Spider mites, 1 day before the cut, what to do?

[THCV]

I just found a brand new infestation of mites in my room. I pulled the one plant that was worst off and harvested it; it is drying isolated in the basement.

I could just harvest today, but i was hoping to wait a few more days for the best trichomes. Here's what i am wondering:

1. Is there anything i can do to allow me to wait a few more days for full ripeness? Can i actually put any anti-mite anything on my almost ready buds, or should i just cut? Will harvesting even help?

2. Post-cut, i dry in a closet off the flower room. No doubt the mites are all over. Do they infest drying bud too? Or just living bud?

Any help would be much appreciated. I have read a lot on here about mites, but not specifically about this late in the process and drying/curing. Please inform me. Thanks.

THCV

 

[senseless]

you better search that stuff quick. mabe einstien oil, and neem oil will be ok to use so late in flowering.

someone on this site has a tobacco recipie for spaying on the plants, that shouldnt harm them that much i would think..

 

[bartender187]

i wouldnt use neem in later flowering... personally i wouldnt spray anythin on my buds....

ide just bide your time, let things happen. Not much you can do this far into it... After the cut, spend awhile steralizing that room, pyrethum bombs, isopropol alchy, miticide, whatever...

they only colonize on living plant matter.

 

[Guest]

One day before the cut? Cut now... one day will not matter much anyhow and then follow bartender's advice.

 

[THCV]

thanks guys. I just found more mites in veg, of course. I went ahead with full harvest today, and it was fine as most plants were 50%+ cloudy, many with some amber too. So basically, didn't even harvest early.

I was told something cool by my hydro shop guy. When drying after the cut, if you hang the plants upside down (which i always do at first), the mites will crawl to the top of the stalk within 3 days and you can just cut it off. Pretty cool.

I'll be bombing the rooms with pyrethium etc--normal course of mite efforts. Lil bastards!

 

[PazVerdeRadical]

good call not trying to kill any bugs that far into flowering, it would have ruined your whole harvest. peace.

 

[Rosy Cheeks]

When an insecticide is biodegradable, it means that it breaks down and disappear (after a while) thanks to microbacterial activity. Neem oil breaks down relatively fast (in any case, the azadirachtin, which is the active toxic ingredient, is not very toxic to mammals, no more than the nicotine in the tobacco plant - which is an avasoconstrictor and nerve toxin), in a week or two, so it's safe to spray your plants up until a week or so before harvest. And with a good cure to follow, you'll be sure not to smoke azadirachtin. If you control your growroom humidity and your strain is not prone to fungi or mold, you can hose or mist your plants regularly. The mites do not like humidity, the higher humidity the less they prosper. The problem is, many growers bring humidity down in flower, and that's when mite populations explode. A good shower even right before harvest won't hurt your buds, after all they can take rainfall outdoors, can't they?

 

[killabrown420]

good point rosy

you guys think water curing infested buds could "drown" out some of the mites?

I got em too, and they are hell to keep at bay...I use stuff from spidermitecontrol.com

it works wonders in veg, a couple sprays does the trick

 

[PazVerdeRadical]

A good shower even right before harvest won't hurt your buds, after all they can take rainfall outdoors, can't they?

sure thing, although rainfall is a bit different from spraying insecticides, whether they are biodegradable or not. the idea of growing your own herb is exactly to avoid any extras; even if these extras are considered harmless or virtually non-toxic, they are a mass that is best kept away from the harvest, since mass regardless of its category will still produce an excess of smoke that cannot be separated from the smoke of the herb when they combust simultanesouly. in the case of neem oil, it won´t evaporate or biodegrade fully, an oil residue will be left when applied so close to harvest, even a couple of weeks is not enough if the grower does not wash down the plants gently and properly.
much peace and health!

 

[Rosy Cheeks]

You don't have to worry about the mites after harvest killabrown420, they won't survive the death of the plant. They suck the sap out of the plant's vascular system, when the plant is cut their food source is gone. The strongest adults will try to leave the plant (for another), the rest will simply die. It is simply not very nice to smoke dead mites and their web.
I understand what you're saying PazVerde. Oil residue or not, it's the toxic ingredients you need to worry about, and it brakes down after a week or two. In a perfect world (without mites) I'd prefer not to spray the plants with anything, but you know just as well as I that spider mites can destroy a whole crop in a few days if you don't fight them, so the lesser evil (neem oil) overrules the greater evil (mites). If mites are fought systematically with regular pesticide treatments through veg and early flower, you may not need to spray at end flower.

 

[PazVerdeRadical]

Yes Rosy... lol at in a perfect world, without mites or any of the crap that can mess up the herb... i bet there is such a world somewhere peace!

 

[THCV]

So here is what I am doing to get rid of the infestation in my vegging plants and prepare the flower room for them:

1. Sprayed all veg plants and clones with Floramite.

2. I will bomb with Pyrethium in the flower room followed 4 days later with Attain, then put the veg plants into the room the next day.

3. I'll start regularly applying Neem Oil in veg and a few weeks into flower from now on.

The first 2 are serious and seriously un-organic, but i am taking no risks as my infestation looked like it was going to be bad and i have read enough horror stories. Once this infestation is over, I think I'll be able to keep things organic with Neem. Thanks for your help, all.

 

[killabrown420]

You don't have to worry about the mites after harvest killabrown420, they won't survive the death of the plant. They suck the sap out of the plant's vascular system, when the plant is cut their food source is gone. The strongest adults will try to leave the plant (for another), the rest will simply die. It is simply not very nice to smoke dead mites and their web.

I know i don't want to smoke those lil bastards or their webs either, so would a water cure get rid of the remaining mites/eggs/webs on the buds or should you hang them upside down like what was mentioned before?

 

[Babbabud]

Neem oil

Neem oil

You can spray neem oil right up to the last week of flower with no problems.

 

[THCV]

water cure? yuck. I like my herb smelling dank, not neutral. The bugs are congregating at the tops of the cut stalks. The eggs are on leaves which have been trimmed, so i don't think i'll be smoking eggs or bugs. They had built very few webs, so when i get to the manicure i'll be able to make sure everything is nice and clean.

 

[MTF-Sandman]

Hey THCV, let us know how the floramite works on em. I've used Avid with great results in veg, but I wouldn't mind switching if it does just as good a job.

 

[THCV]

a little less than a day after spraying, i pulled a leaf from the most infested plant and it still has mites crawling on it. ugh. but apparently floramite takes a few days to kill them all so i will have to be patient...

 

[THCV]

ok, ya'll. today i looked at some infested leaves under the scope and all of the mites are totally dead. so the floramite did its job, and i can recommend it. The plants all look great, no worse for the wear aside from some dimpled leaves on 3. up next: the bomb.

 

[UNREGISTRD]

ok, ya'll. today i looked at some infested leaves under the scope and all of the mites are totally dead. so the floramite did its job, and i can recommend it. The plants all look great, no worse for the wear aside from some dimpled leaves on 3. up next: the bomb.

Nice Thats what i want to hear...Now Where did u get the FLORAMITE?? And how much is it??

 

[Haps]

You can vacuum the bugs off with a good shop vac, yeah you do loose some trics too, but it's better than chemicals or web residue. Think of it as using your vac to give yer colas a hummer.
H