Is it worth battling spider mites to save genetics or nah?

[sbeanonnamellow]

Buddy hit me up and asked what to do and I'm torn. Haven't dealt with the borg before and not sure if my advice of getting rid of everything cleaning the space and fogging the room before staring any new genetics from seed is overkill or not.

I'm worried it'll be an ongoing battle trying to save the work but of course we hold onto it because it's ours. My heart goes out to him because I know he's bummed. He's the type that works more on keeping mother's and diverse parental stock around than what gets flowered out. Losing out on the flowers isn't the heartbreak, it's the genetics and plants. They're his friends. His family.

My thought is there are plenty of seeds to look for something new, but I'm sure there's some attachment to what's already been started and selected.

What's the reality of battling the borg in 2022?

 

[goingrey]

Based on your second paragraph trying to save the genetics would surely be worth the effort to your friend.

How about taking some small cuttings, cleaning them well (soapy water or alcohol), and putting them into quarantine in a clean isolated (intake filtered) space?

Also spinosad should kill the mites and some kind of oils their eggs.

 

[Loc Dog]

Saving genetics would be the only reason. I tried to save plants, and was total waste of time. I had broad mites, which are the absolute worst. Snype has a post on combatting broad mites with neem, which I imagine would work for spider mites. Do you actually see webs? My plants got very sick and tips turned brown. Needed microscope to see them.

That was to save a clone only strain I knew I would never be able to get again (GG4). To save something of unknown results I would think is waste of time.

 

[bigpeter]

I guarantee this stuff works. Instructions say 2 applications 5 days apart, but I've never needed more than 1 application. Make sure you spray thoroughly under the leaves. BAC Plant Vitality Plus

 

[Creeperpark]

Make sure it's B.A.C. Plant Vitality Plus, which is good stuff, and not Plant Vitality Pro because Plant Vitality Pro has been banned again so don't use it if you already have it. Here's the link;
http://www.hg-hydroponics.co.uk/blog/2014/08/06/plant-vitality-pro-banned-again/

 

[StickyBandit]

This guy seems pretty confident
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej-NJjEJJ6U&ab_channel=Liqui-DirtLLC

 

[Wall]

These spiders are a horrible plague!
With a mixture of dishwashing liquid and onion juice the result was very good! And by switching to coconut + dishwashing liquid mix + onion juice
I haven't had any more red spider in 8 days ! Without switching to toxic products. In working in the ground I put pieces of onions above the pots!
This drives out a lot of predators without damaging the plant... But being made of coconut protects you well from spiders!
When there is no soil and there is hydro there are a lot less dust mites! This is logical... the earth attracts a lot of crap By playing with washing up liquid + onion juice and even pieces of raw onions on the earth. This makes the environment hostile for many predators without getting into toxic chemistry! Being in coco with a few sprays of the juice was VERY EFFECTIVE! I don't even see any more eggs on the leaves... but that's a big problem! Especially since we must not SMOKE grass full of dust mites!
The respiratory tract suffers a lot!!! do not smoke grass filled with mites ... not at all!
But any information on this scourge is good to take!!!
Thank you !!!

 

[VerdantGreen]

I have spider mites quite regularly.. they are pretty easy to get rid of... but it will compromise bud quality if you spray... if saving the genetics is the priority them of course it is worth it ! i only use organic remedies and i don;t find it difficult to beat them.
first thing he should do is remove all the badly infested leaves. Time is of the essence so get going !
VG

 

[f-e]

I have always done best with the full dunk approach. Easiest as cuttings, but even a bush can be dunked, with a big enough container.

If I must spray for such a critical pest, then only a fogger will do. Covid has made them cheap to. A good wetting agent, and you should be able to get everywhere. It's amazing the coverage you can get, just fogging into the back of a fan. However, a partial death is no death at all. Partial death breeds resistance. For this reason, it's often better to just drown them with wetting agents or use fatty acid sprays. Save the poisons for dunking, when you know you are not missing any. Breeding greenhouse mites isn't funny.

 

[Wall]

not the BUD in watering! Of course Logic
if we are in bloom but all the rest of the plant...leaf...stem... the red spiders are a calamity!
Even big Pro companies with lots of dollars have a hard time eradicating Spiders! I tried toxic products: ARG, it's disgusting... I wouldn't even think of smoking plants treated with that!!! Not even in a dream... with onion juice and dishwashing liquid over 10 days the result was positive BUT I CHANGED FOR COCONUT... keeping the culture in the ground doesn't really work. It helps but doesn't solve the problem... the coco helped me a lot!!! No insect comes to squat the coconut and the environment is very humid for Spiders. It's not their preference I don't have any more and I'm very happy... whereas before in the ground and toxic product it was horror !!! lol

I put a photo of an AK420 selected in a 3L coco pot... no trace of NOTHING!
Neither egg... nor anything at all! And even it becomes too big after 3 weeks... in flowering it will be strong!!! But I will never have that in the ground with the red spiders. Not with my current setup. The coconut and the juices did what I expected from them!!! It's perfect


Neem Oil: Neem oil is obtained from the seeds of a tree that grows in India. Its insecticidal, acaricidal and bactericidal properties no longer need to be proven. However, it remains prohibited for sale in France as a phytosanitary treatment, including biological.
Potassium black soap: Black soap is made with potassium salts and a natural fatty substance, vegetable oil (usually linseed and/or olive oil). It is commercially available in liquid form or in a soft paste. For use in the garden, it is advisable to take liquid black soap because it is easier to use. Two to three applications with intervals of five to ten days will be necessary.
Pyrethrum Oil: Pyrethrum is a plant insecticide extracted from dried chrysanthemum flowers. This insecticide is also called Dalmatian pyrethrum (Tanacetum cinerariifolium). It is a good natural acaricide to be applied two or three times leaving an interval of five days between each application.
Infusions of wormwood mixed with sodium silicate are very effective (sprinkle the species in spring and autumn)

all work pretty well.. in a rational and visible way but the dishwashing liquid and onion have finished the job in style in my Boxes!!!
If it helps I'm happy because I never want to waste time in cultivation again to fatten dust mites and smoke SHIT... a lot of time and energy wasted. And a lot of frustration too. The fight against dust mites is exhausting

 

[Lester Beans]

Floramite. Take cuttings and spray with Floramite. Clean and fog room. You can spray the existing plants with Floramite and take cuttings later. Just don't use it on plants that will be flowered in the next 45 days. It is a systemic and the plants will be safe from mites for 30 days. You can buy small quantities of it on eBay as it is wicked expensive for a larger size. You don't need much and it's a one time application.

 

[HempKat]

Well I've never had spider mites so I can't suggest some sure fire treatment to get rid of them. To answer your question though about your advice, like others have said, given the way you describe your friend's connection to his plants then yes, getting rid of everything is not really an option and probably is advice your friend would resist following. Thoroughly cleaning the space and equipment before another grow is started is pretty much a given as is treating any infected plants and keeping them in quarantine until you can verify the mites are gone.

There is one other important thing that needs to be done however, all that other stuff addresses the mites that are already there but your friend also needs to address how they got there in the first place. It wasn't by magic or by forces beyond one's control there were things done or not done that made it all possible. Given that your friend treasures genetics I can imagine that a good potential avenue is that he accepted or traded for some genetics that he didn't have but wanted to have, from someone else. I'd be willing to bet the most common way spider mites or any pests enter a grow is by unexpectedly being imported on the gifted genetics of someone else. So if this is the case your friend needs to develop the practice of quarantining any new genetics coming into his grow until such time as he can be certain no unwanted passengers came with said genetics. This is a practice your friend should adopt anyway even if it turns out the mites got there some other way. It's just a good protocol to maintain in order to keep a grow space clean and healthy especially if that grow space contains treasured genetics that may be irreplaceable.

Now if the mites didn't get transported in on some genetics it's possible it just randomly found its way in there by chance, that can happen but the only way mites or any other pests that by chance make it into a grow space and end up thriving is if the conditions in the grow space aren't optimal or dialed in for healthy plant growth thereby allowing conditions to exist somewhere in the grow space where the pests can thrive. This means having the right temps, the right humidity the right air circulation/movement and most importantly the right air exchange/ventilation. Temps, humidity and air circulation/movement can effect how comfortable a grow space can be for a pest and the more comfortable it is the better it is for the pest to thrive. The air exchange/ventilation is the most critical though because what will most keep pests from taking hold is if they can get sucked into the ventilation and blown out of the grow space. Plus having the air exchange/ventilation dialed in will help you with the other things like humidity, temperature and air circulation/movement. This essentially means figuring out the total cubic foot space of your grow area and then having a fan powerful enough to move out/exchange all the air that fills that space, in five minutes. So for example if you had a grow space that was 150 cubic feet, you would need a fan capable of of moving 30 cubic feet of air per minute. 30 cubic feet x 5 minutes = 150 cubic feet every 5 minutes. Where people generally run into trouble with this is the figure the right space and get a fan strong enough for that space, but just barely strong enough and they don't factor in the resistance that is created by things like carbon scrubbers lengths of tubing directing air to the vent or scrubber, the size of the vent, the size of the tubing, the number of bends in the tubing, running the air thru an air cool hood to cool the lights. All these things can create resistance for air movement and that resistance will lower the amount of air the fan moves per minute. Now all that can be difficult to calculate so what you do is pick a fan that can move a bit more air then you need and then match it with a carbon scrubber rated for the speed fan you have. The Carbon Scrubber is going to be your biggest source of resistance so if you get one rated for your fan that means your fan will be able to move the amount of air per minute that it's rated for without the carbon scrubber reducing that amount. So if you have a fan rated for 30 CFM (cubic feet per minute which is how fans are rated) then you will achieve the 150 cubic feet in 5 minutes for complete air exchange. So you would need to have a carbon scrubber rates for 30 CFM to maintain your desired air exchange.

 

[GMT]

I hate chemicals.
spidermites hate wind, but the lava hate high moisture more. They absorb it until they die.
Take several cuttings, pop each separately into a sealed see through container, (water bottles cut in half then reassembled works well). Let the cuttings root at high humidity. They should come out clean.
The grow area itself needs to be nuked.

 

[zachrockbadenof]

yeah , if i had an elite, that was hit with mites, i'd spray the shit out of it, isolate, spray again.... u can rid yourself of mites... its a pain but can be done, espec to save an elite

 

[hamstring]

This guy seems pretty confident
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej-N...=Liqui-DirtLLC

This is your answer.

#1. Get a USB microscope
#2. Have your friend defoliate down to a manageable amount of vegetative growth. No way to kill all the mites on a large mother plant. Need to have small area to focus on.
# 3 Spray the plants with this inexpensive concoction. It works I have sprayed and watched as it kill both adults and eggs. Spider mites have evolved to survive many miticides. This is a multiple solution approach. I keep quart jar full of this in case I see something. The peroxide in it is good for any fungal problems also.
#4 Remove plants and clean room with bleach.
#5 Take clones .
#6 Once clones have rooted and show new growth get rid of moms and clean room with bleach again. Spray clones with concoction and monitor with USB scope.

It took me a 8 months to get rid of them but it can be done to save his genetics.

 

[Morcheeba*]

look into a myco-insecticide No-Fly WP, its safe to use and all around good product to have in your IPM program. It is effective on many plant pests, including spider mites.

i eliminated fungus gnats in my living soil beds by foliar spraying my cover crops every other day for 2 weeks and i havent seen a gnat in months.

Spray your room down daily with a potassium salt mix like dr zymes or green cleaner or a diy mix and also spray outside the structure your growing in. if you want a systemic look at Forbid 4f, its expensive but you need very little each application and it stays in the plant for 60 days.

i have been spider mite free over 2 months so far but i will not feel relaxed until i get a few harvests done w/o seeing signs of any.


peace

 

[lemonade]

Forbid 4F, Floramite SC.

DONE.

 

[Loc Dog]

I have always done best with the full dunk approach. Easiest as cuttings, but even a bush can be dunked, with a big enough container.

If I must spray for such a critical pest, then only a fogger will do. Covid has made them cheap to. A good wetting agent, and you should be able to get everywhere. It's amazing the coverage you can get, just fogging into the back of a fan. However, a partial death is no death at all. Partial death breeds resistance. For this reason, it's often better to just drown them with wetting agents or use fatty acid sprays. Save the poisons for dunking, when you know you are not missing any. Breeding greenhouse mites isn't funny.

Is wetting agent worth it?? I usually use a few drops of dish soap for that. I am just trying to save GG4 genetics. Last grow sucked (actually one before that was lame also, but thought too cold or lights/PH not tuned right). Will have to sterilize room and tent. Once I get a dozen cuts rooted, can throw out the 3 plants I have.

 

[revegeta666]

I'm a little shocked no one has recommended to try predatory mites.

Where I live is Spidermite City (my house is surrounded by tomato fields). I am yet to use chemicals of any kind.

What I would suggest is, take cuttings of everything so the pest will be more manageable. Put the cuttings in a separate room from the plants. A box with a lamp is all you need. Keep humidity high if possible.

Order predators (a combination of californicus and persimilis is what they recommend where I live). Give them a few days see if you can avoid using systemic posions.

And maybe at the same time use spinosad or Plant vitality or whatever on the big plants, in case the other plan fails.

But I am pretty confident in the effectiveness of predators, as I have both spinosad and plant vitality bottles still unopened thanks to these little bugs. They are more expensive than bottled solutions but if the mothers are that important to him, why not try to save them with no chemical intervention?

Persimilis especially are extremely voratious. Once there are no more spidermites, predators will just die of hunger and leave your plants clean.

Californicus are recommended as a preventive but both are used in combination when the infestation is advanced.

Maybe I should mention I am Spanish, and these are the spidermites we have, maybe in the US they could be less effective if you have broadmites or other mutated mites. Still worth a try I think. Everyone says spidermites are so dangerous because they evolve over time to resist pesticides. But you can't evolve to avoid getting eaten

 

[TanzanianMagic]

Buddy hit me up and asked what to do and I'm torn. Haven't dealt with the borg before and not sure if my advice of getting rid of everything cleaning the space and fogging the room before staring any new genetics from seed is overkill or not.

I'm worried it'll be an ongoing battle trying to save the work but of course we hold onto it because it's ours. My heart goes out to him because I know he's bummed. He's the type that works more on keeping mother's and diverse parental stock around than what gets flowered out. Losing out on the flowers isn't the heartbreak, it's the genetics and plants. They're his friends. His family.

My thought is there are plenty of seeds to look for something new, but I'm sure there's some attachment to what's already been started and selected.

What's the reality of battling the borg in 2022?

People like to think big when it comes to predators pouncing on their nemesis - however think small. Fungi, bacteria, sugar.

I like to ferment sprouted hempseeds/microgreens with raw sugar and water, and that deals with a lot of insect infestations. Once every 2 weeks for extra energy, and 3 x per week if there is an infest infestation to get rid of.