AAAHHH SPIDER MITES!!!

[Subjekt]

Yeah cash is hard to send over the net, money orders wont hurt either LOL...

Nah i understand what your saying i kno a pest strip covers a certain amount of ground and a few wouldnt hurt...more in larger areas, yes..tru indeed, because the mites can easily relocate to another location where the pest strip doesnt reach

[Opie Yutts]

Subjekt, you've come around nicely. Glad to see that you have your head firmly on your shoulders, but I've suspected that's the case already.

[Subjekt]

Well as a great man once said..If you never made mistakes its because you never tried nothing new... I've tried new things so mistakes have been made and converted to lessons...Ya digg

Peace

[Subjekt]

oh and in a few weeks, i'll be posting my first cannabis.com grow log..Maybe sooner than that, seeds are germinating (Red Devil, Haze, White Rhino, Some Skunky Strain)

[bud luv]

No Pest Strips do the trick, but they have chemicals that are harmful to humans in them. Depending on how sensitive to smells and chemicals you are, you might find them noxious. I used to work in sales for a pesticide company and I've always been able to "sense" when a harmful chemical is around. Call it a spider sense or whatever, but those things sketch me out hardcore. I can definitely smell them, it's an unmistakable toxic sensation. I do believe that one of the chemicals found in No Pest strips is now illegal in several states. It says on the box not to use them in areas of your house inhabitted by people, which means they're bad for you. Is it bad for you (long term) to smoke buds that have been in contact with No Pest strips? To a degree it is. The toxicology of pesticides is notated by a term called "LD50" which tells you how much of the substance is needed to produce a lethal dosage in 50% of the test population. All unnatural pesticides will kill you, it just depends how much exposure you have (amount of pesticide, proximity, enclosure size, etc). So it's not whether or not a pesticide is bad for you, it's HOW bad is it for you.. follow me? Using any synthetic pesticide like a no-pest strip is a measured risk, i.e. YES IT WILL HURT YOU and YES IT WILL KILL THE BUGS. You want to minimize your exposure and stay the fuck away from your gro room while those things are in there. For people that are prone to be sensitive to toxic chemicals, such as myself, you can smell/sense them throughout your house... I left the pesticide sales industry because it was too hard on my conscience. I had to sell them to put food on my table, but selling them required me to downplay their danger. Eventually i decided my employers were disgusting pigs and the conflict of interest between my financial/moral obligations was getting old. Professionally you're expected to say a toxic chemical isn't dangerous if the LD50 is low enough, but we all knew that they can still be harmful under certain conditions. If you give a client full disclosure you're going to scare them away, but then they'll just buy it from a guy who won't give them full disclosure. Anyways, I'm rambling.

The strips work, though. If you have a bad spider mite infestation on a sizable crop that you're depending upon then you can use them with caution, but don't hang out around the area while they're in there.

If I ever get spider mites again (god forbid) I'm going to try to go the hippy route: Two legit natural pesticides are Tobacco and Soap. I'm going to make a tobacco and soap tea and spray it on the effected areas. I did this last time I had mites in conjunction with the no-pest strips (so it wasn't a scientific experiment,) but I do think the tobaccy/soap juice had a positive effect. If you catch the infestation early it couldn't hurt to try this natural alternative for a day or two under close observation before you commit to the no-pest strips.

Just my 2 cents.
BUD LUV

[Opie Yutts]

Thanks for the added insight into why the strips are dangerous. That's educational, and education ain't bad.

And I know what you mean about sales. I could never do it because the good salesmen have to lie their asses off to be good. Never buy "Dish" brand satellite TV. The salesman will promise things that will never happen, like $150 off for switching, or a free 7" portable DVD player. (Sorry, we have no record of that.) Direct TV is sooo much better for that and a whole bunch of other reasons, but this is the wrong forum for me to continue. Sorry.

bud luv, I know you have a lot of pesticide experience, but I find it very hard to believe that 8 hours of exposure to a plant that is in the early stages of life can be harmful to you if you smoke, or especially if you vaporize the buds months later. Again, I recommend you don't use the strips during flowering.

[Opie Yutts]

..If you never made mistakes its because you never tried nothing new...

I like that.

[Subjekt]

:thumbsup:

[bud luv]

.

bud luv, I know you have a lot of pesticide experience, but I find it very hard to believe that 8 hours of exposure to a plant that is in the early stages of life can be harmful to you if you smoke, or especially if you vaporize the buds months later. Again, I recommend you don't use the strips during flowering.

Word. When I was talking about smoking plants that had been exposed to N.P.S. I meant in flowering plants, i.e. my use of the term "buds." 'Is it bad for you (long term) to smoke buds that have been in contact with No Pest strips? To a degree it is.' I'm not a biochemist and I don't know the metabolic rate of N.P.S. in vegging plants. My main point, however, was that just having the N.P.S. around (breathing contaminated air) at all is harmful, and extreme caution should be used to minimize the airflow from the affected areas to the main living areas of one's home. I can't tell you exactly how much of the active ingredient in N.P.S. is going to be stored in vegging plants (I bet at least a trace amt), but that wasn't my concern anyways.

My main point was to expound on the health/environmental issues at hand here. EVERY chemical is harmful in certain doses. Everything from table salt to citric acid has an LD50 number, so the question isn't if something IS or ISN'T dangerous; it's HOW dangeous is it? So when something like N.P.S. is approved for usage in homes, it's not because it is safe. It is approved because the LD50 numbers are low enough (when used as instructed) to be legal. Putting N.P.S. in an area of your home that is breathed by humans is NOT using it as instructed, and it will cause harm to you and your dogs and goldfish. The fact that the active chemical in N.P.S. is now outlawed in several states just goes to show that it is very difficult and counterintuitive to use the N.P.S. "as instructed." The only place most people care about an insect infestation is in their house, but it's unsafe to use N.P.S. in your house (unless you have a certain area that has zero airflow to the other parts of your house). So it is nearly impossible for most people to use N.P.S. as instructed, and thus it is going to be dangerous in most applications.

Now like I said I've used N.P.S. before because I didn't want to lose a 2lb crop, and yes I used them in flower. Was it smart? Hell no, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. N.P.S. are handy as hell when you have the mites, but like I said exposure to them and exposing your plants to them WILL hurt you. At the time it was either throw out 2 lbs of chronic or put myself at risk, and I made a decision that unfortunately a lot of crazy people like myself will make. As I said it's a matter of balancing how badly you need your crop to how much you're willing to risk your health.... There is a lot of grey area so I'm taking an opportunity to wax philosophical, but in any case N.P.S. should be a last-case resort. Really there is ZERO reason for any "normal" person to use N.P.S... the only time they are at all justifiable (on a $$$-health scale, if you want to put a price on that stuff) is to save a crop like MJ. For someone with a bunch of spiders in the basement or ants in the kitchen there are MUCH BETTER options, so really I do think they should be outlawed or restricted to use by licensed professionals. For instance, because I've passed a 4 hour test and am a state-licensed professional I can buy and use chemicals that would be illegal for normal citizens to possess or use. I can access these pesticides because supposedly I know how to use and handle them appropriately*, but if they were used improperly they would be a serious health/environmental hazard. Since several states have found that there is no intuitive/safe way to use N.P.S. they've outlawed them, and if their scientists found that the LD50 is unacceptable in confined areas I would tend to agree with them. On the other hand, take for example something like bleach: it will absolutey kill you if you drink it, but it is very easy/intuitive to use properly so it is legal.

Really I just want to give people as much info as I can put in here while I smoke a J, and hopefully they can factor it in when they decide how to deal with pests like mites. A key thing to remember is that most pesticides are not meant to be used in enclosed areas like growrooms, so proceed at your own risk.

*which is bullshit, but that's another story.


BUD LUV

P.S. For the tobaccy/soap bug juice I would simply get a bunch of rolling tobacco and let it sit in some water with a little dish soap. The LD50 to humans on something like this is insignificant, but it will kick most bugs asses. In the future if I ever get mites again (knock on wood) I will try to control them with frequent foliar sprayings of this before resorting to a highly-toxic alternative.

[Opie Yutts]

Never buy "Dish" brand satellite TV. The salesman will promise things that will never happen, like $150 off for switching, or a free 7" portable DVD player. (Sorry, we have no record of that.) Direct TV is sooo much better for that and a whole bunch of other reasons, but this is the wrong forum for me to continue. Sorry.

Good Lord, I really am such a stoner. I'm sitting here watching TV and I happened to notice that it is brought to me via Direct TV. That's the suckie one, people. Sorry. Dish is the good one, and it's nowhere close, right down to the installation and the guys being happy to hang around and make sure you totally understand everything. Love Dish, hate Direct TV. Send me my free DVD player damn it!