Mites last three weeks
- Thread starter davidw44
- Start date
Oh no - I know your pain - they destroyed an entire greenhouse grow once...
Take a look at @Sierra Natural Science products, they are sponsors and will offer expert advice and probably a discount code exclusively for 420 Magazine subscribers
At harvest, a bud wash in H2O2 is a must after spider mites
Good luck
Take a look at @Sierra Natural Science products, they are sponsors and will offer expert advice and probably a discount code exclusively for 420 Magazine subscribers
At harvest, a bud wash in H2O2 is a must after spider mites
Good luck
I am familiar with that "thought" myself. Since I set up the room in the fall of 2017 I have been at war with the Spider Mite nation. I win battle after battle but the war is a stalemate...there is no winning unless I completely stop using the room and do a nuclear clean-up over a 6 months time.
The serious answer is to finish the grow, remove everything and wash and spray it, let it sit and do it again. Wash and spray the walls, ceiling and floor. Clean the areas where floors and ceilings meet walls and corners where wall meets wall. Replace the soils or any grow mediums with new. Clean out light fixtures. Basically, remove any mites and mite eggs that could be in those areas even if they cannot be seen.
Sounds like two different things. Mites and webbing go together. Brown stuff at the leaf tips can be many things until we figure out what the brown stuff is. Take a few pictures and select the best one or two and post those so we can see what you are seeing when you say "webbing on top" and "brown stuff".
Spider Mite webbing shows up about 4 weeks after their population has grown out of control. By then it is possible to see the larger more mature mites crawling on the strands of webbing. And a common sign that their population is exploding is the small white dots that show up on leaves usually some of the older fan leaves. A few dots could be anything and often signifies nothing. But when the dots keep increasing and showing up on newer and younger leaves it is time to ramp up the war.
I tried Ladybugs once and that was a waste. What happened to your Ladybugs? If they are like mine a lot of them were gone in a matter of hours and by the next day less than 5% were still around. The first thing they do is eat a bunch of mites and then crawl off somewhere else to look for more food. After they leave the area the Mite eggs will be hatching and 3 to 4 days later the new Mites are laying eggs.
Common ordinary spiders are going to do better job. These spiders are meat eaters and they live on other insects. Maybe consider a partial truce with the spiders and leave a few alive to do their thing.
Depends on the timing of your current grow. Are you still in the vegetating stage or in the flowering stage? If in the flowering stage then how many more weeks till harvest?
Either buy a decent miticide from one of the sponsors or from a local grow store. Get a decent spray bottle or sprayer. Mix according to instructions and start spraying. When done spraying the plants spray the walls of the tent or grow area. Spray around the zippers and port holes on a tent. If there still is spray left then spray the plants again. Spray twice a day for at least 3 days. Then spray once a day for about 3 days. Then spray every 3rd day for three times.
Spray the bottoms of the leaves, working up to the top. Then spray the tops of the leaves working down. When I am done with a spray session the liquid is dripping off the plant just like a heavy steady rain storm just ended.
After that, as a preventative measure, spray once a week till harvest. When I get to that stage I will still spray twice, about an hour apart.
I have talked to underground grow operators and licensed medical growers and they say start a preventative program at the same time the grow starts. Workers from licensed recreational grows have said that the foremen have crews that are sent out into the rooms once a week to spray for insects even if no one has seen a single mite, thrip, or any insect.
Good luck. Oh, and don't forget the photo showing the webs and the "brown stuff" on the leaves.
check to see if that SNS product is safe in flower. most products aren't or can become toxic if heated when you smoke it. SNS isn't allowed here, but some folk smuggle it. best used as a preventative before you notice the signs.
mites take at least 3 wks to eradicate and usually requires using two or more treatment approaches. mites can harden off to a single chemical over time rendering the treatment useless. i always check for signs in veg and clear the plants before flower so they have time to recover.
i use a 3 prong attack on mites, alternating between neem and 50/50 iso sprays, and add a hotshot to the grow space for death from above. the hotshot is very effective. none of these treatments can be used in flower though.
edit : if you can get the SNS or other organic miticide start there. get some neem and iso and a few hotshots just for the toolbox if needed. they are good to have on hand.
some climates are more prone to mites. you may have to adopt an ongoing prevention plan. many growers have them every single grow.
mites take at least 3 wks to eradicate and usually requires using two or more treatment approaches. mites can harden off to a single chemical over time rendering the treatment useless. i always check for signs in veg and clear the plants before flower so they have time to recover.
i use a 3 prong attack on mites, alternating between neem and 50/50 iso sprays, and add a hotshot to the grow space for death from above. the hotshot is very effective. none of these treatments can be used in flower though.
edit : if you can get the SNS or other organic miticide start there. get some neem and iso and a few hotshots just for the toolbox if needed. they are good to have on hand.
some climates are more prone to mites. you may have to adopt an ongoing prevention plan. many growers have them every single grow.
cbdhemp808
Well-Known Member
My go to for bugs during flowering is a solution of limonene and Bronner's peppermint soap. Limonene is one of the primary cannabis terpenes, and you can purchase it online as food grade orange oil, or orange essential oil. Beware of limonene sold in plastic... it can wind up containing plastic chemicals. I don't use any limonene on my cannabis plants that comes from a plastic bottle... only glass. Limonene is a potent insecticide, but care must be taken not to use too much in a foliar spray solution... it will burn leaves if you use too much. What I use is about 12 drops of limonene in 1 gal of water, with addition of 12 drops soap.
kosio bosio
Well-Known Member
Avid will solve your problems... 
jk...
jk...Please DO NOT use Avid, it is toxic to humans, aquatic life, and bees as well as being carcinogenic,. It is not labeled or intended for use on edible plants. (I wouldn’t want to smoke it either). It is used on ornamental plants only.
i use a lot of orange oil for cleaning car engines etc, but it is labelled toxic and poisonous. popular brand name is tko orange oil.
it's definitely not something i'd put on a plant.
I had to do a google search on the orange oil, essential oils and limonene. A lot has to do with the amounts used but there is no recommendation of a safe for humans level of essential oils. Basically it seems that the essential oil is a concentrated level of a food safe orange oil such as from freshly squeeze orange peels or the very mild stuff sold in the spice aisle in the supermarket. Several different levels of orange mixtures being lumped together.
Those comments were enough to get me looking up what was what. That you do not want to use limonene that is in a plastic bottle but only what is sold in a glass container is enough to make me want to avoid using it.
Also researched and read what that was. That is a powerful insecticide and I was surprised that a Certified Pesticide Applicators license was not needed to purchase it and use it.
Not only what you wrote earlier but it is not to be gotten on human or animal skin, in the eyes nor should the spray be breathed in. It can do damage to human and animal nasal and lung linings.
i notice the poison warnings don't show up on the US product. they are emblazoned all over the bottles here. also we don't get it in glass bottles, only plastic.
Warnings might not be on the US product but the warnings mentioned in what I was reading were enough. Even had to dig down further to find the differences between essential oils and food grade and the oil used for flavorings in the kitchen whether orange, lemon or just about anything else.
cbdhemp808
Well-Known Member
Hey guys. Limonene is certainly safe... it's one of the primary terpenes found in cannabis buds... let that sink in!
What I'm talking about is pure food grade limonene, which is made from orange peels. I'm not talking about industrial cleaners. What I recommend for foliar spray is limonene sold in a glass bottle, not plastic, because it's a solvent and will pull chemicals out of the plastic – potentially nasty ones. The least expensive form of food grade limonene that I've found is orange essential oil from NOW FOODS.
Also keep in mind that you only want to use a very small amount... like 12 drops in 1 gallon, with liquid soap as an emulsifier (I use Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap). Otherwise it will burn leaves.
What I'm talking about is pure food grade limonene, which is made from orange peels. I'm not talking about industrial cleaners. What I recommend for foliar spray is limonene sold in a glass bottle, not plastic, because it's a solvent and will pull chemicals out of the plastic – potentially nasty ones. The least expensive form of food grade limonene that I've found is orange essential oil from NOW FOODS.
Also keep in mind that you only want to use a very small amount... like 12 drops in 1 gallon, with liquid soap as an emulsifier (I use Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap). Otherwise it will burn leaves.
I used to have an applicators license and I had to do the same thing, I’d never heard of Avid, but the more I read, the scarier it got, hell on mites, but nothing you’d want to handle or spray on your plants.
limonene is just one of the components in orange oil.
the orange oil here is sold exclusively in plastic, and is an incredible emulsifier and solvent. it's also prominently labelled poison. plastic is one of the few things it is supposed to be impervious to it.
we use it to clean engine blocks.
my bet is you are referring to the tiny essential oil bottles, which is a different product. it is not a solvent, it is kind of a flavoring, usually used more for aroma than anything. i'm not sure it is an effective miticide, i kinda think we might have had commercial products with it as an ingredient if it was.
the soap alone can burn the leaves.
Yes but it is the amounts used when spraying for mites or insects.. The Limonene is found in the buds but the concentrations are low enough that those are safe for people and mites. Otherwise, if the levels were higher then there would be no mites on the plant.
As long as the warning is there when recommending products like that it is OK. Way to often we can see people posting photos of bottles of "whatever" that they want to use to control mites or any insects. They want the dosage to use since it is not on the container. Often wonder where they find this stuff; probably in some abandoned garage where it has been sitting for a couple of decades.
Used to have customers come up and ask me to take the lawn/landscape chemicals they would find in the garages when cleaning up after their father passed away. Interesting stuff, especially the Paraquat which their dad had been able to buy off the shelf before various federal agencies put restrictions on sales.
When I first started my war with the Spider Mites I tried the essential oils found in specialty and/or organic foods types of stores. Would buy those small bottles of various "flavors" based on the recipes found on the 'net. The mites shook the stuff off and kept doing what ever they were happy doing.
And, those essential oils still had to be diluted down before use in flavoring cookies, cakes and whatever we wanted to cook up in the kitchen. Found it easier and better tasting to stick with the small bottles of flavorings which were the watered down oils.
i'm pretty sure the emulsifier is a much more concentrated product. also most essential oils in the small bottle are suspended in a tiny amount of alcohol, which may make a difference. the extraction process is likely not the same.
i use essential oils in the small bottles for my topicals.
Dang, I had not thought of doing that.
I have started experimenting with the skin-safe oils my wife has for her soap making.
i use japanese mint oil for pain reduction in my thc topicals, and eucalyptus and frankincense in my cbd topicals for inflammation reduction. it's mostly for aroma but they have some medicinal benefit as well.
i just noticed i have the same brand as @cbdhemp808 uses for the orange oil.