Spider Mites Found Right Before Getting Ready to Harvest

[amy06]

I'm caring for my boyfriends indoor plant and I went in to check the moisture of the soil and noticed the fan leaves on one side starting to turn yellowish with weird spots. Having common sense, I know leaves on plants tell a lot about the plants overall health. I started to Google what could be the problem and spider mites came up. I cut a bad fan leaf off to inspect it, and saw the spots and little black dots moving along with small webs at the bottom of the plant. He's out of town until tomorrow and he planned on harvesting the plant when he got home. What can I do until he gets home? I know nothing about growing and I don't want his plant to be ruined especially a day before he plans on harvesting.

Help!

 

[Rockskipper]

I'd say call him and let him make the decisson on what to do and then it would be on his head. JMO. ( myself is that if its just a day before harvest, you arnt going to save anything by doing something drastic.)

 

[go4snypr]

if he has mites, they have been there for a while and 1 day before harvest there is not much that can be done.

 

[Weaselcracker]

There is nothing to do much differently than before. After the plants are harvested he will want to do a major anti-mite cleanup. Please check out the bud washing option though. Washing the buds should get rid of any mites and eggs that you would otherwise end up smoking - yuck. If it sounds crazy to you, you're not the first. Pretty well everyone felt the same way till they tried it and ended up with superior quality bud.

Bud Washing

 

[amy06]

Thank you! I know it sounds silly since I'm learning through watching him. The leaves and everything have been in perfect health this whole time. Haven't seen any signs of them, not even webs or leaves changing colors or curling. I don't understand how they just appeared, especially right now. And that's what I worried about, weaselcracker. I was thinking about them on the buds while smoking. I will have him look through that link.

His job has been sending him out of town 3 weekends in a row and I've been caring for it those days and couldn't get a hold of him yesterday so of course I came here for help. I will let you know how it goes when he gets home to harvest.

 

[amy06]

And how do I get rid of mites for the next grow? The only thing I have done different the past couple of nights is open the windows for a beautiful breeze that was coming in. We have no other house plants except a bamboo that's 2 rooms away. I have organic pesticides with clove oil, rosemary oil, and thyme oil. If I spray it in the room (not the plant) it will smell super strong and I want to avoid that since I spray it outside and it's potent enough to make you want to gag from the smell of clove.

 

[Weaselcracker]

It's been a few year since my great battle with the mites and possibly some new products have come out. I got rid of them with a concentrated neem oil product. Neem oil is non toxic and easy to deal with. Hopefully others will give some mite remedy input but this is what I would do.
Try to not spread the mites everywhere if possible during the next while and through the harvest. At the same time, it's probably best to assume they will get everywhere so treat everything (ie houseplants and garden) accordingly.
I would harvest and wash the bud. Once it's dried and in jars or at least out of the way, clean every surface of the grow area with a strong bleach water spray/wipe down. I use a 25% bleach solution- it makes my eyes water. Get in every possible nook and cranny. If the grow is in a painted room this is a great time to consider a coat of paint.
Then I would bring in the next batch of seedlings/plants. Treat the new plants with neem or whatever pesticide you choose. Do at least two or three treatments, a week or so apart (depending on the treatment - follow directions). The mites in the room that you missed will hopefully end up on the new plants and be killed.
Put in the extra 10% of work on this to get rid of them because they are creatures from hell.
In my case they arrived on clones I was given. Once I got then out of my grow and garden greenhouse I had no new sources of re infestation, because my climate is cold and they don't live here outside. Consider the possibility that you may not be so lucky and may have to constantly take measures to keep them at bay. Many people do fine by being careful and cleaning and spraying regularly.
I hope this helps. Good luck.

 

[amy06]

My only other concern is my dubia roaches I breed for my bearded dragon (gross, I know but they're very expensive and the best to feed my dragon). I stopped spraying my patio since that's where I keep them in a rubber maid container. I can figure out ways to keep them alive because weed is expensive too. I don't smoke anymore due to my job (even in CA my job won't allow medical use). I really appreciate the help, and I will scrub every wall and ceiling with bleach. I have carpet so will baking soda or borax kill them in the carpet? I know it works for fleas. I'll do some more research also. I hate even knowing there's mites especially spider mites since I'm terrified of spiders big and small. Lol

Thank you again!

 

[Weaselcracker]

Ha ha. Well spider mites are actually related to spiders, and are in the arachnid family. You have every right to be scared of them- though probably not for the reasons you are. Hopefully your roaches will be fine. Mites only feed on plants and they actually can't live in your carpet. However, they are evolved to be able to go dormant for long periods. Also their eggs can survive practically anything. So my strategy is to clean as much as possible and hope any survivors slither over to the plants where I can greet them with some sort of mite killer. Maybe one of those steam cleaning type carpet cleaning machines? Sorry I have no carpet. I'm sure there are a lot of options.
Your boyfriend owes you a big hug and a night out, at the very least.

 

[amy06]

I agree! I wish I could post a picture of it. She's still pretty. Thank you for the help!!!

 

[DRM Ranch]

Yay for dubia roaches, couldn't afford to keep the reptiles I have without them.

I'd deal with spider mites in exactly the same way I've worked through any other pest in live planted vivariums; bag the entire plant and drop in a block of dry ice (a 1c sized chunk should do the trick on most single plants) . The high level of CO2 will kill anything alive in the bag that needs air to live by displacing the O2.

DRM Ranch