Spider mites

Most of the people who say the strips didn't work have a real big unenclosed room and/or lots of ventilation. Did you follow the directions, then double the amount? Did you turn off /down your fans for a few days? The rest of the people that say they didn't work failed to buy the correct product. Are you using No-Pest Strips made by Spectracide? Actually I think there is another brand that works now. Scratch that. Are you using a yellow thing about 10 inches long, with an active ingredient called Dichlorvos? That's what you need to be looking for - it's some dangerous nasty stuff.

PS. If you can't get the proper strips to work, I highly recommend bombing. Spraying is temporary, bombing is more permanent.

I am growing them in an enclosed space with what i thought was little ventalation. After 2-3 days the spots started slowing down in appearance. Its been 5-6 days now and i had really restricted the air flow in there. I also moved the strip around from the floor to the ceiling "only 6 feet" high.
I bought the hotshot brand that contains the Dichlorvos. I was wondering how long i needed to keep it up. atleast a week 8 days?
I am using wide spectrum fluorescent bulbs suplemented with regular light bulbs 60 watt for light and warmth. Temp is around 75- 76F when lights are on 42-47% humidity. 68F when lights are off. I wish i could send pictures. I looked and couldn't see any mites. I did see a little tiny straight web or two on differant plants. I used a cheap magnifing glass but still saw no mites. Except fot lots of little white spots.
Thanks for the help.

Hey joe, if you see no mites, what makes you think the strips didn't work?

All of my mites were dead overnight, then within about 2 days all the babies that tried to hatch were dead as well, half out of the egg. It was in a 3'x3'x9' space. You just need to keep using the strip until you see no more mites coming out of eggs, and no fresh eggs, and of course no mites.

Another believer here! :thumbsup:

Saw the start of mites yesterday. I think they just hatched as there were not that many and they were really small. Found a post by Opie and bought a No Pest Strip at Ace. Stuck it in the enclosure yesterday and today I can't find any mites, dead or otherwise. I have a grow tent that is 3X2X6 feet. I didn't even turn down the inline vent fan.

I can't smell a thing either (except that damn *skunk* family that lives under the house).

I would try to avoid a dip in the beginning as a preventative. I have had bad luck with that. It was diluted and still more than a few plants died, and the others went through a pretty tough illness from it. Spraying is a little less drastic and should be preventative enough.

That's weird. There should be no illness of any kind from dipping a plant unless you keep the lights close afterward, and the leaves get burn spots. Dipping is the exact same as spraying, except it covers everything instead of half or less. I've had terrible luck with spraying because it basically does nothing. If you leave just one male and one female, your still screwed.

I am going to Home Depot tomorrow/today! :thumbsup:

I have been told by many people I hold as good sources of information (meaningless none the less) that growing Chili Peppers in with your plants will aid in preventing a mite infestation. As they dislike the pepper plants... any thoughts on this..

I've heard that too, but of course it will not rid your grow of mites like toxins will. Mites and other insects don't like spicy hot stuff, but (just guessing here) I think the mites will exist on the weed plants and steer clear of the hot plants. Spider mites are very resilient.