11 wks in flower - mites - what to do?

I've fought these before with Azamax and Azatrol... mite free for almost 2 months, then today I spotted them again... I caught them early because of my dilligent daily inspections.

Big honkin cola's, lots of mature buds... 4 plants: NYCD, WW, Banana Kush and TW. All with white tricomes, no ambers anywhere. Starting their 12th week. Dual 400 HPS, 12" from tops. Sunshine #4, GH nutes

Question:

A) Do I spray them with rubbing alcohol (so as to not contaminate the buds) and just keep the live ones to a minimum?
B) Do I spray them with anything? Azamax?
C) Do nothing to them and let them go another week++ or so till I see amber trics. (I'm affraid the spidrs could get so bad they could contaminate my veggy girls and the rest of the room)
D) Harvest now and enjoy what I got... thankful for my headdy crop

All responses will be rewarded with 10 good karma points. So ya got that goin for ya, which is neysch!

Thanks for all replies.
GOG

How much more time do you need to flower? 11 weeks I would hope they are almost ready. Me personally I wouldn't spray anything just because I've heard of people ruining the taste of awesome bud with foiler sprays to close to harvest. I would harvest early before I risk an infestation that can spread throughout my garden.

harvest

I've read your other thread about you being in flower cycle for 11 weeks. That is a really long time....I'm surprised they are not shrinking up on the plant. But maybe there are conditions and your harvest is still not ready.

I would recommend the hot shot no pest strip for plants in harvest. It can be placed in your grow room. There is no odor, no harsh chemicals (won't ruin your plants), and lasts about 4 months.

Amazon.com: Hot Shot No-Pest Strip - 5580 No-Pest Strip: Home & Garden

good luck! :jointsmile:

I use the HotShot all the time and swear by it. It will get rid of most all the mites within 2 days. But I don't like using it too close to harvest. I've read articles that says that plants can't absorb the chemical that they release but I don't trust a lot of the research now a days.
If you harvest know you will have to dunk the buds into something or while drying the mites will consume the buds.
Its a hard choice with no real clear answers, but in your case being so close to harvest I think I'd hang a HotShot in both the flower room and when you hang to dry.

Jorge Cervantes says if you get mites late in harvest you just hang the buds upside down on a coat hanger with yellow sticky traps at each end.

The mites climb up and off onto the sticky shit.

Ive never tried it so i don`t know shit.
:hippy:

I disagree that you should use a No Pest Strip this late. There are nasty chemicals in it. Especially don't use it during drying. If you must use it, use it for 5-7 days, then take it out, and add heavy ventilation and let it air out for several days. I think sunlight (and possibly HID light degrades dichlorvos, the active ingredient, rather quickly). I sure as fuck don't want to smoke buds drying in a dichlorvos saturated room! If you want to smoke it yourself, fine, but don't put others at risk unknowingly. I use mine at the 12/12 switch and then remove it from the room after 7 days.

Its really odd that your plants aren't ready yet. Are you not seeing the amber trichs? Sometimes they're just tinted and not blatantly amber. At this stage you just need to keep the mite population in check. I would try environmental controls: turn the fans on high 24/7, lower temps to the 50s at night, raise humidity if possible (may decrease trich production), spray the undersides of leaves with water. Do things like this and you should keep the population down so they won't attack your buds. I think they stop reproducing below like 60 degrees.

I've also heard that spider mites won't be interested in dead/dying plant material. So once you pick your buds to dry, they quickly won't be interested in them because they can tell that they are dying. I've also heard that they climb up the buds when they're drying and climb across the drying line.

Heck if they climb up use the old time fly tape that is sticky on both sides, no pesticides in that and sticky as everything.