ORGANIC WAY TO KILL EARLY STAGES OF SPIDER MITES

[LAMBS-BREAD]

Hi

I noticed a few spider miter underneath the big fans in the lower side of the plant. Look similar to the pics on this post:
PICS

I need an organic way to kill dem! I was thinking of neem oil, do u think this will get rid off the little S.O.B spider mites?
Is neem oil organic?
I heard that wind do disturb them, shall i blow the fan on the plants to trouble the spiders?
Do lady bug will kill them?
any other solution is welcome as long as its organic.

The plant are at the 13 day of flowering they just have some tiny buds started to show.

Thanks for the help

 

[Citizen024]

Organic is nice, but I would not hesitate to get hardcore with them. If they get established in your space is can be a never ending fight (especially is your going to be strictly organic) It get old, and if your stop, they are right back on your ass.

Neem is effective, BUT you have to hit them with it every three days for at least a week. I would say longer. Just cause it's "organic" doesn't mean it's good for you still, no real studies have been done with what happens when you combust neem, and it leaves residue for like 30 days. And it can effect your flowers.

The real bitch is that there are mites that are immune to it. I just dealt with some of those. I went organic, like I always had. Predators etc. I used in the past are slow to act, and rarely completely take them out. More like a really good stale mate at best. I neemed like crazy when they were cuttings, thought I took em out completely. That was all I had to do years ago, neem like crazy. They showed up about a month later, neem like crazy again, hosed em. Yeah, they are gone!. . . Nope- month later, back again. So I pyrethrin'd every plant around a couple times with Bug Buster O. I tossed the ones that had mites out, even though there were seperated from the rest to keep em from getting to vegging plants. That should have done it right?

Month+ later they show up in my now flowering plants- having somehow made it over there in just 2 plants. Caught em real early.

At this point they had been killed back several times to next to nothing (and never really webbed or even got a chance to colonize mind you). They had resisted neem, pyrethrin, and water blasting.

They had to be floramited. It was week 1 of bloom, so had time to let it break down. Sucks. Only way to stop em. I only saw they on a couple plants, but I treated all of them. Good thing I did, cause if you see a couple, means there are lots your not seeing. Sure enough, when I went looking for them again I realized they had gotten to more then I first suspected. Damage was barely noticable, but thank god I noticed.

BUT- they are gone. Knock on wood. Haven't seen one. It's been a week and a half. If they even try and show up, they are getting bombed, Mite Eradicated (go read the Spider Mite thread for the recipe) and floramited. Beat them down hard, no mercy.


Moral of the story: DO NOT LET THEM GET ESTABLISHED!!!!!!!!! DO WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO DO TO STOP THEM NOW!!!!! You don't have to look far around here to read peoples horror stories. Once they get a toehold on your room/space you will be locked in to a drawn out never ending war. They get into everything, so even if you clean your room, they can still show back up. It sucks to not be organic, but honestly, stopping them organically can be a roll of the dice- and if you don't they can get established. You have one good chance (though it maybe too late already if you have had them for months). You better off using a chem now to take em out once and for all (I know, your not into it- it's just my advice is all), and then following up with organics to be sure they are gone. Late flowering you really can't do much to stop em, so get em now!!!!

 

[LAMBS-BREAD]

Hey Citizen!

I just cut 90% of the infested leaves!! The plant are not full infected thanks god just the lowest part...I passed 3 hours under the plant checking every leaves one by one. I also cutted a lot of low branches and i separated the plant in the room (big room only 5 plant) tomorow i will spray them with water and after tomorow with neem and i will repeat the neem spraying every 3 days during a week. Maybe i will clean up the leaves with a sponge and some soap? don't know if this can work.

I've read the spider mites thread till page 5...My eyes are tired so will continue tomorow as well...

Thanks for the reply

 

[DrBudGreengenes]

​

If U choose to
"Fight Bugz W/Bugz"
Use a Combo Attack...
First send in the Ladybugz....
Not the best mite eater BUT....
Cheeeeep send in 3000....for 20 bucks
and they eat 35-50 mite/eggs a day
if mites R all they have they will eat alot of mites in a few days.
Mist your plants to raise the RH...
Spider Mites
Have a hard time dissipating moisture
(if they don't let it out they can not take it in...ie eat)
after the LadyBugz have all either Committed Suicide by HID
or left the grow area.
Send in the Pred. mites
the PredMite can now handle things.....
and the lady bugs should begin to reappear as if by magic.
The last ones laid eggs when they were there.
and the larva have been quietly devouring mites/eggs​

​

 

[happyhi]

Dr. Great post. i just found a fan leaf filled with the buggars in a room
with 16 plants and 8 different varieties. they are one to two weeks away from
finishing. They spend 6 hrs a day in the bright sun and 6 hrs under two 1k hps/
should i lock them up for the duration ( hate to loose the sun) and send in the
lady bugs? Or just check them outdoors carefully and remove anymore that i find. cant find them on the rest but can see the eggs with a magnifier so
they are there waiting to wreck havoc. Please advise, many thanks.
peace
couple of pics of one plant attached.

 

[Citizen024]

great predator advice!! I'll ad one little bit: spray your lady bugs with a little bit of sugary water. It sticks there wings for a bit so they stay put; slows down the suicide rate. They get everywhere. They only eat mites if they are starving, not their primary food source.

The predator mites like higher humidity to do there thing, like 60-65% or something like that. I believe (wish I had a link) they go dormant, or don't breed or something like that. Powdery Mildew like high humidity too, so be careful and keep an eye out for it. Be aware: since you have used neem you cannot sulphur for at least 30 days, which means you basically can't sulphur for the rest of your cycle. One of the reasons I can't use neem in flowering/late veg, PM is an ever present enemy in the coastal climate and I have to be ready to fight it.

It sounds like you have the time and not too many plants to take care of to do a lot of work by hand. Thats great, knock em back as much as you can physically, they can't resist that! It's the eggs you got to look out for, they breed every three days, if you can go a couple weeks and not see 1 you can break the breeding cycle. If you miss ANY of them though you will be dealing with them in late flowering, which is when they really do damage thats hard to stop.

After week 4 you have to be really careful what you use. If your still fighting them come week 4 (only 16 or so days off for you), your going to have some tough decisions to make. NEVER use Avid, dangerous stuff. Floramite is fairly low in risk in terms of pesticide; it kinda surprised me when i read up on it. I feel evil even taking about it. . makes me shutter. But spider mites are no joke and some of us are in no position to lose a harvest. I wouldn't use any insecticides after week 5- be very careful with neem even, it can damage flowers and taste.

Good luck!!!

 

[LAMBS-BREAD]

Thanks DrBG!

I think i can angle them with a combo of water, neem and bug? Or even maybe with water and bug only since i removed 90% to 95% of the infected leaves. I had 23° c (75° f) for like 5 days when i checked the mites i noticed that some was dead already or very slow. Today i will spray the leaves with wtaer on both sides. I'm going to raise up the RH too..

Thanks Citizen!

I think im lucky cause they are a really few. I checked the cleane leaves see if they were infested by eggs but it's not the case.
I don't know if i can get floramite where iam.

 

[Citizen024]

Found some in a few spots I missed. . . grrrrr...... death comes swiftly in the morning...

 

[Sam_Skunkman]

First of all ladybugs are not a great bio-control for spider mites.

Second, predator mites don't work under short flowering photoperiods. They work great under long veg light cycles. But predator mites will never kill all of the spider mites, I have never seen it happen. Control them yes, kill them all, no way.

Third, Don't use FloraMite on flowering plants. It needs to be used on very small clones as a dip, then you don't have to spray that nasty poison and breath it and get it on you. Keep your grow area mite free, and don't bring any new plants in without dipping in FloraMite, I dip the small clones 3 times 5 days a part. Then they are all dead, eggs, larva, nymphs, adults. Then I take them to my clean flowering area.

Fourth, use Gall Midge, Feltiella acarisuga or Predatory Bug, Macrolophus calinginosus for controlling spider mites in flowering.
There is no natural spray to control of spider mites, all they do is reduce the numbers and help control them by reducing their numbers not eliminating them totally.
Several dips with Neem oil does not kill all spider mites in all stages, I have tried.

Presume any new plant has spider mites, clean out infested growing area and spray area with FloraMite after removing everything and washing down with soap and water before and after spraying.
Do not handle, get on your skin, or breath FloraMite. This is nasty but it works if used correctly, the real secret is to use it early on very small clones as a dip, several times. I never have serious problems if I deal with it early. The earlier you find and deal with mites the better the chance to get them. Most people only see mites when the damage is out of control and killing all the spider mites may be impossible with bio-controls, so they use poison on flowering plants, I would rather kill the plants, or re-clone and dip.
Keep your grow areas and mothers 100% clean of mites and half your problems are gone. The other big source is new clones brought from elsewhere. They must be dipped several times before being allowed into the flowering room. If you have house plants check them for mites, if you do much agri related work consider showering and changing clothing before entering a grow room.
If you have mites in a veg room, they will end up in the flowering room. Monitor for mites and kill all of them if found. Basically if you have mites on your plants before flowering is induced you will have serious problems by the end of flowering, I have seen mites kill small plants and ruin to many large plants. This could have been avoided with prevention, monitoring and control.
-SamS

 

[shaunmulok]

great info Sam

 

[TheMintMan]

Spinosad.

 

[ibjamming]

How come nobody talks about "Safer soap"? I had some mites in early flowering once and it worked like a charm...

 

[LAMBS-BREAD]

Found some in a few spots I missed. . . grrrrr...... death comes swiftly in the morning...

Damn bro!! I hate them, lucky me i have a very few of them...

First of all ladybugs are not a great bio-control for spider mites.

Second, predator mites don't work under short flowering photoperiods. They work great under long veg light cycles. But predator mites will never kill all of the spider mites, I have never seen it happen. Control them yes, kill them all, no way.

Third, Don't use FloraMite on flowering plants. It needs to be used on very small clones as a dip, then you don't have to spray that nasty poison and breath it and get it on you. Keep your grow area mite free, and don't bring any new plants in without dipping in FloraMite, I dip the small clones 3 times 5 days a part. Then they are all dead, eggs, larva, nymphs, adults. Then I take them to my clean flowering area.

Fourth, use Gall Midge, Feltiella acarisuga or Predatory Bug, Macrolophus calinginosus for controlling spider mites in flowering.
There is no natural spray to control of spider mites, all they do is reduce the numbers and help control them by reducing their numbers not eliminating them totally.
Several dips with Neem oil does not kill all spider mites in all stages, I have tried.

Presume any new plant has spider mites, clean out infested growing area and spray area with FloraMite after removing everything and washing down with soap and water before and after spraying.
Do not handle, get on your skin, or breath FloraMite. This is nasty but it works if used correctly, the real secret is to use it early on very small clones as a dip, several times. I never have serious problems if I deal with it early. The earlier you find and deal with mites the better the chance to get them. Most people only see mites when the damage is out of control and killing all the spider mites may be impossible with bio-controls, so they use poison on flowering plants, I would rather kill the plants, or re-clone and dip.
-SamS

Thanks Sam! I have one of ur wonderfull genetics in the room the THAI x SKUNK, old fox in my erea only swear by this gen. The pheno i have have been selected in 1997 and since they keept it, turns clones to mother etc

Great read ur post is full of info, i heard that zero tolerance from ed rosenthal is the shit whens it come to get rid off spider mites organicly. I never tried it my self but i keep seeing good report in diferent places. What u think about it? Did u tried it? anyone here have?

Spinosad.

Whats that? can u be more specific?

How come nobody talks about "Safer soap"? I had some mites in early flowering once and it worked like a charm...

I never heard of that...I will seek information about it.

Thanks everyone

 

[TheMintMan]

Lambs-Bread: It's an insecticide that has worked for myself and many other growers. It's much less toxic than floramite, but is very effective. Not quite organic I don't think, but close. Google it to find out more.

 

[Sam_Skunkman]

Nothing wrong with good bugs to kill the bad bugs. A whole lot better then using FloraMite on flowering plants. I have used living Bio-controls for 30+ years, and can assure you they are better then poisons. Poisons are a last resort, and if used wisely, like on very small clones, before they are grown to be mothers to be used to make additional mite free clones, they are usefull. The amounts of FloraMite in clones from a mother that was dipped in FloraMite when small, then grown big for making clones, can not be measured, it is to small.
I have not used Spinosad, it sounds maybe useful. But as I use Trichogramma wasps to control caterpillars it might not be good for me.
-SamS

Fighting bugs by introducing more bugs into a growroom that should already be laboratory like conditions never made any sense to me.

Floramite or go home.

Dont fuck around with mites.

Getting rid of them is priceless.

 

[LAMBS-BREAD]

Nothing wrong with good bugs to kill the bad bugs. A whole lot better then using FloraMite on flowering plants. I have used living Bio-controls for 30+ years, and can assure you they are better then poisons. Poisons are a last resort, and if used wisely, like on very small clones, before they are grown to be mothers to be used to make additional mite free clones, they are usefull. The amounts of FloraMite in clones from a mother that was dipped in FloraMite when small, then grown big for making clones, can not be measured, it is to small.
I have not used Spinosad, it sounds maybe useful. But as I use Trichogramma wasps to control caterpillars it might not be good for me.
-SamS

Exactly i really think floramite ain't good for plant in flower bloom, probably too hardcore...I will go for a pack of lady bug and some ZT...although since i raised the humidity they seems to be gone.

 

[Citizen024]

My fight aint gettin any better. Week 3.5- had to Floramite now or never again. Once they get going, they are there for your round- plain and simple. Don't care what you do less you dip em in Floramite (yeah right at 20+"s), or maybe maybe the Mite Eradicator would take em out.

Really sucks I had to do it, I have NEVER had to use this stuff in the past. I used various organic controls in the earlier stages when I had to remove some mites that came in on imports. The took neem and pyrethrum; killed back to next to nothing, but not complete. So I chucked those plants. Somehow those mites got onto just 1 of my other ladies. And now, here I am 8 week later having to use the heavy artillery. But there is no way to fully get them all any other way, just way too much space. And if I can't keep em pinned down (cause I doubt Floramite will take em all out, cause I doubt I can hit every single leaf 100%) come 2 or 3 weeks I will be swarmed and unable to do anything. No f'en way. No way. Sorry.

This being the first time they got in, and they cause they kinda appeared out of nowhere'ish in flowering- I have to control them. From here on out I am controlling at the clone stage, then going organic from then on. So much easier to set them into bloom clean, in a clean room. Fortunately I can clean my room out easy; straight up mop and bleach and wipe all the plastic with bleach and water.

Owww and as for humidity- i finally got mine back down to the 50 range. It had been more like 60-65. The mites were just chillin out waiting to get their numebr sup, sure didn't go nowhere, they were just taken their time. I had to get my humidity back in range, cause PM is ever present my area. Pretty much guarentee you'll get it with high humidity.
Little bastards. . .

 

[LAMBS-BREAD]

Spider mites are real fukerz!!

Spider mites are real fukerz!!

Hey citizen have u heard of the hotbox sulfume? I try to use the search option but i find no threads with infos. Here is what they say about it:

"Safely eradicate spider mites"

Sulphur has long been established in commercial horticulture for controlling various insect problems but this is the first safe and effective unit for the hobby grower that we have found. Unlike many other units, this one vapourises the sulphur rather than burning it which means that no nasty chemicals are released into your grow room and that it's safe to use whilst your plants are still in the room. Effective at treating existing infestations or for preventing future problems, the Sulfume is highly recommended as a guaranteed Spider Mite control measure. Each unit is capable of treating areas between 2 and 50 m2.

I know that Zero Tolerance is made of natural stuff and seems to work great. Plus u can aply it untill 5 days befor to harvest from whay they say (i will say 10 IMO).
I haven't seen bad report about it yet and it seems more effective.

 

[Citizen024]

Thank you thank you!! I have a sulphur burner, I haven't heard of a sulphur vape though, and will surely check it out more. I know sulphur does mess with mites, but I have never heard of it actually taking them all out. Also, it's intense stuff to work with too.

A friend of mine run commercial hydro rose greenhouses, and you'd be surprised what they do there. But they aren't even thinking there going to be pest free- they are just managing them. He gave me a couple sulphur burners; said yes it will hinder insect progress, but not stop em. They use GNARLY bad stuff to fight insects since they are not an edible crop. Apparently though there are some things you can add to a sulphur burner that make life real hard on insects as well. But I don't know what they are, or how organic they are. Knowing him, it probably isn't.

Good news is, for now, I have seen nothing but dead mites. They spread so damn quick it's not funny. But I don't ever really let them get #'s. I think I am going to find something organic to spray; probably just insecticidal soap actually or a nicotine/pepper spray. Concerned about flavors, but I have time for it to breakdown. I can't use oils cause of PM fighting (which actually I haven't seen in weeks, but still continue to be ready for), and nothing else I have tried really kills em off. For now I am relegated to holding them down real well with Floramite ((( and punching them a lot with light weight organic treatment. I think Zero Tolerance is neem, and these little f'ers already went through about 8-10 rounds of neeming before, so I am not to confident it will take em out. Maybe other mites, but I seem to have resistant ones.

What a pain in the a**

Thanks again for the suggestion, I will research it up too and share what I find out.

 

[Madrus Rose]

First of all ladybugs are not a great bio-control for spider mites.

Second, predator mites don't work under short flowering photoperiods. They work great under long veg light cycles. But predator mites will never kill all of the spider mites, I have never seen it happen. Control them yes, kill them all, no way.

Third, Don't use FloraMite on flowering plants. It needs to be used on very small clones as a dip, then you don't have to spray that nasty poison and breath it and get it on you. Keep your grow area mite free, and don't bring any new plants in without dipping in FloraMite, I dip the small clones 3 times 5 days a part. Then they are all dead, eggs, larva, nymphs, adults. Then I take them to my clean flowering area.

Fourth, use Gall Midge, Feltiella acarisuga or Predatory Bug, Macrolophus calinginosus for controlling spider mites in flowering.
There is no natural spray to control of spider mites, all they do is reduce the numbers and help control them by reducing their numbers not eliminating them totally.
Several dips with Neem oil does not kill all spider mites in all stages, I have tried.

Presume any new plant has spider mites, clean out infested growing area and spray area with FloraMite after removing everything and washing down with soap and water before and after spraying.
Do not handle, get on your skin, or breath FloraMite. This is nasty but it works if used correctly, the real secret is to use it early on very small clones as a dip, several times. I never have serious problems if I deal with it early. The earlier you find and deal with mites the better the chance to get them. Most people only see mites when the damage is out of control and killing all the spider mites may be impossible with bio-controls, so they use poison on flowering plants, I would rather kill the plants, or re-clone and dip.

-SamS

Sam you might be confusing Floramite with Avid or perhaps not but referencing it as extremely toxic is not the case . FloraMite is in the least toxic group of pesticides which also have the signal word CAUTION on the label, but is listed as toxic and classified as Category IV pesticides. These pesticides require amounts greater than a pint for a liquid or greater than 350 grams for a solid to cause death in a 150 lb man. Pesticides in this group include: Benomyl, Copper Sulfate solutions, Diatomaceous Earth, Sulfur WP, Neem Oil and Safer Soap.

Floramite is classified right along side Neem oil , Safer Soap & diatmaceous earth etc and none of these (even neem oil) should be considered nontoxic. That means that even though any pesticide has only a small likelihood of being harmful, caution should always be used when handling these chemicals, particularly in concentrated form.

Aside from noting this overstatement regarding Floramite evry bit of the rest of your post is dead on true & tried . Avid is in the category III rating which one should use with caution . When u get into category I & II these are the ones that must be used with extreme care but would rarely ever be used on MJ .

regards

Madrus Rose