Spider mites!!!

[Opie Yutts]

Puuuulleeese people.

Hot Shot No Pest Strip by Spectracide.

Search these if you still have not heard of them, or just save yourself some time and believe myself and the others in this thread that have talked about them.

[M.B.A.]

got 1 already for gnat problem which is over thank god

[klondike_bar]

neem oil, soapy spray bottle, strips,...take your pick.

i love ladybugs, and they love my plant. ive got at least 3 ladybugs on 4 plants at any given time, and absolutely no mite problems this grow.

[Opie Yutts]

MBA, cool AV.

[Hennessy1414]

you can make your plant a hermaphrodite if u use too much neem oil. ive seen problems with that shit suffocating the crops. :rastasmoke:

[M.B.A.]

MBA, cool AV.

thanx, googled marijuana...lol

[katina]

hiya can anyone tell me do spider mites just live on the plants or can they live other places because i had my plants in my room n they have got spider mites i jus keep thinking they will be crawling around my bedroom sumwhere? also i was told that soapy water can help to get rid of them does anyone know if this is true? x

[klondike_bar]

soapy water or neem oil in a spray bottle with light applications will work. the mites wont fill your room, they stick more or less to the plants.

[Opie Yutts]

soapy water or neem oil in a spray bottle with light applications will work. the mites wont fill your room, they stick more or less to the plants.

Wrong, and Wrong. In that order.

Of course this is all my opinion, but...

I cannot believe this is still an issue. Please believe me when I say that I have a great deal of experience with spider mites. I battled them for years until someone told me of the cure. My infestations often became huge because I did not nip it in the bud immediately. Spider mites breed real fast. Less than a week from breeding to hatching. You would most likely know this had you done a little searching and reading, but allow me to address two common misconceptions concerning the mother fucking, bastard, shit-head mites.

1) "soapy water or neem oil in a spray bottle with light applications will work"

Neem oil and soapy water will not get rid of your mite infestation. Shocker, isn't it? Hard to believe I know, but it's true. Neem oil, tobacco juice, garlic, pepper spray, soapy water, or any other non organism remedy will control or knock back the infestation. Using these items it is likely that you will think you have got the problem beat, then in a few days, or a few weeks there they are again. Huh? I thought I killed them suckers! Nooope, sorry. You killed some of them, but you didn't kill all of them. Leave just one male and one female anywhere, on your pants, on the ceiling (oh yeah), inside the pot, inside the medium, on your cat, then you are totally screwed and you will do it all over again, like I did. Neem oil does not kill mites, it drowns them. They don't like neem oil and try to get away, but they will still be in your room. Did you know that mites hibernate regularly and during times of stress? Some of them burrow deep into suckie mediums like dirt. That's why infestations are so much more common in dirt grows. They wait there until the next light change from veg to bloom. How courteous of them.

2) "the mites wont fill your room, they stick more or less to the plants."

I guess you've never seen a real infestation. Not only do they leave the plants, they colonize the corners of walls throughout the room, and anything else they can find that will make a nice spot to hatch some babies, including other areas of your house.

A couple words of advice for those suffering from mites.

If you want to go all natural and control the mites on a continuing basis, the absolute best way to do this is with neem oil. However do not spray them as some people recommend. That drowns the least of anything you can do. If you really want to do some good, you mix up a 5 gallon bucket worth of neem solution, wrap a towel or something around the base of your plant and turn it over while holding the medium in the pot with the towel and one hand, or even a third hand. Dunk the plant down to the pot if possible and leave it there a few seconds. Then shake it a little to get all the air bubbles out. Do this to all your plants, and at the same time scrub down the grow area with a neem oil or bleach solution. Keep your lights way back until the plants are dry or they will fry like, some... frying thing.

Now if you've got the funds, you could still be all natural and completely rid yourself of mites. Just get some predator mites, and get about 3 times more than they recommend. Several will not survive through transport, so I recommend ordering these and picking them up somewhere instead of having them shipped. If you get the recommended amount they may or may not kill all the mites, and if they do it could take months. Also after the spider mites are gone the predator mites eat themselves, so if any bad mites hibernated you will have to buy predator mites once again. The good news is that will be the end of it unless you let more in somehow. The bad news is the total cost would be in the thousands if you had to do it twice.

If you want to kill the suckers dead and not have to worry about it ever again, unless they hibernated, then it's real easy to do by using toxins. If they hibernated, then you just have to do it one more time, providing you catch them fairly soon. Always be watching for groups of little white dots on the leaves. The absolute easiest way by far is to get a couple No Pest Strips. NOT the yellow adhesive ones, the yellow toxic ones. Laugh if you want. I too did not believe, until I thought what the heck. At this point I had spent thousands and still had mites, what the heck is another $8? Well the morning after I put them in my closet I could not believe my eyes. DEAD. All dead. Even the babies were dead in their tracks as they tried to emerge from the eggs. If you can turn off your ventilation and seal up the room nice and tight, your mites will be gone in one day. Otherwise it could take a little longer. Use as little ventilation as possible for the few days it takes.

Other toxins that work are Avid, which is not available everywhere except via the internet, and Perythium (sp?) bombs. Avid is a systemic, which means it stays in the plant for awhile, and travels about, killing mites as they feed. Do not use Avid during flowering. Consider not using toxins if you are planning on having children. Really. They will however, rid you of the problem.

By the way, I have been mite free for about 8 or 10 harvests, I think. My little devils hibernated and I had to do it twice.

[klondike_bar]

hooey damn....ive had the buggers before and they tried to next in my week-old buds, but i killed em or scared em off with some soap water.

then i sprayed the fern beside the weed, figured thats the source. no more problems!