How To Fight Spider Mites Mid - Late Flower

[C21H30O2]

So like many of you I have recently had a run in with our most hated of enemies, the spider mites. This is only made worse by the fact that my plants are in mid flower thus preventing sprays or bombs with which I could defeat the ever expanding ravenous hoard that had so brutally feed upon my girls. I feared that my plants and yield would suffer from the onslaught. I could of course use predator mites to fight this dark army but they work best when spider mite numbers are few... and in my situation I was weeks if not days away from complete domination. I had to remove them manually so i used a moist sponge but this method was slow clumsy and only half effective.

It then hit me, why not just vacuum the bastards off. I know what your thinking... the vacuum will do more damage to the plants than the spider mites... but that's only if you don't use the correct attachment. After a good vacuuming I could hardly find a spider mite where as before they dominated almost every bud on the plant. The plants were completely unharmed from the vacuum when I used the proper attachment and my plants are nearly free of spider mites. To finish them off... a huge dose of predator mites


First you need a good shop vac.



Pick an attachment that does not suck too hard and preferably it will have brush hairs to knock off spider mites making them easier to suck away from the plant and destroy their webs if present.



Dust them down with predator mites



Happy plants... fat nugs

 

[Rosy Cheeks]

There was a couple of threads at Overgrow back in the days about vacuuming your plants, so the technique is already in use.
You did the right thing though and thought out of the box, so karma to you for doing so.

I did this myself once, and all I can say is, set the suction speed at low, because leaves will get ripped and shredded if not. It does keep a serious mite infection back, so it's worth a try.

 

[Secret Squirrel]

Very Very good Idea man.I give you prop's for not stoping the fight.
This is why I love icmag and miss OG so much.

The exchange of pure unfiltered knowledge and idea's.

 

[buzzmobile]

The same vacuum method can be employed against whiteflies too.

 

[jtk707]

Thanks for the idea bro . I never spray chems . During veg i learned <from an old indian fellow > to blast my plants with a water hose and i have had little or no probs with mites . I was wandering what people thought abot NO PEST STRIPS . I think that they put somthing negative on your plants

 

[C21H30O2]

update

update

its been a few days since treatment... still no spider mites. no spray, no bombs

 

[Moppel]

i was gonna say , use the vacuum cleaner.

But what a lot of people dont know is that predators dont do their job when light is on 12/12 , they are in a kind of wintersleep if light is not long enough.