Hydrogen Peroxide and Molasses for killing MITES

Hello Everyone,


I have been researching the Agricultural and Greenhouse Mgt. uses of Hydrogen Peroxide for Pest Control and feel VERY encouraged.


I am the sorry recipient of Spider Mites and this is the Third time in 20 Years that these little Rapists have attacked my Plants.


Through my research I have discovered some important things regarding Spider Mites , Hydrogen Peroxide, AND the addition of Sugars such as Molasses or regular Sugars to foliar feeds. (I already use Horticulture Grade Powdered Molasses as part of my Nutrient Program so I am a big Fan of Molasses)and I have already successfully eradicated a horrible Powdery Mildew disaster with the Jorge Cervantes H202 and Water bud soak method. This is on youtube or just Google. Completely saved my Crop 5 years ago.


Here is the Recipe that I will be using and please note that text that is quoted is taken from other sources! When you see NOTE the following text will be my thoughts/responses.



1 cup of Molasses
1 cup of 3% hydrogen peroxide
1 gallon water


“This formula is effective as a plant enhancer and protector. Spray this mixture on your plants, and watch them turn dark green and shiny. The plants absorb the sugar solution into their leaves, while the hydrogen peroxide cleans the leaves of bacteria and fungus, creating healthy plants that bugs don’t like to eat.
It can be sprayed once a week as a preventive measure. The extra bonus this spray provides is tastier fruits and vegetables.”


NOTE HERE are my reasons that are actually Scientifically backed for this approach and the fact that most insects, especially Spider Mites EXPLODE from the inside out due to their guts not being able to process the ingestion of the Sugar. Oh, happy day.



[FONT=&quot]“Sugars are how plants store energy for rainy days and winter hibernation. So, why is this important to you as a gardener? Aside from basically giving your plants a power boost, you are stopping bugs. “What?” you ask. Yes, it stops bugs. Insects are very simple creatures. They can only feed within a narrow window of sugar content. They take one bite and move on.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]The second way molasses controls insects, is by being directly ingested by the insect. What most people don’t know is that only Sugar Ants and bees can easily process the simplest sugars. Insects have no way of expelling the gas that builds up from fermenting sugar and the vegetation in their gut (draw your own mental pictures please). Plus, they have exoskeletons and can’t get bloated. Their delicate internal organs are crushed from the inside out. All a bug needs to do, is walk through or try to feed on a molasses covered plant. Insects are constantly cleaning themselves. They will try to lick the molasses off their feet and swallow it. If they take a bite of a molasses coated plant, they will swallow it.”[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]NOTE I also am happy about the fact that even if I miss a leaf Spot the Spider Mite will shortly walk through a Molasses MINE FIELD and self destruct. KABOOM![/FONT]
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A Hydroponic Grower wrote this: “ I have been using hydrogen peroxide (H202) in my hydroponic system and thought I'd tell you about it. I use it as an insecticide, root and leaf stimulant. Hydrogen peroxide is a molecule similar to water, but contains an extra oxygen atom. This makes it very reactive. When H202 comes in contact with an anaerobic microorganism, the oxygen jumps to the microorganism, burning it.

For any insecticide I mix 8oz of reverse osmosis (rio) filtered water (you can use distilled water) with 8oz of sugar and boil until the sugar is totally dissolved. Then I add 4 milliliters (35%) H202 and pour the mixture into a gallon of r/o or distilled water. You can dip the plants or spray them, making sure you are using a spreading agent. It kills spider mites on contact and stimulates growth.

As a root stimulant I mix 4 ml H202 per gallon r/o or distilled water. lt seems to stimulate growth and stops root diseases in the initial stages. In bio systems I water the plants with it every few days. In hydro systems I dip the entire root system.

I use the same solution as a spray on leaf. It seems to increase the rate of growth. The overspray is washed into the hydroponic reservoir and kills microorganisms in the tank, resulting in cleaner water.”


NOTE- I think using Hort. Grade Molasses in Powdered form may eliminate the need to heat the Water. Also, I will be getting the 35% H202 which is the level of what is considered “Food Grade.” Due to my being in an Emergency situation , I am using the 3% H202/Peroxide which is readily available at any Pharmacy or Grocery Store.


“Now Spider mites have a definite reproduction cycle like any organism. In this case it's almost identical to fleas. Adult-egg-larva cycle is about 7 days meaning that a 1-time application will not be enough.
You want to apply 3x over 10 days which will break this cycle. Otherwise you'll see them back as you've already seen.”


NOTE I realize that some of you know this but I thought this would be helpful for others to read.

The Process and What I am doing


My Plan of Attack so far IS FOUR fold as I have Early Flowering, VEG, Mothers AND ready to Harvest Ladies.


Ready to Harvest will be dipped in the Jorge Cervantes H202 Bath and hung to dry for the day. The Moment I saw the Webbing yesterday on one plant , all of them were excommunicated to my Deck. Why reinfect indoors with Mites whilst trimming? I would rather be safe than sorry and have already used the Cervantes H202 Bath in the past. IT WORKS with barely any harm to Trichomes. I do not have PM but this Bath will eradicate any Mite related nastiness from the final Product. (my reasoning for now)



I have moved the Veg Plants to the Flower Room to join some other Ladies that are already two weeks in early Flower.


All of the Girls in the Flower Room have been Sprayed heavily with 50% Hydrogen Peroxide and 50% Water. No Sugar yet.
Mothers were given icy Cold Showers then Sprayed with the 1/1 Hydro and Water concoction as well. (The Moms are quite large and Mites HATE Cold Water)



I have also made sure to spray the sides of the Pots/1 Gallon Hempy Buckets/100% Perlite.



All rooms have been Vaccumed and cleaned with Bleach and Water


To bring Temps down only one HPS in the Flower Room was allowed on during this light Cycle to let the Air Conditioner cool the room quickly and for visual aid. (In middle of horrific heat Wave)


Three and Six days from now I will be spraying with the H202, Molasses and Water Recipe.


Oh, all diseased leaves were also removed AND am cleaning the bejesus out of the rest of my home. Due to chronic illness + ER/Hospital +IV Morphine, I was unable to do much the past 4 days as moving in anyway was very painful.



After all of this is said and done I will continue to Spray all of my plants once a Week with the Molasses and H202 concoction until they are in the last two Weeks of Flower and report my findings.


I thank all of you in advance for reading my Tome and look forward to any positive exchanges that we may have regarding the eradication of Spider Mites with Hydrogen Peroxide and Sugars or just Hydrogen Peroxide and Water.



I would humbly like to request that the scope of this thread stay on track to this Subject.


Thank you! Pippa LaPlant also known as Vert

The Ladies in all stages are looking a bit better today. Still cleaning like a Mad Woman. I will try to remember to get some before and after pic's of them tonight. Lights on at 10 pm and off at 10 am. Summer Schedule.

Cheers,

Pippa

Damn. Nice write up man...

OP

Oliver Pantsoff said:

Damn. Nice write up man...

OP

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Thank you Oliver!

I am starting to get a bit lonely here in this thread but see that the information I am providing is proving to be helpful to others. That was the intent!

Thanks again,

Pippa

Hey Vert,
i too appreciate your thread & write up..
looking forward to more..
subbed!
bless

i think i might still have some spidermites leftover. i'll try this jazz and see if it works.

cool PBL, keep us updated pls

Hey everyone,

Thank you so much for your Responses.

Well, I sprayed everyone with the Molasses concoction AND have a test plant that is ready for full Harvest in three days that I have sprayed as well.

The Ready for Harvest plant is being sacrificed to see the effects of the Molasses Spray on quality of the cured Bud. She is segregated and marked for ID purposes.

I forgot to add that I had to spray all of the Clones in the AeroCloner as well. So far, all Girls in AeroCloner, rooted clones/veg, Flowering and Mothers have been Sprayed as well as the single candidate for Harvest.

After I sprayed the Girls in Flower I noticed a fantastic smell of Butterscotch, freshly baked cookies smell. Not very Scientific but delightful in nature.

All plants dry and semi dry have a glossy sheen from the application.

I will continue to report findings positive and/or negative regarding these applications. The next application will be in three days time but I will be checking in daily to write about whats going on.

I continue to be hopeful that using this Application will prove to not only kill Spider Mites but other Pests as well. I also am interested in continuing usage Weekly as a preventitive and general health enhancing Foliar feed.

Oh, due to my having read that many species of Mites develope immunity to a repetitive treatment with a single Product, I am hoping that this method can abort that process due to the non expanding capabilites of their exoskeletons.

Hugs to all and many thanks for your encouraging responses,

Pippa

Nice thread. Thanks for the info

Should I give this a shot for broad mites as well? I'm throwing the whole arsenal at these buggers in hopes of saving at least some of my crop!

petert said:

Should I give this a shot for broad mites as well? I'm throwing the whole arsenal at these buggers in hopes of saving at least some of my crop!

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Hello Petert,

I posted a link in the Broad Mites thread to this thread as I have read of very positive results using this Foliar Feed on various pests. I personally would go for it if faced with your problem. Due to Broad Mites not being able to process sugar , I would think that they would self implode!

One of the reasons I have been cross posting information to the Aphid and Broad Mite threads is that I am hoping we can come together as a Community for battling these pests and using less toxic substances in our Battles.

If you are nervous about this Spray then try it on one test subject. Personally, I see nothing too frightening about the ingredients and so far all of the Ladies are not looking adversely affected AND improving.

A word of caution, I would be nervous about trying to engage how successful this Foliar feed is if I had recently sprayed something else like "Dr. Doom" on the girls. SO, I would advise you to isolate some plants for testing purposes for Foliar applications. Just Foliar. Still administer any Water or Soil mgt. practices that you are utilizing right now.

Please , Please Post your thoughts and experiences here as I would LOVE to know the effectiveness of this treatment for "Broad Mites."

Thank you so much for Posting and I wish you the best of luck with your dilemma!!!!!!

Extra hugs,

Pippa

PS if you are throwing everything at your Girls then you will need to document the different approaches that you are using. It would not be helpful to you if you use three different feeds on everything. You would not be able to isolate the cause of healing or otherwise. I realize that I may be stating the obvious but thought I would just throw a precautionary statement your way.

Thanks Vert! I've re-scoped and believe I'm actually dealing with Russet/hemp.
It's extremely hot here today in central Oregon, so I'm going to close up the greenhouse and turn off the fans... I've read they are sensitive to heat.. It's 100 outside now, I can easily achieve 115-120 degrees and then open things back up. Hopefully it will kill some of them off or at least disrupt their breeding !
I'm hitting them with my home brew preventative tonight which contains some Dr. Bronners soap, Aloe Juice, Neem oil, and different combinations of clove oil, geranium oil, peppermint oil,lemongrass oil. Rosemary and citrus oils!

A cup of molasses sounds like a shit load, make sure you rinse it off after that sounds like enough to clog the stomata. I use a product called EZ Wet SC that is a yucca and sugar extract that works the same way and it works great at 8-10ml per gallon

BubbaBear said:

A cup of molasses sounds like a shit load, make sure you rinse it off after that sounds like enough to clog the stomata. I use a product called EZ Wet SC that is a yucca and sugar extract that works the same way and it works great at 8-10ml per gallon

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Hi BubbaBear,

Duly noted! Thank you for your advice! I am only doing the heavy doses three times within a ten day period to initially kill the Mites.

(Stomata clogging is always concern. Even with Neem Oil. I have read quite a few precautionary tales of how Neem oil can Clog the Stomata's.)

Then it will be fresh cold water and a lighter amount of Molasses/Hydro Water for upkeep OR maybe one heavy dose. To be continued in analysis. LOL

The Yucca and Sugar extract that you use, has it successfully killed Spider Mites?

Thank you so much,

Pippa

Definitely rinse it off after every one of two applications, this will also help by rinsing off the dead mites and eggs, so your not smoking them. Yes EZ Wet sc definitely kills mites and eggs, it's a great natural low tech product that has many uses, wetting agent, soil conditioner, insecticide/miticide and sugar supplement.

Hello Everyone,

Well, after close inspection I still see the presence of Spider Mites under the leaves. Granted I have only done the first application and am supposed to do the next spraying on the the 21st but we shall see.

Now, there is something I need to clarify and this is important.

The usage of Hydrogen Peroxide for Organic and non Organic Farming is backed by MANY Scientific studies.

The usage of Molasses and its effectiveness against Spider Mites and/or the effectiveness of Sugars as a Foliar Feed on Insects is NOT.

I just got off the Phone with Professor Shields at the Entomology Dept. at Cornell University/Integrated Pest Mgt./Agricultural Dept, and THERE IS NO RESEARCH TO SUPPORT that Sugars will foul up the digestive systems of Spider MItes. Research = Repeatable results and Formal Studies.

He did say that PREDATORY MITES have proved to be the most effective way of managing Spider Mites and that many studies have been done that provide positive and conclusive evidence. Even though many of us know of this I thought I would formally Post it.

We then get to the question that there have been many times that Organic or a more natural approach is used in Plant Care and that it is deemed non-conclusive due to no Studies having been done by the Science/Agricultural Community. No evaluation due to no repeated Studies or any studies at all.

I really want to make clear to all of you these clarifications as it is not my intention to mislead or offer "false" evaluations.

I feel at fault for not more thoroughly following up on the usage of Molasses or Sugars on the Physiology of Spider Mites from the Science Community. I see threads in Farming Forums and Plant Care Forums for its use, and people claiming great results but that is not backed by Science. Just because it is not backed by Science (the use of Molasses/sugars) does not mean that I will stop this experiment with Foliar Feeding.

I hope no one feels mislead and that everyone understands that this is an experiment.

So far the Mites are lessening, not eradicated BUT I have two more cycles of foliar feeding to conduct.

Thanks so much EVERYONE for your continuing input to this thread,

Hugs,

Pippa

A pyrethrum TR 2 ounce fogger is a good first step whenever you have a mite out break, there natural and can be used up untill the last couple weeks remember when you have a outbreak you dont only have mites on your plants you have them all over your room a fogger is the best way to kill them all. Then I hit the plants with something thats going to rinsse the dead mites off your plants that also kills eggs, like EZ Wet sc, then rinse that off with water, preferably ozonated water. Not all the same day so day one pyrethrum fogger day two EZ Wet sc and day three a water rinse,

Also my two cents on using predator mites, trying to eradicate a out break is usually near impossible. They can help by preventing a out break if there inplace before plant sucking mites come BUT all insects that live on your plants shit and piss on your plants. Ive seen videos of it on YouTube. The mite squoze out a drop of piss nearly as big as the damn mite. A buddy of mine is a total organic enthusiasts and uses predators and also believes in not spraying your plants with anything once flowors are formed but his damn weed always sparks when l smoke it, l never know if the spark is from a mite egg or skeleton or from its excrement its fucking gross though when you think about it

Ian fighting a mite infestation as we speak. I posted images to my album and made it public. I am trying to get info on if those buds will recover or are they a lost cause. I'm thinking of using a heavy synthetic bloom concoction since it's so early in bloom to see if it will boost growth in those infected buds. Right now I'm using green cleaner, azatrol and protekt. I've been on a strict worm tea regiment so I have no clue when these plants would have been stressed out. Please help out. I love your post looking for a Hail Mary. Thank you.

interesting... thanx for posting.
I use a solution of H202, alchohol, and detergent mixed in water (for nearly 20 years now) as a bug killing frizz. I also use scotts bug b gon but only when things get rough.
Molasses wasn't on the radar back when I was paying attention to the grow scene so this is new info for me. Might just try this out as I have some pests on some plants I brought in from outside.