SPIDERMITES and drying plants !

[Ringodoggie]

I don't know if you typically hang wet and dry trim or trim before you hang but.....

I would trim off the larger leaves and get rid of them. Mites will be much more predominant under the big leaves than on the buds.

Look at the buds under a 60x loop. Do you see any mites?

The few times I had mites, the buds were always pretty clean and clear. Seems they like the leaves better than the buds.

 

[Spicecowboy78]

There were definitely more on the leaves.
But a few of them were crawling on the buds too.
I cut all of the infested leaves off before I hung them up to dry.
A couple of hours ago I cut a small test bud to check it very closely under a magniying glass that I also use for checking the trichs.
And I found two tiny red spidermites crawling on it.
Finally I decided to quick dry the sample, including the mites, and about 15 Minutes ago I smoked the testjoint.
For a quick dried sample it tasted extremely good.
The aftertaste still lingers on and if mites have a taste like this, then let them be
But I highly doubt that mites taste like gassy, skunky dank
The smoke is super smooth too, especially for a quick dry.
And I am SUPER BAKED !
A heavy, hypnotic indica stone with a lot of body, but also a cerebral effect.
So, what is the conclusion of all this ?
I have a problem with my nerves.
Freud was wrong when he declared that only women can suffer from hysteria.
Even more I need my medicine, especially as I stopped with my alcohol habit only 5 months ago.
Spidermites are the worst thing(I mean besides cops) that can happen to your garden.
They can fuck up a crop in only a couple of days.
I was only panicking because of the fantasy that my drying buds could over night still be so hardly infested that they are completely webbed.
I really hope this is just a paranoid nightmare from a nervous spicecowboy.
Too much emotional stress, for a much too long period of time.
Cannabis helps me to feel much better.
It almost seems to strenghten my nerves somehow.
Maybe I am addicted.
I took tolerance breaks before.
But this time is was only for a couple of days, because I almost went nuts.
Normally it would be my profession to figure out, but I am not one of my clients...
I guess it´s the fact that since I stopped drinking I smoked every day, from morning till evening.
I was stoned, and I mean really stoned 24/7 for a period of 5 months.
I remember one night when me and a buddy shared a joint containing 3 grams of highgrade weed and 2 grams of Marokko hash.
I was super stoned for about an hour, but then I allready wanted to smoke the next one.
Guess that was too much.

By the way...
This weed is supeduper.
Gives me a will and the ability to write.
I should call it Mithy Mite


Cheers,

spice

 

[paradoxlost]

yea don't spray that shit. when you cut them down they'll go to the top of the plant. burn them, dip them in pH down, whatever you want to do, but fucking kill them man.

 

[Ringodoggie]

If you're seeing red mites, those are probably the predators. Persimilis is red. 2-spotted are milky white.

I'm pretty sure the mites will die without adequate moisture as the plant dries.

 

[Spicecowboy78]

Yeah, they are red indeed.
I really hope they will leave the drying plants and that it will be okay.
Humidity was much too low during the last two weeks and even tough I take care here is allways a chance that something could ve carried into my growroom.
We are surrounded by nature in this part of Austria, I love to take walks in the woods.
I have a cat that of course is bot allowed to even come close to the growroom, but You konow how it goes.
I cannot allways wash my hair or put on some protecting clothes before entering the room.
There problem is, according to my personal experience, that you can wash everythibg with blesch and whatever...
Obe you had mites in a growroom, chsnces are very high that you will have them in the next round also.
Those bastards are a miracke to me.
They allways seems to prefer certsin plants over others.
They are picky ��
And they are sutbborn.
And I sure don' t line them.

 

[megaman420]

Do you guys think it would be posible to acquire spidermites by introducing some new soil to my growroom?

50liters of cannabio terra plus soil came with fungus gnats etc, maybe more "nasties" in it? ..

Sorry for offtopic, i hate these devils ((

 

[~star~crash~]

these guy's are right ...don't spray ... the mites will travel up when you cut and hang your plants to dry..i've seen this a few times (more than a few actually)) . trim and clean & hang them upside down as usual

 

[Spicecowboy78]

Of course those beasts can be inported with soil.
They can be on literally everything.
That' s why the best way to prevent a serious infestation is to keep the climate unfriendly for mites.
Keeping humidiy as high as possible is the most inportant factor.
I realized that if the plants are still in veg and there are only a couple of mites on the leaves, you can get rid of them by spraying them off with cold water.
After a couple of times they most likely will start to disklie the place and move away.
And they don' t like every plant.
As long as they have a pissibility to choose, they will pick certain plants and leave the others alone.
Maybe that has something to do with the texture of the leaves or the way the branches grow.
Out if 9 plants only 2 were infested.
No symptom of spider mite attacks on the others.
I check for them like a superneurotic freak.
Even the 2 drying plants that needed to be harvested early are looking normal.
I didn' t detect any mites on the top (the stem in this case, because they are hanging upside down) jet.
I guess I cut them early enough.
Better a little less ripe than probably completely fucked up by mites.
Anyway, I don' t like them.
I guess mites and me will never be friends.
Before I hung the plants up to dry, I cut off all the leaves that had clearly visible mite damage and threw them into the fire.
As the leaves burnt with a "zizzzllle" I said:
"Hey guys, I' m sorry, but I must defend my crop. As you die, give your few remaining friends up there a warning.
Tell them via the morphogenetic field :
The same will happen to them if they would dare to touch my crop again !!!"

 

[swimman]

You could have tried bud washing... but I suspect it may be too late now.

Basically just dipping you buds in a couple of water and agitating them lightly to remove any pests and grime. I'd highly recommend it given the mite feces that must be spread throughout your crop.

 

[chuckyoufarley]

i sucked the mites of plant by taking the hose on the vaccum and sucking the whole branch up into the hose and 99% of the mites got sucked off of those buds branch ata time

 

[TheMushroomMan]

+1 for bud washing, as long as you aren't in danger of mold. Keep temps low, and a fan directly on the buds until they've completely dried off from their bath. Then, dry as normal.

I had a minor spider mite infestation late in harvest (also December 2017) and managed to salvage a good crop. Remove heavily infested leaves and give the buds a vigorous drenching (hose, shower head, water bottle). Keep temps low and humidity high to slow down the spider mite reproductive cycle (spraying with water before light out helps) - at this point they can't be eradicate from the plant without ruining the buds, but you can definitely keep the monsters at bay for a few weeks.

Side note - I've never found mites on my actual buds. The trichomes seem to do a good job of protecting the flowers.