My mite wars are about to be over. But before they are, the latest experiment report:
Yesterday morning I applied the spray made with 1.5tsp Rosemary oil (medium quality, from the health food store), 1drop of Peppermint oil (super duper high quality - hence only one drop!) and 2 drops of plant based dishwashing liquid in 3/4liter of water. I chose this leaf that had 3 on it to track:
Over the next 24hrs or so, the bigger one seemed to stop moving (i nudged it once with my little fingernail before the last pic to see if it would wriggle, it didn’t). I’m pretty sure that one is dead, and maybe the little ones. You’ll notice a third little one popped into the frame on the later shots. It was moving around and the others weren’t.
I’ve also read they have rest periods but I don’t know how long they are - so I guess they could just be resting (although that’s a long rest for something wth a very short life-cycle!).
If I get these mites to deal with again and don’t have the Eco-oil available I’d use the technique again but do it the way Conradino suggested, and use spinosad with some essential oil action added (and the dish liquid if needed).
In the end it’s not a Borg
style takeover situation and I think the predators have been keeping this mite population low for a while. These plants were stressed so I’m not really surprised they were susceptible.
This morning while checking them over, I realised the trichs on the GTxNL#1 (the one with he most mites, that I’ve been photographing) are looking like this
vvv, so I’m harvesting her in about 10 minutes, along with the little Ice next door, whose trichs are even more overripe!
Mini harvest here I come!
. There’s nothing in it in those pics because the MB didn’t have much of that going on. I did peg a big branch to it that had nothing to hang it off tho. And there’s some buds drying in it now because I trimmed some off one of the remaining girls to get rid of a little rot - and had some ok bits, worthy of drying. 
)
) @BigBearNTexas, yes the concoction includes a drop of dishwashing liquid (plant based) - I do that with all my foliar sprays because I’ve read that the spray doesn’t adhere very well without it. It’s good to know it’s contributing to knocking them out. 
with tiny bugs & insects etc, although I do not have the knowledge Pterostychus does. Hopefully he/she will drop some insect knowledge on us for these beauties...Or @Fede maybe (if you’re still around?)
