best way to get rid of spider mites

[Robd1]

http://www.liquidladybug.com/

 

[MrBungle]

I use Capt Jacks as well, but the important part for fighting spider mites with Spinosad is you must use a wetting agent with it.... I use fox farm's sledgehammer as a wetting agent...
Add the wetting agent first, mix, then add the Spinosad... I usually mix a half gal at a time... A teaspoon or splash of sledgehammer and, 2 tablespoons capt jacks.. I call it The Captain's Sledge ... I also use Azatrol as an alternate... but only for veg or plants just put in to flower...
I use a pump sprayer set to spray a fine wide mist... start at the top and work my way down carefully covering the top and bottom side of all the foliage.. wear long sleeves and a mask.... use everything you mix on your plants, and never dump Spinosad down the drain.

 

[MileHighGlass]

Per 1 gallon of water:
1 oz. neem oil
1- 1/4" to 3/8" diameter rock of agsil16 ground into the water
2 ml lavender oil
2 ml thyme oil
2 ml eucalyptus oil
2 ml rosemary oil
In Veg and up to 2 weeks of flower add 1 oz. of dr bronner's soap.
Shake the fuck out of it while spraying.

This works plain and simple. Spray the undersides, and the tops of leaves. If you have an infestation spray every 3 days 4 times. Then spray once per week. If you don't want spider mites spray once per week until two weeks before harvest.

Before you know-it-all fuck boys start talking shit about spraying flowers, learn how fast neem, and essential oils breakdown on the leaf surface when the proper microbes are present.

FYI Spray until 2 weeks before harvest.


Good luck, and if all else fails flame throwers work every time.

 

[thesloppy]

Dawn (and some other brands') dish soap will make insectidal soap just as well as Dr. Bronner's, just make sure it's not one of the detergent varieties.. 2 Tbsp Dawn and 2 Tbsp vegetable oil per gallon of water will make an effective spray or dunk. Cut it in half if they show burning. Dunking a plant in the soap mixture will usually require a pretty thorough wash & rinsing until the plant stops spitting out bubbles, but most plants can handle a full dunk without complain.

Heat also kills mites, and is relatively free and available. A hot water dunk of about 110-120 degrees (you need an accurate cooking/candy thermometer for this), for 15 minutes, will wipe out most if not all of your mites, as will bringing up your grow room to those same temperatures for a half-hour or so. Sensitive plants may not take kindly to the heat, so it can be a bit of a risk...but so are most of the other treatments when you reach infestation level.

You can combine both of the above into a hot water soap dunk, for a relatively cheap, available and effective way to combat a mite infestation.

 

[coldcanna]

I think an important thing that pot growers overlook that is a common term in mainstream horticulture is "allowable threshold". Spraying neem every three days during a battle, and once a week as maintenance will kill 99% of your problem, switch to something like hot pepper or nicotine spray late in flower. There might be one or 2 banging around on some lower leaves but this will in no way effect final product in an substantial way. Laughing at people who throw away whole crops or drop hundreds on avid. If you feel things are so bad that you need heavy artillery, hot shot strips are 10 bucks and knock those fuckers out quick

 

[pipi710]

Spider

Spider

If you have time and patient you can use chopstiks and honey.
Put the honey in the chopstick and roll it by the underside of the leaf.

 

[Wendull C.]

If you have time and patient you can use chopstiks and honey.
Put the honey in the chopstick and roll it by the underside of the leaf.

You need to spray the poor girls you got those mites from. Makes me cringe to see that

 

[rykus]

Bronners soap is at London drugs in Canada now days I think.... Should be an easy find.

Wintergreen oil from the drug store works well n goes a long way...

 

[_tessarecting]

Omg...no...no chopsticks and honey....ffs

 

[SilentFeet]

I think an important thing that pot growers overlook that is a common term in mainstream horticulture is "allowable threshold". Spraying neem every three days during a battle, and once a week as maintenance will kill 99% of your problem, switch to something like hot pepper or nicotine spray late in flower. There might be one or 2 banging around on some lower leaves but this will in no way effect final product in an substantial way. Laughing at people who throw away whole crops or drop hundreds on avid. If you feel things are so bad that you need heavy artillery, hot shot strips are 10 bucks and knock those fuckers out quick

Yes, you can have spidermites and they wont affect your plants or yield that much.

It's only when the population explodes for some reason that they can kill your plants.

Defoliating during flower can keep their numbers down, as they are mainly on the fan leaves, and if you are pulling off the fan leaves that have lots of eggs and mites on them then it can help to prevent an epidemic happening.

But best to spray in veg, maybe twice, once when they are small and then just before putting into flower.

The downside in not eradicating them completely is they can build up a resistance to the chemical you are using to get rid of them.
And then you might find that chemical does not have much effect on them in the future.

Apparently in the US there is a strain of spidermite that has evolved to feed on cannabis specifically, and has a resistance to chemicals used get rid of them.
Apparently they are hard to get rid of.

I use Yates Mavrik, contains Tau-Fluvalinate, seems to work ok.

 

[Mikell]

Commercial vegetable farming estimates I have seen show 10-25% loss in yield from the presence TSSM in the field re: plant stress.

Regardless, fuckin' kill 'em all. I haven't tried wintergreen, but peppermint works very well.

 

[pipi710]

arañitas

arañitas

If you dont have time or patience use CBO
http://www.herer.cl/tienda/plaguicida-cbo-para-aranita-roja/.
I also plant fennel near my plants, ladybugs love it.

"Sino teni tiempo ni paciencia, ocupa CBO, disponible en la mayoría de los grow, yo lo he ocupado y es muy bueno, ademas planta hinojo cerca de las plantas porque sirve como casa para las chinitas".
Suerte

 

[Kozmo]

Temps?

Temps?

What about High Temps?

 

[OregonBorn]

I have kicked them with neem oil. It's a lot of work spray everything every 3 days for 21 days. Neem isn't a poison it works slowly but it works. they can't eat or reproduce, I tried lady bugs not a good way to get rid of spider mites, the ladybug needs to much moisture, so unless you want your room to feel like a swamp,and your buds to mold it doesn't work.

I have found that Neem works well for mites and PM. But real Neem for mites, not the refined 70% Neem that has all of the azadirachtin removed. It is a contact spray, so you have to saturate the entire plant to be effective. Mites have tiny webbing that they cover the eggs with, and while Neem will kill eggs on contact, it may not get through the webbing. Adding soap helps, but some of the Neem oils that I have say not to use a spreader (soap) with it. So you need to spray at consecutive intervals to kill all the stages of mites once they hatch. Spider, cyclamen and broad mites mites all hatch into larvae in 2-3 days time. So spray every 3 days to kill any emerging eggs. Usually 3 spray cycles will be enough. I typically spray Neem as a preventative for PM and mites every 2 weeks.

As for Neem/oil/soap and resistance, mites cannot become resistant to the oil and soap sprays. This is because oil coats and suffocates them, and soap lowers water surface tension, and drowns them. They cannot evolve to become resistant to these actions.

Also with Avid (abamectin) and Neem (azadirachtin), they both break down under ultraviolet light, so if you grow outdoors, you should be fine with using either one. Abamectin is trans laminar, meaning it will penetrate the leaf and kill the mites dining on it on the other side. This allows for less than 100% saturation spraying (which is hard to do effectively). Abemectin is also 100% effective for mites that it comes in contact with (direct or trans laminar). Abemectin will not kill eggs though. Soaps and oil sprays are more like 80% effective in studies done at WSU and OSU, but they will kill all stages of mites and their eggs on contact. So in both cases, multiple applications are required for complete eradication.

 

[Bmac1]

My last run Im pretty sure I had them show up for the first time. There was no visible damage to any of the 3 plants that they appeared on. Looked at them under a loop and there was no spots, just translucent white mites. I sprayed twice over 10 days with a 100% neem, sm90 water mix and didnt see another up till I had to chop early. Seemed to have worked and ive seen nothin on my mothers.

 

[OregonBorn]

BTW: Any agricultural oil (mineral or paraffin based, or even canola oil) will work on mites and other insects like aphids and thrips. It does not have to be Neem. Neem had 20 some odd other ingredients that are effective against bugs and diseases though. You can drink mineral oil. I would not drink Neem oil. One guy did that and wound up in the hospital. He lived though. He thought a bottle of Neem was veg oil and ingested it by mistake.

Soap sprays, Neem and ag oils are approved for use in Oregon, which has ridiculous restrictions and testing requirements for pesticides and residues. Some extracts like azadirachtin and pyrethrin are also allowed. Citric acid is also being used here as a bug spray now.

 

[WilliametteWilly]

Predator mites is an awesome way to go if you do not want to spray anything on your buds. I always like to start with the californicus when I first start the garden. They will live off of pollen if there are no spidermites around. If you are in desperate need, the persimilus is much more aggressive but will eat themselves and other predator mites. As long as your tempatures and humidity is good, the predator mites will defend your garden marvellously.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

So you need to spray at consecutive intervals to kill all the stages of mites once they hatch. Spider, cyclamen and broad mites mites all hatch into larvae in 2-3 days time. So spray every 3 days to kill any emerging eggs. Usually 3 spray cycles will be enough.

Excellent information. This works with safer's 3-n-1, water/iso combinations and any other oil and soap sprays. The key is complete coverage and sticking to the timetable.

mites cannot become resistant to the oil and soap sprays. This is because oil coats and suffocates them, and soap lowers water surface tension, and drowns them. They cannot evolve to become resistant to these actions.

Yep.

Also with Avid (abamectin) and Neem (azadirachtin), they both break down under ultraviolet light, so if you grow outdoors, you should be fine with using either one.

Your mileage may vary. Conditions can keep it around (even outside, especially with root drenches for aza products) for MUCH longer than the mfg's 'testing' will show. Ask the growers who've had their product rejected after testing...

Personally, azadirachtin products are a solid "No F'ing Way," in my garden. This includes unrefined neem oil and neem seed meal. Totally and completely ruins the cannabis for those of us who are allergic to azadirachtin.

 

[EL1M1N80R]

Noobie question here.

How do spider mites get in contact with your indoor garden in the first place?

 

[DJXX]

Noobie question here.

How do spider mites get in contact with your indoor garden in the first place?

they are hitchhikers...they just catch a ride on you from anywhere....and all you have to have is one, just one....and in a few months there are hundreds and before long thousands...if you know another grower with them, be careful while visiting them...they will catch a ride right into your garden..DJXX