SPIDERMITES and drying plants !

[Spicecowboy78]

Dear fellow growers !

As I checked for my indoor plants today, I realised those familiar spots on the leaves of two of my plants.
After closer inspection I detected a few spidermites.
The plants were typical 8 week indicas and it were in week 7, th´s why I decided to cut them before those bastards could do more damage.

No webs so far.

I checked a few buds under the magnifying glass and detected a mite here and there.
not too bad, but still infested.

I normally dry my buds in a dark and cool room (temperature is about 12 degrees right now.

Like allways, I hung the plants upside down to dry.

But I am nervous about the whole thing.

Is there still a chance that those beasts could spin some webs over the drying buds ?

Will they stay on the buds or leave them as they dry ?

I do not want to quick dry my goodies.

I would really be thankful for advice.
Don´t wanna have a sleepless night because of that shit...

Thanks´,


spice

 

[Spicecowboy78]

Ahhh...
And sorry because of the spelling.
I´m nervous as fuck ;-)

 

[legalizeRO]

Search Spinosad or Laser 240 (it's the same thing).
It's a biopesticide and it kills almost if not all insects pests to our plant.

I had a very serious problem with gnats and it made it a bad dream.

It can also be applied in flower. They give a green light even applying to ripe fruits and vegetables. The only downside it kills bees too, but indoors that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Spicecowboy78]

Thank´s for the advice, legalizeRO !

I´m not sure wheter I can get this product here in Austria.

And to be honest :

Even if they claim it would be non toxic for humans, I do not want to spray anything on my buds.

Anyway: It´s too late, because they are allready hanging to dry.

I read that if you hang a mite infested plant upside down, the mites should, as the buds dry, move upwards, towards the stem of the plant.

Is this true ?

As I allready mentioned above, there are no webs, only the typical damage on the leaves, which came literall over night, btw.

It happend that fast.

I cut the plants, becuase a couple of years ago I allready had a severe problem with mites and one plant was totally ruined, the tops looked like a fuckin cocoon.

I took a look at the trichomes under my magnifying glass and most of them are milky.

The buds look great.

But :

I also detected a few mites crwling on the buds.

And that´s what makes me feel anxiuos...

 

[Moppel]

Hang en upside down. All mites will go to the point where you cut the plant, that is still moist. Burn en with a torch.

 

[Spicecowboy78]

Here is a picture of a bud.
It' s MK Ultra, btw...

 

[Betterhaff]

Try spraying them down with water with a hand sprayer. I’ve knocked them off by spraying at a close range, being somewhat forceful but not enough to be knocking off trichomes. Depending on how much you have, do it over a bathtub or wash sink that can be rinsed out after. Then shake the buds of excess moisture and put a fan on them for a bit to dry them out. You don’t want them to mold.

 

[Spicecowboy78]

Thank´s for the advice, Moppel.

You mean the mites will move away from the buds as they are drying ?

And they will not build webs on the drying materila ?

 

[Spicecowboy78]

Yeah, Betterhaff...

I do not want to spray around now, sorry...
They are hanging allready and I really hope that the mites will just leave the buds as they dry up...

 

[Spicecowboy78]

Jesus Christ, it´s been a long time since I visited ICMAG...
How can I give you guys a positive reputation ?

Karma it was called during the good old OG times...

 

[Spicecowboy78]

Oh, I got it

 

[Spicecowboy78]

No, I was mistaken...
For heavens sake, how can I give you guys some positive reputation ?
Guess this is NOT my day ...

 

[Spicecowboy78]

Jesus Christ, it´s been a long time since I visited ICMAG...
How can I give you guys a positive reputation ?

Karma it was called during the good old OG times...

Here is a picture of a bud.
It' s MK Ultra, btw...

Don´t know whay, but the pistils look white in this pic.
They are not.
Ca. 70 % of them are allready brown, and as I meantioned before, the trichs are allmost all milky, and very few are amber.
So, the buds look ripe.
I could have waited a week or 2 more, but damn mites...

 

[legalizeRO]

In Europe you'll find Laser 240. It's the same thing, only more concentrated. For home use 20ml will help you for a loooong time. For mites family they do recommend a bigger dose, but I guesstimate that means 1% instead of 0,5% that gnats need to die. I'm very unfamiliar with the german language, but you can use Google Advanced Search for your country or adjacent countries, for Spinosad, Laser 240, or even Saccharopolyspora Spinosae (that's the bacteria that this stuff is made from). I found it on Amazon UK under the name of Bayer Succes 50ml Spinosad, but it seems a bit expensive... Search Ebay too. I'm in Europe too and I found at least 10 stores in my country that had Laser 240.

 

[Spicecowboy78]

Anyway...
This is not my day.
I am allready nervous enough because I´m on a tolerance break right now.
I was a heavy drinker for more than 20 years and 5 months ago I stopped and since that time I am 100 % sober.
Cannabis helped me a lot with my Alc withdrawl symptoms.
But now that I stopped smoking (4 days ago) all the symptoms seems to come back full time.
I am shaking and graving like crazy.
Not for weed, but for Alcohol...
I will quick dry a bud and give it a try to get a climpse of the potency
I cannot torture myself like this.
Now is not the right time to take a THC break.

 

[legalizeRO]

You can use as a preventive on future grows. Apply once in grow cycle and forget about it.
I never thought I'll have a gnats problem living in a apartment way up , and in the middle of the city, but I was wrong. I'll never be unprepared again.

 

[legalizeRO]

I'm sorry about your problem. Alcohol is shit. Well most of it is. It makes you ill, and people can see when your having alcohol problems, and treat you accordingly, even if it's subtle. Since cannabis I can't drink more than wine, and even that if it's not top notch quality. Good luck !!!

 

[Spicecowboy78]

I don´t know how this happend...
There were no signs of a mite infestation until a couple of hours ago.
I had mite poroblems before, but it never happend that fast.
I will check out this product, legalizeRO.
But maybe next time I will use some natural enemies as preventive measure.

The problem is that humidity was way to high in this grow, especially during the last 2 weeks.
Mite slove high humidity, don´t the y?

 

[Spicecowboy78]

Thakns for your nice words, legalizeRO !

Well...
For over 20 years I drank about 6-10 beers and a couple of shots almost every single day.

It´s not easy to say no, but I had to.

I looked like shit, my liver was allready damaged and my kidneys too.

Now I look like a human being again, my liver and kidneys totally recovered, thanks GOD !!!
I am actually a very lucky person.

About 3 months ago I did a couple line of Coke.

First I was afraid to do it (and I know it´s not the best idea anyway) because everytime I used this drug I had a terrible hangover the next day.

This time nothing happend.

It was allways the alcohol that gave me this terrible hangover.

Anyway : Alcohol is a bitch and coke is a whore.
I will stick to my weed in the future.

 

[legalizeRO]

I wanted predatory insects too, but unless you have a company that sell them in your country, they don't deliver in another country. Believe me, I asked a lot of companies. They say they don't survive shipping. Spinosad is the next best thing, and you can buy a small cheap bottle and be safe for a long long time. If it bothers you the term insecticide google what it is , what it's made from, and what it does to help with the problem. In my opinion it's very safe.