Neem oil.

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Originally Posted by stinkyattic

Hence the bug bomb.
It's best to use a fully water-soluble pest control under the leaves.
Pyrethrin is the generally accepted one. It's sold at Home Depot under several different brand names; check active ingredients.

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Pyrethrin is an option as well. If you don't muck up the ratio of neem to water than spraying on the underside of the leaves can work (I've done it) with little or no negative effects on the plant.

There are other ways to address spidermites but generally Neem is going to be the ultimate solution to an infestation.

It's always good to have choices :) Doesn't hurt to start with something a little less heavy than Neem, like a insecticidal soap.

Start weak and change tactics if you've been using the same pest control for more than a month.. pests can build a tolerance to certain things which is why it's good to switch it up if you're finding something not working.

when applying anything to a plant, I use this simple rule I ran across in gardening books long ago: if spraying fertilizers, etc., apply early morning, when the plants pores are 'open' ... if spraying a pesticide, etc., spray in the evening, when the plants pores are 'closed' ... :smokin:

I'm not sure if im more confused or more informed now >.>

Well i was using a pytherin spray, and it was working to keep the lil buggers under control. As for the effects of the neem, i just checked on the plant for the first time since the applications of it yesterday(i sprayed the underside of the leaves, probably wont do that again), the leaves are about the same color green but they are a bit droopy and some of them are rather fragile and dried out. Gonna give it another day and see what direction it goes from here before i do anything else.

edit: typos.

So now im beginning to get a bit worried, checked on her again real fast before the lights go out for the next 6 hours, and she's still pretty droopy and some of her leaves are reaaaaaallly dry, they look healthy other then that but they are extremly dry.

Dry like brittle? Are they becoming at all translucent? Can you post pics?

You know what, I'm tempted to sacrifice one of my bitches to science and do a neem-overapplication thread.

Stinky, my friend Custom39, literally bathed his plants with NEEM Oil, daily, was dripping from the leaves ... it barely dealt with the spidermites, but did not hurt the plant ... if I understood him correctly, he said the NEEM Oil basically just smothers the insects and eggs, doesn't kill them from toxicity, but from suffocation :wtf: ... I don't know if that's true, or not, but it didn't seem to hurt the plants ... I would have thought that would clog the pores and harm the plant ... your guess is good as mine, I dont allow bugs in my house (they refuse to wipe their feet) ... :jointsmile:

I once screwed up my neem oil application, and it's pretty obvious that something is wrong once it happens.
Usually I'll dip my smaller plants in a mixture of insecticidal soap and water, but I was all out of soap and so I used some neem oil.
Turns out, I didn't mix the oil in the water very well, and the oil was resting on top of the water (as oil does) so when I dipped the plant, it was pretty much covered in neem oil. The leaves turned kind of a translucent, browny, yellow, and became very crispy.
Needless to say, the plant died.
I wish I had taken some pictures, but I, like most people, tend to take pictures of my successes rather than my failures.

I mixed some nutes in with NEEM Oil for my outdoor Willie Nelson, and sprayed the shit outta it, no probs, plant loved it ... ???

Very brittle, but not translucent at all. The dry/brittleness is the only symptom (not even all of them are this way, its only probably about 4 or 5 sets of the fan leaves) aside from the fact that the leaves are all drooping (all of them are drooping) . My cameras currently over at my friends apartment (big halloween party). A few of them have some very subtle (hard to notice) brownish spots on top of the leaves. Is there anything i can do to save her or is she headed straight for the grave?