Spider Mites, Here's what I tried, what should I do?

Hello fellow OGer's.

As an experienced grower, sometimes I get too cocky for my own good. I tell myself, I got this grow thing dialed in and the results are always great...except for one thing...SPIDER MITES!

Over the past 2 years the only problem I have controlling is spider mites. I have tried:

Liquid soap and water,
Neem Oil,
Neem Meal,
"BANG" (A product specifically made for Mites),
Lady bugs (good for short term, but die quick because of CO2),
"Don't Bug Me" by foxfarms,
Vacuuming them off the buds,

and no matter what I do, they just won't leave my beautiful girls alone. They spread their web along my nice Big main cola's and enjoy the sweet taste of my maturing trichomes

Is there anything that I haven't mentioned that is organic and kills these MFers for good? I now have to wait until my harvest before I can transplant my 4 foot G13 x Haze plants so that I can bleach the heck out of the room.

Any Suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Keep smokin,
B

Id narrow ur specifications for what u need, if u been having troubles with em for a while...Id not be bothered if the stuff i was using to get rid of the buggers was organic or not, id just want em gone! I aint(touchwood) had em yet, indoors that is, got some on outdoor plant last yr! but knoocked off fast with a bsic bug sparya that is safe to use on edibles(i figure if u can eat it-smoke it, lol...it says its safe to eat the veg, the same day its been used. Just called Bug-Away, by a company called Bio.)

there's a semi new product called " bugzyme " on the market , it's NOT poison it's a enzymatic plant pest killer { it kills them with enzyme's} and is very safe & natural, and can be used in flower too !

Here's a link :

http://www.dechydro.com/pesticides.html

it's on the bottom of the page .

this is NOT the only place to buy it and while i never get bugs in my grow , i have friends that do and swear by this stuff !


Peace

you should probably try neem oil again and bleach entire growroom and its contents. you could be transferring mites and their eggs to different parts of your house on your hands and clothes after you take care of your plants so you could clean all other rooms to steam clean carpet furniture and wash all draperies and garments. after you have done that you could let off pyrethrum bomb foggers in each room to zap eggs and mites in the rooms. the foggers dont kill your plants. try to stay away from other growers with mites. I think the neem oil works better when mixed with liquid dish soap .I have had mites for years and I am able to prevent a total infestation but not totally eliminate them. it takes alot of work to deal with them PEACE BRO

Also, bio bizz do Buzz off, wich is organic...the griow shop bloke told me its almost all Neem!

can't just spray it on one night or two... you have to stay with it or the eggs just hatch and they hump again ~

Dutch master penetrator mixed with pyrethrin , mixed according to instructions.
This will knock them out ! 2 treatments will do it .

Thanks for all the info folks. I will give some of your ideas a try!

Keep smokin,

B

nothing will knock spider mites out in 2 treatments.

Hello man i just found a few mites on some of my clones... i about shit my self..i havent had them in 10 years..plus i have o.c.d so i just cant stop thinking about these bastards...but i not going to lett them get me down i have been spraying every 2 days with neem and i havent spotted any more...i have no ideal how they got in my room... i only garden after i have showered and i garden naked only so i know they didnt come in on me...early detection is key you have to find them before they get a foot hold..neem is the best thing because it stops there reproductive cycle and thwarts further development.. you have to make sure you cover the entire plant leaves ;bottom of leaves ;stems; medium every were i even spray it all over the table trays containers i go crazy with it... heres to beating these chump borgs...

take care
greenfriend

I've got a big black spider hanging in my flower room above the lights that I got during halloween shopping season at wally mart and it sure can't hurt anything unless it falls. I also put neem concentrate straight into the water before I water and try to hit them where they live about once every 2 months or when I see some bugs. Some strains draw spider mites more than others. Some soil mixes have bugs. Proper drainage will help reduce bugs, put hydro clay pebbles or rocks in the bottoms of your soil containers. These work for me, knock on wood, here comes summer. 8+)

I had my first infestation last year and used this stuff called defenders and it got rid of a really bad, out of control mess. This was in veg mode, a good spray every 2 days for 2 weeks got rid of them completely. www.defenders.co.uk
good luck whatever you use...

I cannot agree more with zeppelindood. Repeated, persitant applications will rid them. I've had em, and I've received clones with em. No more though, thanks to diligence and neem oil. One tip with neam oil, use a wetting agent with it, because oil and water dont mix well.

LOL @ GreenFriend; i am the same way with them fuckers. if I see one, i will search hours and hours making sure i got them all.

In flowering I hate to spray anything, so I use predator mites. They need to be applied at least 2 times, about 2 weeks apart, but they do the trick without any chemicals whatsoever.

try http://www.naturescontrol.com/
-KRS Juan-

Here's from an old post of mine:
Spider Mites are my ARCH enemy! Fighting them on and off for 4 years. cut off any unneeded foliage and drop in a bucket of Malathion. Smear Vaseline around the edges of pots and drying trays. I mix half strength Pepper Max and Neem with a little juice from cigarette butts. Spraying with an upward motion ONLY at lights-out. Rinse the next day right before lights on. Then let off two (or more, depending on room size) PCO foggers and two of the more expensive pyreth bombs at the same time. (lights off as well) You can also vacuum them off carefully with a brush attachment and quickly escort them outside, which works nicely when in bloom, but you lose some crystals. Make sure you have a filter in your shop vac. Of course ANY pistils you spray will turn prematurely. Agrizyme is supposed to be safe up until 3 days from harvest. That may be true, but it sure does kill pistils and didn’t prove to be a magic mite during bloom cure. Spraying with Dr. Bronner’s peppermint soap leaves an aweful smell/taste even 2 weeks before harvest. Keep temps as low as possible. Below 80 degrees helps slow them down. They don't like moisture but unfortunately mold does. Take a shower and wash your clothes and shoes. There was a rumor (and I saw it written) that bringing the CO2 levels to 10,000 ppm for an hour would kill ANYTHING. A grow store had me experiment and supplied the gear. The hard part was getting a CO2 meter that went to 10,000 ppm. Very expensive. Long story short, it was a wive's tale. They certainly didn't like it, but it didn't kill all of them. One of the main concerns was if the high doses of CO2 would harm the plants. It did not. I worked my way up to sealing off the room and letting an entire bottle off and stay that way over night. The plants didn't mind at all. Don’t breathe in high amounts of CO2 or you’ll get dizzy and a headache. Had it worked, we would've had a popular new mite eradication product and be worshipped throughout the galaxy..
Lady bugs didn't work but they were pretty and left an illusion of good luck. Mite predators work if you have a million dollars to cover a large population and whatever you do DON'T sprinkle them and the sawdust looking crap they come in on sticky plants if you intend to smoke it. It causes a singed hair/barbeque smell/taste. Sprinkle them at the base of the plant and let them crawl up. The predator people don't tell you that. Also, all of the spray cures will kill the predator mites. Eggs are the second problem and an oil is the only thing that penetrates and kills them. Every time I've cleaned out an area I've found a corner where they had a mother nest that wasn't on plants. I dip my clones in a Neem mix when I cut them and they don't mind. Repeat any treatment every 7 days. Mixing up treatments helps avoid tolerence. I heard another rumor that a sulphur burner would kill mites but I haven't tried it. All of this has truthfully worked or not worked for me, (no urban legends) but use at your own risk. You probably know most of this, but I felt compelled to write this just in case. Mites will be around long after people and they've certainly taken a year off of my life. Writing this makes me itch.
with love and respect,
Gamera (of Tokeyo)

correction

correction

zeppelindood said:

nothing will knock spider mites out in 2 treatments.

Click to expand...

Not quite true there Zepp. Avid will kill every single mite the first time you use it. You won't see another. I know 5 different people who have used it and everyone has the same result.

Do you want to use Avid? That's another question.

We had spider mites... (HAD) spider mites.

Neem oil, applied as per the manufacturer's directions, sprayed on EVERY surface, every 3 days for 2 weeks will get em. I used neem for about a year with no success, UNTIL I finally stuck to the regimen and got em!

After the 2 weeks is up, just watch for single leaves that exhibit those tell-tale dots. Cut them off, spray again. Repeat until you have no reason to start a spider mites thread :smile:

P.S. Our infestation was MAJOR, but patience and dilligence won the day.

Great response guys,

Great response guys,

Thank you all for your information. I am glad that I am not the only one that has this problem.

FYI... the product called "Bang" seems to work a little, but the smell and taste stay on the buds for a few days and the pepper that is in this stuff taste awfull. Would not recommend it. I am also concerned about using a foliar spray on flowering plants because I am afraid of mold. I have some lady bugs commin in on Thursday and I am going to try the neem oil/water mix along with CO2 poisoning again.

Wish me luck!

Keep smokin,

B

Spider mite destroyers (stethorus Punctillum) tiny lady bugs that eat 40 mites per day as adults .

Neem spray underneath until soak down, 30 minutes later rinse with cold water. Repeat weekly till gone. Hold leaf to where the light shines through and makes it real bright green- mites will appear black. About a month from now you will have a million times less, another month from that they could possibly, I say possibly be extinct. Then you can do your preventative maintenance. Winters are nice cause the mites go sleepy.