Please share your experiences with spider mites here!

Hey guys,

Please share here if you've ever had a run-in with spider mites!

If you have, let us know when you found them, the extent of the damage, whether you were able to control/eliminate them, if they ruined your crop or affected your harvest, what you used on them, etc...

I brought them home on clones on my first grow and I'm interested to see whether or not people have been successful despite spider mites... and how you were able to contain them. I got them and I decided to keep going instead of starting over (which everyone I've talked to said is crazy). I'm specifically interested in NO PEST STRIPS. This is what I'm going to use right when I switch to flowering to make sure they're gone. Sounds like these things totally eliminate them!! But I'm still a little skeptical because a lot of long-time growers I've talked to are still spraying neem and have never heard of these things. I'd think if they worked so well that everyone would be using them!!

Anyway, let us know how your spider-mite tainted grows have gone!

Pyrethrins. You can spray the plants lightly,but do it in the dark with a 1 foot distance and fast sweeping. Should not take long. Spray air intake system/piping too. Direct contact with the bugs is recommended.
If they get out of control they will weaken the plant to death. In a bad infestation but recovery,the growth will be stunted.
I used to use Bug Stop but they changed the ingredients. Terro brand Ant Killer has the natural and the synthetic that does not break down as fast.
Bright light will break this product down.

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Originally Posted by stuweed224

Pyrethrins. You can spray the plants lightly,but do it in the dark with a 1 foot distance and fast sweeping. Should not take long. Spray air intake system/piping too. Direct contact with the bugs is recommended.
If they get out of control they will weaken the plant to death. In a bad infestation but recovery,the growth will be stunted.
I used to use Bug Stop but they changed the ingredients. Terro brand Ant Killer has the natural and the synthetic that does not break down as fast.
Bright light will break this product down.

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Thanks. I've heard that some spider mites can develop a resistance to pyrethrins!! In fact, some of the ones going around in Colorado are supposedly resistant to pyrethrins. But that's what I used first and it seemed to kill them pretty quick. I followed up with neem though so maybe that is what did it...

So you were able to get them under control and get a decent harvest? Nice work!!

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Originally Posted by lampost

Thanks. I've heard that some spider mites can develop a resistance to pyrethrins!! In fact, some of the ones going around in Colorado are supposedly resistant to pyrethrins. But that's what I used first and it seemed to kill them pretty quick. I followed up with neem though so maybe that is what did it...

So you were able to get them under control and get a decent harvest? Nice work!!

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I too started with infested clones and mothers. I've used pyrethrin foggers, neem oil, Organicide, and no pest strips, and seem to have gotten rid of them. Every once in a while I found spots on a leaf or two, and even a few eggs in my latest flower period, but never actually saw a mite. I think maybe the spiders in my basement kept eating them before they got very far. I was so proactive once I found them that I don't even know which of the many methods used did the trick or some combo of all of them. No apparent effect on my yield from either mites or control measures, although the Organicide really raised my nitrogen level in conjunction with regular veg feeding (ppm over 2000 in runoff water) and I had to flush them all which sucked. I thought I killed them.

Spider mites are a natural environmental pest that proliferate in warmer weather. My neighbor lost all his boxwood shrubs last summer to them.

Spider mites bore holes in the leaves, petioles, and stalks which is the damage that occurs from them.

My first experience with them was a few summers ago. I sort of sloughed off on the Neem weekly spray. I did not notice anything (Except the plants were yellowing) until one morning I found a top completely covered with web and mites.

At the time I had 6 plants in flower. I had to kill the one with the web, and throw it out.. it was disgusting. The others I hit heavy with Neem, and though production was down the balance did survive.

This year I got ahead of the buggers, sprayed all around the outside of the part of the house with the grow area with Seven - weekly(all of it weekly). I sprayed the intakes for the grow room with Seven. I sprayed the grow room side of the intakes too, and around all the cracks and doors inside and out. I sprayed the flower room with Neem weekly up until the last 3 weeks of flower and the veg room daily. (Once the leaves get a shiny luster there is enough on the plant.)

Like I said, my neighbor lost all his boxwood shrubs this summer, and I didn't have a spider mite one. They were just awful this summer.

It sure is a sick feeling to find a web all over the top of a succulent plant.

Oh, yeah, after I found them all plants were treated and the room was bombed. I also clean the floors monthly underneath everything. You would be surprised how many bugs live in those corners. Cleanliness is very important.

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Originally Posted by WashougalWonder

Spider mites are a natural environmental pest that proliferate in warmer weather. My neighbor lost all his boxwood shrubs last summer to them.

Spider mites bore holes in the leaves, petioles, and stalks which is the damage that occurs from them.

My first experience with them was a few summers ago. I sort of sloughed off on the Neem weekly spray. I did not notice anything (Except the plants were yellowing) until one morning I found a top completely covered with web and mites.

At the time I had 6 plants in flower. I had to kill the one with the web, and throw it out.. it was disgusting. The others I hit heavy with Neem, and though production was down the balance did survive.

This year I got ahead of the buggers, sprayed all around the outside of the part of the house with the grow area with Seven - weekly(all of it weekly). I sprayed the intakes for the grow room with Seven. I sprayed the grow room side of the intakes too, and around all the cracks and doors inside and out. I sprayed the flower room with Neem weekly up until the last 3 weeks of flower and the veg room daily. (Once the leaves get a shiny luster there is enough on the plant.)

Like I said, my neighbor lost all his boxwood shrubs this summer, and I didn't have a spider mite one. They were just awful this summer.

It sure is a sick feeling to find a web all over the top of a succulent plant.

Oh, yeah, after I found them all plants were treated and the room was bombed. I also clean the floors monthly underneath everything. You would be surprised how many bugs live in those corners. Cleanliness is very important.

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I just did the same, since my flower room was empty of all but two plants, I put them in my veg room for their 12 hours of light, and cleaned the shit out of the place with a bleach based cleaner , set off a fogger, and closed 'er up for the night. In about an hour I'll go in, turn on my exhaust for a few and voila. I've decided it's really about control, not elimination.

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Originally Posted by senorx12562

I too started with infested clones and mothers. I've used pyrethrin foggers, neem oil, Organicide, and no pest strips, and seem to have gotten rid of them. Every once in a while I found spots on a leaf or two, and even a few eggs in my latest flower period, but never actually saw a mite. I think maybe the spiders in my basement kept eating them before they got very far. I was so proactive once I found them that I don't even know which of the many methods used did the trick or some combo of all of them. No apparent effect on my yield from either mites or control measures, although the Organicide really raised my nitrogen level in conjunction with regular veg feeding (ppm over 2000 in runoff water) and I had to flush them all which sucked. I thought I killed them.

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Senor, thanks man. This really makes me feel better. I just found your grow log and I'm in a similar situation where I've put everything I've got right now into this... and can't afford to lose it. I've been vigilant as hell!! I've been just using neem, but I'm about to break out the No Pest Strip. Did you have to add a second one at photoperiod change? I've heard some eggs lie dormant and hatch upon light change.

Also, is Organicide an actual product? I need to get another product since these have supposedly been verified as pyrethrin-resistant. The place where I got the clones had a local entomologist come up and he verified that they were resistant!! I've been looking at Ed Rosenthal's product, forget the name, but it's got cinnamon oil and a bunch of other organic insecticides.

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Originally Posted by lampost

Senor, thanks man. This really makes me feel better. I just found your grow log and I'm in a similar situation where I've put everything I've got right now into this... and can't afford to lose it. I've been vigilant as hell!! I've been just using neem, but I'm about to break out the No Pest Strip. Did you have to add a second one at photoperiod change? I've heard some eggs lie dormant and hatch upon light change.

Also, is Organicide an actual product? I need to get another product since these have supposedly been verified as pyrethrin-resistant. The place where I got the clones had a local entomologist come up and he verified that they were resistant!! I've been looking at Ed Rosenthal's product, forget the name, but it's got cinnamon oil and a bunch of other organic insecticides.

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Organicide is the brand name, and it's mostly fish oil. It is sold at home depot or the big tomato. Just don't use it right after feeding with a high nitrogen fert. I use it in place of one feeding,(now that I know). The no pest strip is only effective if you can seal it in the room for enough time to kill the pests, since mites don't fly.

I also have a suspicion that the place you got the clones is lying to you. I think they are trying to cover their asses, both in terms of you not being able to kill them and their reason for selling them to you. They hired an entymologist? Yeah, right. If they knew, why the fuck did they sell them to you? I don't buy it. I hate it when somebody fucks you, then lies about it later when caught. Tell us who it was (if you can) so we NEVER buy anything from them. Good luck man.

ive had one run in.. i used some soap spray from the hydro shop and cold temps and they were gone

before
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after
[attachment=o235789]

If you end up with infested buds just before harvest... don't throw them out! Water cure them. This WILL leave you with clean smokable marijuana, that is perfectly fine for personal use.

Just discovered the little bastards a day and a half ago, after panicking some I read a little on this board and went straight to Home Depot for the No Pest Strip - has been in there 36 hours so not much results yet, but my caregiver (hooray for MM!) hooked me up with a spray bottle full of miticide and something else he swears by. Since I am only about 2-3 wks away from harvest (my first!) I am going to go ahead and spray them before I put them to bed tonight and cross my fingers and maybe even say a little prayer to the pot gods.

Luckily I dont have a ton of them crawling around but enough to leave a few leaves with some damage; I think the cold weather at night here in CO keeps them from going crazy but there are LOTS of eggs on the bottoms of the leaves.

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Originally Posted by budsndrums

Just discovered the little bastards a day and a half ago, after panicking some I read a little on this board and went straight to Home Depot for the No Pest Strip - has been in there 36 hours so not much results yet, but my caregiver (hooray for MM!) hooked me up with a spray bottle full of miticide and something else he swears by. Since I am only about 2-3 wks away from harvest (my first!) I am going to go ahead and spray them before I put them to bed tonight and cross my fingers and maybe even say a little prayer to the pot gods.

Luckily I dont have a ton of them crawling around but enough to leave a few leaves with some damage; I think the cold weather at night here in CO keeps them from going crazy but there are LOTS of eggs on the bottoms of the leaves.

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Yeah, hit those fuckers fast and hard with a triple-combo (or more) to control them! I use neem oil solution, pyrethrum, and alcohol/water or nictotine/cinnamon. I also try to let it get down to about 60 at night.

I am a mmj patient and my caregiver in the summer had some neighbors with spider mites, exhausting right at the garden.
She found these "Predator Mites" that you sprinkle over the plants.
She said it costs like $50 for a container the size of a film container. Accompanied with removing/vacuming off webs worked for her.
Also, for indoor I heard, if you keep your temp below 80f(unsure of specific temp) you won't get them in the first place.:thumbsup:

since I use a 'Hot Shot No-Pest Strip' indoors, I have zero spidermite problems :thumbsup: ... if I could afford to buy enough of them, I'd use 'em outdoors, too :D

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Originally Posted by the image reaper

since I use a 'Hot Shot No-Pest Strip' indoors, I have zero spidermite problems :thumbsup: ... if I could afford to buy enough of them, I'd use 'em outdoors, too :D

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How much do they cost? One can never be too careful!:cool:

Greeting Lampost,
I do know of something good for spidermites.. If you still have a problem.. It saved my a$$.. Won't completely destroy your babies.. I need to look up the link.. I'll post here later with the info..

hot shot nps!about $8...google them online they are the best!

i put 2 next to each fan in each room..i got lazy once and did not have any and found mites at 5 weeks into flower :wtf: so i keep them out all the time and mark my calendar when i need to put new ones out :thumbsup:

Awesome! Thanks for the heads up.:smokin:

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Originally Posted by lampost

Yeah, hit those fuckers fast and hard with a triple-combo (or more) to control them! I use neem oil solution, pyrethrum, and alcohol/water or nictotine/cinnamon. I also try to let it get down to about 60 at night.

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Thanks lampost - yeah I turned down the space heater a little last night and this morning it was 48!! :wtf: How about that for taking down a few mites? I looked this morning and nothing moving - however I will check again later with the glass once it warms up. Honestly though my plants have done well in the relative cold and the purp really shows (see the pic) I am pretty proud for my first time!

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Originally Posted by budsndrums

Thanks lampost - yeah I turned down the space heater a little last night and this morning it was 48!! :wtf: How about that for taking down a few mites? I looked this morning and nothing moving - however I will check again later with the glass once it warms up. Honestly though my plants have done well in the relative cold and the purp really shows (see the pic) I am pretty proud for my first time!

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Looks nice! I'd be stoked with those results... what strain is that?

Let us know how the NPS works? I'm about to deploy mine even though I haven't seen any sign of them for weeks.

Now I'm just worried about fuckin' hermies. I have a few different strains and I've heard some can hermie if you FIM them or train them....

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Originally Posted by lampost

Looks nice! I'd be stoked with those results... what strain is that?

Let us know how the NPS works? I'm about to deploy mine even though I haven't seen any sign of them for weeks.

Now I'm just worried about fuckin' hermies. I have a few different strains and I've heard some can hermie if you FIM them or train them....

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Yeah I am pretty happy (surprised even) - it is a purple kush I got a clone of and I think its a keeper. The NPS has been in since Thursday night. I checked last night and only could find one bug barely moving around and a bunch of what looked like white carcasses (die you bastards :cursing:) on the bottom of several leaves - so I think it is working! Like I said before I have some pretty serious chemicals I got from a professional grower (I am not sure exactly what it is, strong miticide I think mixed with some other shit but he knows what he is doing) but I would rather not use it 2-3 wks before harvest unless I absolutely have to.

I don't know about the hermie thing - I thought that was just from too much light during the dark period or other serious plant stress

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Originally Posted by budsndrums

Yeah I am pretty happy (surprised even) - it is a purple kush I got a clone of and I think its a keeper. The NPS has been in since Thursday night. I checked last night and only could find one bug barely moving around and a bunch of what looked like white carcasses (die you bastards :cursing:) on the bottom of several leaves - so I think it is working! Like I said before I have some pretty serious chemicals I got from a professional grower (I am not sure exactly what it is, strong miticide I think mixed with some other shit but he knows what he is doing) but I would rather not use it 2-3 wks before harvest unless I absolutely have to.

I don't know about the hermie thing - I thought that was just from too much light during the dark period or other serious plant stress

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The tendency toward hermaphroditism is also genetic, independent of environmental factors. As ever, genetics give you the parameters of the possible (genotype), and environment the reality of the result (phenotype). And I think some forms of training are pretty stressful for the plants.

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Originally Posted by senorx12562

The tendency toward hermaphroditism is also genetic, independent of environmental factors. As ever, genetics give you the parameters of the possible (genotype), and environment the reality of the result (phenotype). And I think some forms of training are pretty stressful for the plants.

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Yep. That's exactly what I was worried about.

Unfortunately instead of running one strain I have several... I wanted to run one, but the clone vendor was running low and I had no patience to delay my startup. I kinda wish I would've now as I know I'll be putting in a lot of time inspecting for balls... Fuck!

For example, I've heard Sour D is extremely sensitive to light leaks and will hermie on you if there's any light (although, I've heard light leaks will cause ANY plant to hermie).

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Originally Posted by lampost

Yep. That's exactly what I was worried about.

Unfortunately instead of running one strain I have several... I wanted to run one, but the clone vendor was running low and I had no patience to delay my startup. I kinda wish I would've now as I know I'll be putting in a lot of time inspecting for balls... Fuck!

For example, I've heard Sour D is extremely sensitive to light leaks and will hermie on you if there's any light (although, I've heard light leaks will cause ANY plant to hermie).

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I totally hear that - next time it is all one strain for me; I had to put one (an LSD) on top of a box so the light would hit them evenly. Weird how all three strains veg'd completely evenly, then in flower one only about doubled in size (LSD), one tripled (PK), and the WW (supposedly WW anyway) would be hitting the ceiling if I hadn't bent the crap out of him - indica mix my ass.... yep gotta lot to learn

Posted this elsewhere, but I have 5x infected CHem Dog clones.

I have isolated them from 250w Closet, now what to do? Throw them all away? The hydroton and soil is ruined as well? Help please for a noob.

Can they be rescued?

Thanks.

Pe@ce,

HymroD

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Originally Posted by HymroD

Posted this elsewhere, but I have 5x infected CHem Dog clones.

I have isolated them from 250w Closet, now what to do? Throw them all away? The hydroton and soil is ruined as well? Help please for a noob.

Can they be rescued?

Thanks.

Pe@ce,

HymroD

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HymroD, did you get an answer? I was going to ask if you still have the mites reproducing and running around chewing on your plants since they were isolated, or if you were able to knock them back with one of the suggestions on this board

hey people! i bought this spary called: earth tone insect killer at OSH (has a blue bottle cover), supposedly all organic, used it and after three sprays 15 days apart they are all gone and the plant seems fine.

i would recommend it. you gotta really get every leaf, top and bottom, you miss one branch and those eggs will spread all over again in a few days.

hope no one says that stuff is bad for buds, ima use it for now on.

hope this helps

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Originally Posted by budsndrums

HymroD, did you get an answer? I was going to ask if you still have the mites reproducing and running around chewing on your plants since they were isolated, or if you were able to knock them back with one of the suggestions on this board

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Hey! Thanks for following up..I got my answer in another thread..here:
http://boards.cannabis.com/plant-pro...ml#post2075936

I isolated the 4 offending plants. 1 committed Hari Kari. 1x shows signs of uninfection, but I am not sure. One clone looks ok after repeated treating of dishwashing liquid, burying the leaves in a 1cup water thing, etc...

2x clones still infested. Double quarantined, being planted in a local swamp outside. 1x clone left. Shows good health. Not sure if what is now a $2 chem dog clone is worth even possibly infecting my 3x BEAUTIFUL GIRLS.

Pe@ce,

HymroD

Also of note, my homie gave me an organic spider mite treatment product. Have not used it, its called -Organicide.

Now on to flowering advice! Just set my 3x girls into flower mode and I need to reasearch stuff. 1st real grow in Cali.

Pe@ce,

hymroD

Just wanted to follow-up. I was able to completely rid my grow room of spider mites. I'm not sure if it was the weekly neem sprays (and occasional pyrethrum) OR the No Pest Strip. I put the No Pest Strip in for 1 week at the switch to 12/12 light cycle. I had ventilation completely off at night and day.... my air-cooled reflector just pulled air from a different room. Anyway, that was 4 weeks ago and I haven't seen a sign of them since. It helps that my grow room is only 5' x 5' and 7' high..... so 175 cubic feet total.... probably fills up with the dichlorvos vapors in one night!

Just consider yourself lucky if you don't have root aphids. Those fuckers sucks and you won't realize you have them until they've already destroyed the roots on several of your flowering plants.

Lampost it looks like we are on about the same schedule - after the harvest (better than I expected too!) I wiped down EVERYTHING with a tiny bit of bleach in water - I have been checking the new clones every day and now NO BUGS! Yea!!

Thanks to you and everyone else

Still have the no-pest strip in there just in case a newly married couple decides to make my grow area their new home

New grow going well except for the stupid weather we are having now- one day it is 70 degrees and 36 hours later it is sitting at 15. I was going to flip them to 12/12 the other day but since we were getting this snowstorm I decided to wait until it warmed up again, alas I am afraid now I let them veg too long and I may have monsters in my tent, who woulda thought three days of extra vegging would make that much of a difference. I guess I need to hone my trimming skills