Ladybugs vs. spidermites

S

shinobi

New Member
I AM NOT SURE WHERE TO POST THIS BUT I HOPE I CAN GET SOME HELP.

hello i have 2 white berry in my grow room that have spidermites none of the other plants have them so i put the plants into the shower and misted the leafs with cold water and rubbed them also. Then i had to put them back and added about 100 ladybugs ........ my question comes in 3 parts.....

1st part how well do they work

2nd part how long will it take

3rd part should i just get rid of the 2 white berry



thank all of you who visited here
 
I used ladybugs on my most recent grow and they kicked the spidermites asses! Took about 2 weeks, putting on 20-30 ladybugs every day or so, but eventually enough of them were in the right places and they eliminated the mites.

Way better than using any kind of chemical on the plants!
 
RandyL said:
I used ladybugs on my most recent grow and they kicked the spidermites asses! Took about 2 weeks, putting on 20-30 ladybugs every day or so, but eventually enough of them were in the right places and they eliminated the mites.

Way better than using any kind of chemical on the plants!
Click to expand...

Huh. What a cool idea. Never thought of it, honestly. I mean, I've heard of it, but I'm accustomed to using sprays and stuff, not creepy crawly things to get rid of creepy crawly things. LOL

I'm assuming it's pretty easy to find ladybugs to use? I guess I've never looked at a store for them.

:thumb:
 
Jorge's RX

In the United States, most ladybird beetles (ladybugs) are collected in California in the Sierra Mountains. The ladybugs are hibernating and full of fat (stored food) when they're collected, and they are refrigerated to keep them in a state of low metabolism. When they're released, the ladybugs warm up and start looking for a mate; food is the last thing on their mind at this time. Once they mate and lay eggs, young larvae hatch out. The larvae that cannot fly have a ravenous appetite, and their favorite food is aphids. Seldom do they eat spider mites.

If you introduce 100 ladybugs into your growroom on Monday, there will be only a few left by Friday. Most of them will be ready to look for a mate and will take off toward the "sun"– which is actually a high-intensity discharge (HID) light. They'll fly straight into the hot lamp and pop like popcorn!
Click to expand...

You must also create a safe environment for the predatory insects and keep them alive and strong. Once the predators are released into the garden, it will take a minimum of two weeks before you notice a difference in the spider-mite population. Predators must establish themselves and start eating spider mites faster than the mites can reproduce. After a month, you should see a marked difference. If you're less than six weeks from harvest, using predators would be a waste of money. Do you have this much time before harvest?

Your luck will improve when you do some hard research and stop listening to hearsay. Check out naturescontrol.com for a little more information. There are quite a few kinds of ladybird beetles (ladybugs), none of which prefer spider mites as a main meal.

Actually, the ladybird-beetle larvae eat the bulk of the bad bugs. But they prefer fat, juicy aphids to scrawny spider mites. Ladybugs also have an affinity for high-intensity discharge light (HID): They fly directly into the hot lamps and pop like popcorn. All of this means that introducing ladybugs is a terrible way to control spider mites.
Click to expand...
 
I wanted to open this issue up again. I am going to get 1500 of these for like 5 bucks and put them all into my grow this evening during dark cycle. in a 2X3X4 box.

I don't want to just add some ladybugs, I want shock and awe Lady bugs...

My question is two fold. Will it work? and secondly, are these ladybugs going to shit all over my buds and plants so instead of a few mites, i will have ladybug shit everywhere?

Also when they die, will there be like lady bug carcasses all stuck to my buds or are we talking easy???

This is new and out of the box thinking for me. I usually spray azatrol on everything and never have these problems, but now I am thinking, with nothing to lose, maybe an invasion is what I need to make the spider-mites rethink there settlement strategy.

ADVISE!!!!!
 
McCrackin said:
I wanted to open this issue up again. I am going to get 1500 of these for like 5 bucks and put them all into my grow this evening during dark cycle. in a 2X3X4 box.

I don't want to just add some ladybugs, I want shock and awe Lady bugs...

My question is two fold. Will it work? and secondly, are these ladybugs going to shit all over my buds and plants so instead of a few mites, i will have ladybug shit everywhere?

Also when they die, will there be like lady bug carcasses all stuck to my buds or are we talking easy???

This is new and out of the box thinking for me. I usually spray azatrol on everything and never have these problems, but now I am thinking, with nothing to lose, maybe an invasion is what I need to make the spider-mites rethink there settlement strategy.

ADVISE!!!!!
Click to expand...

Lady bugs do work for spider-mite problems. The only thing is, depending on how bad of an infestation, they might not be quick enough. Lady bugs are more of a preventative and/or to combat a beginning or small infestation.

If you have a bad infestation often times the spider-mites reproduce faster then the lady bugs can eat.

You won't have lady bug shit everywhere, you likely will get lady bug carcasses around the area after a bit. Not necessarily all stuck in your buds though.
 
A light mix of 'cola' (1/5) sprayed on the lady bugs will keep them from flying away. Not to worry, the pretty little bugs get clean in about 10 days and can fly good as new..
 
blucross said:
A light mix of 'cola' (1/5) sprayed on the lady bugs will keep them from flying away. Not to worry, the pretty little bugs get clean in about 10 days and can fly good as new..
Click to expand...
That's interesting blucross, is Cola a secret name for something or just the cola drink? I have used ladybugs once infested, but my partner decided to spray with something that had a long withholding period, which killed my ladybugs too... murderer!!!
but have wondered about introducing them at start of growth, since I think the reason they take so long to start working is they were feed on probably aphids to grow them, and they have to get real hungry before they will eat something else. Nut maybe they would starve without anything to eat, then I would be the murderer...
I just checked, and looks like ladybugs aren't available in New Zealand anyway, hohum, what else if new.
 
The fellow who raised the Lady Bugs I use promotes the idea of spraying your new 'bugs with a 'sugar' drink before releasing them. So my mention of coke was NOT a secret formula to make your lady bugs remove their clothes and 'shake it til they break it', although that would prolly go viral on Youtube.
hahahaah
 
GiGaBane...Son ! I see You are feeling that " Not Humane" thing, I feel the same about garden worms when I go fishing !!

Yes its a bitch to want to go fishing using natural baits but whenever I start to hook the worm it wiggles and I almost hear it scream....and when it comes to the fish themselves, Salmon hate it when I hook them in the jaw, they struggle BIG TIME, They thrash and jump and make long runs stripping my fishing line to the cheers of any other Salmon fisherman close by..... Its one of the most thrilling of times and I know God brought those Salmon Up the river to spawn and die but when it gets down to it I don't want to cause them pain or terror.
I hope 'killing our allies' is easier for You than salmon slaying has been to me since 'I woke up'
 
=)

yeah man it kills me. its like this stuff i just bought, nilnat. it works by putting crytals in the ground that gnat larve eat and then it swells up in their gut and explodes...thats harsh man...

i almost shed a tear when i kill an animal to eat as well...such is life, lol. i guess its just a balancing act between harmony and accepting we are the top of the food chain...deal with it, lol =)
 
Re: Ladybugs vs. spidermites
=)

yeah man it kills me. its like this stuff i just bought, nilnat. it works by putting crytals in the ground that gnat larve eat and then it swells up in their gut and explodes...thats harsh man...

i almost shed a tear when i kill an animal to eat as well...such is life, lol. i guess its just a balancing act between harmony and accepting we are the top of the food chain...deal with it, lol =)


Answer ---> Its that "deal with it' stuff that is troubling me, and I want to thank you for offering some help. Thanks
 
i agree. its the same reason i dont like oil and recently im a bit of a nay sayer to azomite. the bunny hugging me thinks that should be claimed by the world health organisation or something to use when we terraform africa to pre desert (i hope).

another pipe dream is to see all the blown away topsoil dredged up from the bottom of the sea and desalinated, this would further help with global desert reversing and would lower sea level to boot.

i dream that just for a little while, one day the human race will all pull in the same direction, even just a while before we one day seace to exist.
 
Spider Mite Predator Phytoseiulus persimilis

Neoseiulus fallacis for Spider Mites

Both of these work better than lady bugs and are very affordable. I found a good site that sells them.

Two-Spotted Mites and More - GreenMethods.com

Notice that they recommend the two I mentioned, but do not mention lady bugs. They do sell lady bugs too though, but say they don't really believe they are that good at killing mites because they prefer aphids.

They have good prices on the above predators mentioned.
 
GrumpyGrower said:
Jorge's RX
Click to expand...
Not true. Stethorus Punctillum are a ladybug (or beetle) that feeds SPECIFICALLY on spider mites. If I were to choose I would use phytoseiulus persimilis on every plant that doesn't have trichomes on it and Stethorus for everyone that does. If you are going to wash your plants be sure to wash them every 4 or 5 days TOPS so you can wash off the bugs a non egg laying juveniles. Also keep everything wet and humid which requires one shitton of circulating air, because the humidity retards the rate of spidermites production considerably, it allows for the conditions that encourage botrytis. Supplementing with CO2 retards the rate of spidermites reproduction also.
 
Back
Top Bottom