for the strips, use a couple at soil level and hang them around the plants (safely out of the heat of the light, and out of the footprint) with the supplied hooks from your OP's ceiling or even hang them off the plants if they are sturdy enough using a lightly tied hemp twine or jute or nylon just make sure you dont tie too tight, a loop so it's hanging off the lateral branches is ideal..

i use a combination of these and the yellow sticky traps as well as neem seed oil applied in the vegetative stage and up until the 2nd week of flower and it pretty much keeps things at bay.

if you see the bugs creeping in your garden/greenhous, the best treatment is to "hand pick" whenever possible. Hand picking can be accomplished very easily bro, take a spray bottle and adjust the nozzle to squirt a sharp stream.. fill the bottle with warm water and a small dash of plain dishsoap.. (make sure you shake the vessel of the sprayer with your finger covering the hole with the sprayer part OFF to evenly distribute the soap in the warm water, the soap smothers the bugs eventually killing them)
test a shot in the sink to see if the sprayer is on a relatively hard stream, enough to knock them out cold,
get that trigger finger ready and blast the suckers as you see them with this solution...

an alternative i use is 70% isopropyl alchohol in a spray bottle used the exact same way, kills them instantly just be sure not to soak the soil with the iso ..not the best thing but it does not hurt the plant one bit when it gets on leaves, i have used this (iso in the sprayer) to treat mite-infected clones from friends and to treat infestations of mites at first sign, keep it next to the plants at all times and whenever you see a creepycrawler of their larvae in the soil give them a shot of the iso they will never see the light of day again.

hope this helps

be well, Benito and good luck with everything bro

cj

Why dont you try the chili spray mixture.
It is the most effective, cheapest, organic method to eliminate mites and thrips. Use it daily for about a week or even less until your mite problem is solved.
I use it every time and it works.
REALLY,

Get 5 of the MOST hottest chilli peppers (long green or red ones) blend with 2 cups warm water and then strain the mixture into a spray bottle.

Spray the plants leaves, and buds- YES YOU CAN ALSO SPRAY THE BUDS WITH OUT HARMING THEM OR THE PLANT.
Even young seedlings can be sprayed and will not get burnt or suffer.

WARNING: Becareful of gettiing the chili spray in your eyes.
and also onto your hands- as it burns the skin. wear gloves or cover your hands with a plastic bag while spraying.
Also spray in an open area.

Capt Jack is right - get the correct preditor for thrips Amblyseius cucumeris (no common name as far as i know) - normaly I would recommend use of an organic 'knock down' spray ('soft soap' 'Eradicote(tm)' or the chilli spray ronley recommends) whilst you are waiting for the preditors to arrive - however at 33 days in flower I probably would not - its your call.

A nice thing about Amblyseius cucumeris is that when they have eaten all of the thrips they may move on to RSM eggs - if they can find any

I had an outbreak about a month ago - sprayed Eradicote immediatly to slow the bastards up then introduced the preditor when it arrived - I dont know for sure that my room is totaly clear now - but I have not found any new damage recently - so good luck

I am constantly battling these lil bastards. They will end a grow very fast. Once they get set in you will notice the fan leafs turning yellow and falling off. I use neem oil but you have to pound them almost every day. Also when you think they are gone, they are not. They will come back. Haven't tried the chili spray yet but I have heard that it works well. I have also heard that they don't like Garlic sprays.

Good Luck.

Mo,

Honesly, PLEASE!!!
Just use the chili spray. its really WORKS!!!!
Does no harm to your buds/plants/ seedlings/ It is organic, and kills the mites, and thrips. Its cheap and easily come by.

After a week of use the mites are dead and stay dead....

You guys rule...Thank you all for the very detailed answers.
Yes I got the Amblyseius cucumeris...I had to check.

I will try the chili spray thing when I get home from work tonight. Wow, it is really O.K. to use on Buds?

Oh, also. I use hydro DWC is it Ok if any of the shit gets in the rez...I mean a little, I woul be spraying the plant not dumping in the rez?

Thrips can be a real pain for hydro systems. Thrips will move from the plant to the medium to survive. I have found hydrotron to be the worst for thrips as they crawl around the clay ball and lay egg's, when these hatch they move to the plant, but have learned to hide out in the medium.

Preventive measures is how I keep them out of the garden. Most all times they come through the fresh air vent's. I simply put a piece of thrip screen over the intake to keep them out, that and I hang a pest no strip there also to help keep all pests away.

General cleaning of the room, complete cleaning, is also very helpful in keeping pest problems away.

Stay safe and enjoy the grow.

realhigh.

rh is right, thrips have two lifecycle stages in the soil so sprays wont hit them there. I have found them underneath an infested 5 gallon bucket so they go well below the first few inches of soil. Beneficial nematodes will get them in the soil. Adult thrips have a full set of functional wings so travel for them is pretty easy.

Benito - I battled thrips for two cycles and this is what I found and tried.

Predatory mites, amblyseius cucumeris, didn't work for me. I let them run havoc for a couple weeks and I don't even think they put a dent in things.

I also used predatory nematodes, don't know how well this did as they were in the soil. But I still had thrips, so I don't think very well.

Blue thrip sticky traps were used for about a week. After looking at the traps with a magnifying glass, I didn't see one single thrip caught in the trap. So those went in the trash.

Then I picked up a Pyrethrum-TR fogger. This worked, and a 2 oz can treated my 2000 sq/ft grow. One treatment just about wiped them out, but I did have to treat some new clones a week later. Since them I have been thrip free. If you are going to use one of these make sure to extinguish all pilot lights before starting the fogger. Also, you need to do it right when your lights go out and let it sit all during the dark period with no exhause. After 12 hours the room is safe to enter again.

Hope this helps!

Hey everyone, just an update.

I made the chili spray...all I have to say is holy shit...I breathed some in and I had a WWI flashback... I soaked everything...I think it stunned them but three days later they seemed to be up and around and partying again. They have really done some damage too. The buds looks OK but the leaves are ravaged. I figured out that they like to hide between the stemmy part of the leaf and the leafy part of the leaf...if you know what I mean, tucked up in there nice and snug...I released the predator mites today...and played in the cabinet with my borg pets for like an hour with a magnifying glass and I'm yelling you I saw thrips and mites meet up right next to each other on the same leaf blade and the mites just sorta left the thrips alone...they did nothing to bust up the party...and I was looking forward to some nice mutual of omaha shit.

I would drop a pythrethum bomb but I have a house full of pets and it would not be in my best security interests to do so, putting out the pilot light and all that. I am hoping that the predator mites sort of invest my whole house...I dropped about half the cannister of 5000 in my 3 x 6 x 2 1/2 space and made sure they got into the hydroton. I even sprinkled a few in my carpet.

I have a feeling that I've had these thrips for the last couple of grows but it was only mild before...this time it is full blown.

I noticed a few small male pods on my plants this time and I am hoping the mites eat any pollen that I might miss in my daily checks, which have gotten sloppy lately as the thrips trumped my hermie problem.

Just want to say i feel your pain. I got the little fuggers from a bag of storebought soil (in addition to fungus gnats) and had them for a year and a half, before breaking down everything (for another reason) what a relief! Props to you for trying the predators, they are not an instant solution, as nature takes her time. I seem to remember the instructions saying it can take as long as 2 months with nematodes alone. For awhile thrips tend to uglify and reduce yield slightly rather than kill them but after about 6-8 months they will severely weaken an untreated mother to the point of death, but hopefully no-one is that unlucky ,lazy or stupid like I was. If anything severely crippling the population is possible and very helpful. Everyone has thier own magic solution that works for them and not someone else. From experience: wear a mask and protective clothing with any spray including the home-made pepper/cinnamon (etc...) ones. I was physically rubbing/crushing the thrips between my fingers at the end there, and that worked the best LOL. Best of luck eredicating the monsters.

the follwoing predetors are very effective for thripes-

neoseiulus cucumeris
orius laevigatus

is the first one a syn. to what i listed kane? Amblyseius cucumeris

i know u know your gardening well ..
not questioning YOU, just wondering myself

what is the second one? predatory wasp or something?

also aeric , hand picking is the only definitive method of control, i use alch. and yeah, everyone has theyre own ways but btw cinnamon is more of a mold/mildew control than a bug one, capsicum (chile) pepper is a much more powerful toxin to them, capsaicin.. ever use the topical cream capsaicin? it's hardcore stuff, also nicotine, which is an extremely volitile poison, and garlic, as mentioned above, are also well known ganic methods, i still stand firm in that warm water shot in a hard stream or iso alch used str8 in a hard blast to A> knock them out dead from the blast, and B. the alchohol kills them instantly.. it is easier than mixing up concoctions and worrying about the ill effects on the plants or the nasty look or smell, nevermind all that gunk clogging the pores in the leaf where transpitration takes place.. the only time you can count on them being dead is using brute force GARRRR i like your style aeric :-D

btw benito
(not that anyone takes any notice to any of my posts, dunno why i even bother but..)
you can use the inside of a citrus rind or it's juice do cleanse the undersides of the leaves if water doesnt work well in cleaning the plants of the nasty organic sludge you doused them with OR if they begin to suffer from lack of gas exchange..

you say the leaves are in bad shape, this may be the reason or it may have been the bugs that did the damage when did the leaves all shit on you? I NEVER use the organic pesticides on cannabis man, its nasty IMO

they make bottled sprays too, they have a cinnamon spray a garlic spray a neem spray a capsicum spray a nicotine spray all fromt he same manufacturer, if i had my old bookmark link list i'd link you but its easy ebnough to make your own as u well know now.

ONE MORE THING ON GANIC CONTROLS
(or virtually any method of control)

they will build a tolerance up to whatever you are doing after a while,
its ALWAYS best to alternate between more than one pesticide, i said it before but no one noticed i hope you guys understand that the chile only works for a period of time than youll be clammoring for that iso bottle lemme tell ya

The damage is definitely from the bugs, the spray didn't cause it...only damage was to my eyes and lungs,

the first 1 is a predatory mite from the phytoseiidae family they basiclly eat other mites here is a pic


the second is a flea from the anthcoridae family


both realy good for thripes, i do use wasps for any white fly and some types of aphids.

peace

i have found that diatomacios earth does wonders for the little buggers! a little on the leaves and a layer on top of the soil and no more problems or nasty chemicals, and since it is a mechanical pesticide no residue except a little white dust and bugs dont build a tolerance!!!!!!!!!!!

diatomaceous earf

diatomaceous earf

johnnyBegood said:

no dust except a little white residue...

Click to expand...

yeah, and dead bugs
great tip JBG! this can be dusted into the grow room with a duster,
a dusting gun (more like a bazooka :smile
it can also be used as a top-dressing. you can cover the entire soil surface with it
it holds moisture though so be careful your soil isnt drying out underneath unknowingly, i use this in my outdoor containers as A. a slug deterrent B. A MOISTURE RETAINER!!!!

use in combination with pyrethrin powders and put that bazooka to good use!! (get some sulfur powder while your at it for the control of Pow.Mild.)
(the blowers are cheap they look like a lil leafblower and it dusts whatever you fill it with so use both the pyr. and diat. in combination..

they also make a powder that has both in one mix ask your local garden center,
no need to go to the hydro store for this, feed and seed places also sometimes have them, never been to a *real* farm feed and seed but the ones out in some rural areas in the NE like agvvay have them, or any online garden supply, use froogle.

I was turned on to this by DrawoH (for PM,sulfurdustin') thanks for reminding me JohnnyBeGood i need to get one at the store when i go this week.

they also make a hand pump version to puff the stuff into crevices or small plants/spaces whatever, im getting 2
1 for the veg cab and 1 for a buddy as a stocking stuffer. its real neat! look for it!

also KANEBOSEM, THANK YOU FOR THE ELIGHTENMENT! Fabulous reply, i appreciate the extra info

One "fresh" Hot Shot No Pest Strip hanging anywhere in the room will take care of this problem in 24 hours....also using predators will not totally eradicate the bad bugs;they never get'em all. Good luck no matter what you choose to do. Take care...BC