Anyone know how to find predatory mites in N California-cus?

[CannaGeek]

Some of you might be laughing at my pun in my title, but probably not.

One of my friends has a spider mite problem because he did a couple things which made him vulnerable to mites. His getting mites is like getting cancer from smoking; one doesn't directly cause the other (as we know atm), but the chances of getting it are enormously higher. His room was hot, dry (because a HUGE fan), and no preventive measures were in place. That is a perfect breeding ground for spider mites by the way...

Bad Mites like it hot and dry (80-90° F)
Good Mites like it cool and humid (60-75° F)
Cannabis like's it 78° F (25° C) and 60° humidity in veg and about 40° humidity in flower. The ideal temperature and humidity (more in flowering) for cannabis is great for spider mite breeding and they will spread fast and with a furious anger, kinda like Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction.

Spider mite Life Cycle
@ Temperature in oF __ 60 64 70 90
# of Days (Egg to Adult) 30 21 14 3.5

To control this infestation of his, I plan on going out into the Humboldt county gardens looking for some natural spider mite killers. These are N. Californicus (general pest control, survives better), and P. Persimilus (eats mostly mites, needs high humidity). P. Persimilus works faster than N. Californicus, but then again...


So I'm off to the Strawberry fields and Rose bushes to find some good mites with some magnifying lenses, pocket microscopes, and some Rubbermaid food containers as tanks (as soon as the sun comes up...). It has been chilly lately so finding them might be hard (slow reproduction).

CannaGeek Reviewed by CannaGeek on 10-11-2008. Anyone know how to find predatory mites in N California-cus? Some of you might be laughing at my pun in my title, but probably not. One of my friends has a spider mite problem because he did a couple things which made him vulnerable to mites. His getting mites is like getting cancer from smoking; one doesn't directly cause the other (as we know atm), but the chances of getting it are enormously higher. His room was hot, dry (because a HUGE fan), and no preventive measures were in place. That is a perfect breeding ground for spider mites by the way... Rating: 5

[Weedhound]

No...not laughing at the title.

And ps......Google..."small cell lung cancer" Comes directly from smoking.

Sounds like you need more research on your subjects.......

[CannaGeek]

And ps......Google..."small cell lung cancer" Comes directly from smoking.

Sounds like you need more research on your subjects.......

Thanks for the correction.

The truth is, smoking causes lung cancer (as well as heart disease, emphysema, and death). This does not mean that everyone who smokes gets cancer. Many do. Saying that "smoking causes cancer" is like saying "Russian Roulette causes death." You are by no means certain to die from Russian Roulette. But, when that bullet passes through your brain, your relatives will know that you were killed by Russian Roulette. There is a direct cause and effect. But not everybody dies.

I hope that got my point across better. Dying from Russian Roulette=getting mites

and by the way I found some FREAKING N CALIFORNICUS PREDATORY MITES IN THE WILDS!!!!!!!!

Here is the album to make viewing easy:
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Images are disabled on my post for some reason, so these show up as links instead of images (in my preview at least).

The Blackberry bush


The area of the bush I thought was the worst


A leaf I thought looked especially infested


Look at those beauties!


Collected the infested leaves, brought them back home, looked at all the bugs under a $13 Radioshack 60x-100x portable microscope.


One of my captured guy/gals on the left side, and 2 pictures of N Californicus I found on the internet.


Here we go! 85° for optimal breeding conditions (afraid 90° might be pushing it).


There are about 10 or so in the jar with a couple mite eggs I found under leaves for food.

[CannaGeek]

Update:

Since I combined the N. Californicus [NC] (Good red mites) and the T Urticae [TU] (Bad 2-Spotted mites) in the same jar, threre are new hatchlings from both today.

The NC population looks like it increased, but not significantly compared to the TU population. The older NC eat 4-5 mites/TU eggs a day, and lay 2 eggs a day. About a day or two later the eggs hatch (in hot temps) and will become adults within a week time with proper food (currently about 30:1 TU:NC, about a week's food).

I kept the enviroment 80° and about 80% humidity for the first day and it worked out well. The very tiny newly hatched NC are running around the jar like mad, very active. I haven't seen any mite-killing action yet but I'll try to take some cool pictures once it starts.

I figure a sizable NC population to introduce to his room won't be ready for a week, so we used Safer brand Insecticide last night and he says the mites look like they are going through hell (temps dropped to 50° last night in his room) but the plants are great.

Applied science rocks...