smokinrav

Ah ****. Went on vacation for 10 days and got back three weeks ago. I only had one plant in flower and I took precautions about her drying out while we were gone. She was pretty well along in flower, 4 weeks, looking a bit light green. But I wasnt worried. Upped the N slightly and off we went on our trip. Got back and the plant was really sick looking. But honestly, I didnt care much. Got enough stash in reserve to last for some time. So I watered it and let it grow for a couple weeks without paying any attention to her. MISTAKE!!!
I go in to harvest her and I discovered a major infestation of mites. They had been allowed to grow out of control for a month and covered the girl with webs and black specs. Now Im in a panic, checking all the rest of the plants in the garden. Sure enough, my three in veg (in a seperate room attached to the flower area) were covered tho not as bad. Now Im looking at my rooting clones and son of a ***** if they arent there also.
My clone mother is also infested

My questions

I practically saturated the almost done girl with pyrethins and watered the soil. For the last couple days Ive been spraying her buds with plain water, trying to balance out the good of killing the mites and prevent molding the buds. So is this plant useable? Can it be smoked? Hash? Oil? Its very crystally, even with the long term mite damage (a tribute to how good a strain Rosetta Stone is) but I would be kinda grossed out to see a million black specs coming out of my shaker jar with the trichomes

I just put two of the plants in veg in the flower room. I want to seriously raise the humidity in the 4x8x8 flower area for a week or so. Is there any possibility doing this will harm plants so early in flower? Is this a completely effective way of controlling them? Will stagnating the air at night (so I can REALLY raise the humidity) be detrimental to them? Ill simply hook the fans to the HPS timer and run the humidifier full time on high

My clones are small enough I can manually remove the mites from the leaves, but this is an everyday process. How do I treat such fragile things as unrooted cuttings? I dont use a humidity dome for cloning, so thats out.

Would you recommend flowering out the clone mother and starting over with a new mom?

Thank you for your help


Smokin

3hounds

I feel for you, man.
Check out my experience http://www.hempcultivation.com/420/s...threadid=25139 with the little buggers.
I say spray whatever you feel is safe on the ones already flowering, and do damage control on the mothers and clones. If you can get to a place with them that you can take a hose or a strong stream of water, that would be my first method of choice on the NON flowering plants. When the majority of them are washed away, then go in with your insecticidal soap, or Avid if you have the $$.
For the flowering girls, control and deal with 'em. In my own (very specialized climate, I know) I find that humidity's effect on them is a bad rumor.
But again- reference my above listed thread...... *I* smoked 'em, and they were good!

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born042079

Smokin,

Yeah... I've got no opinion on this one... I have the same damn problem myself... I've been battling the little buggers for a a month and a half now. They ruined my last harvest.... I was expecting 10 oz and got less than 3/4. Hardly worth the extra $40 a month in electricity.

The upcoming harvest is looking just as bad as leaves are falling off on the daily. I've been combatting with safers every other day on all my plants... clones, moms, and flowering specimens, but it seems like a loosing battle. I lost my prized Lemon Skunk mother!!!! Worse yet... as I've realized, if you don't wash off ALL the safers, the smoke gives you a horrible headache.

There has to be some other option. What can you do as a preventative measure? We need to come up with some way to approach the bug problem in a proactive rather than reactive (spray w/ soap) way. What about backyard bug zappers? Would they be effective against mites and aphids?

We need a serious brainstorm session here to come up with a once and for all proactive anti-bug solution. I have read all to many threads about ruined harvests after bug infestations. I'm tired of bugs dammit.

Please help,

Born420

Xpod

I have completely gotten rid of them on flowering plants by using 1 tbl. / gallon of 95F, ph balanced, water. Make sure you soak every surface if possable dip the plant. The bleach will kill the mites and acts as an ovicide ( kills the eggs!). One application is all it takes, it will not turn the pistals brown, Chlorine is a neut ( is small concentrations ), and will help prevent mold from forming!!

Delta9420 has some info on mite control.

Good Luck!

OzGrowa

Get some Avid and stop messing around!!

Abermectum the active in Avid is effective, safe and only has a 1 week half life. The idea is to flower out whats remaining then spray heavily the clones and mums, in this way its a good few weeks before they flower and do so with the maximum availability of terpenes within the around the leaf tissue as there are no mites attacking and drainging the plant, putting it under stress and reducing the smell, rersin and taste.

For bud that has mites, just pop the bbud into a microwave and give it a 10 or 15 second blast it will kill any eggs and adult mites remaining. This can be used prior to hanging fresh product/

I have kept all my rooms clean using these methods, they work and work well.


Oz

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Delta

and some that aren't even native.

Here's what I'd do. I'd throw the neem out the window, first. Second, I'd throw all the permerethins, pyrethins, and all that crap out right behind the neem.

Then, I'd whip out the microscope and check out the little buggers at about 60x+ and verify their genus. They sound an aweful lot like the Two Spotted Spidermite (aka TSM), but there are many others. I've also seen the European Red Spidermites go brown/black once they reach adults (but the nymphs are always red).

On the bright side, at least it's not a Broad or Cyclamen mite. The TSM prefers warmer temperatures and can be found from a rh of about 40% - 90%. Big range, so I doubt any environmental mods will work on this type. Unless it's REALLY cold, like winter. And then, they just overwinter and come back when the temps raise up again.

Assuming it's a TSM, your chemical options are wider than other breeds. Although, it's kinda complicated. Since TSM and most other mites are quite frequently found in greenhouses and indoor gardens, over the years most species have developed pesticide resistence to select chemicals. So things can work, for you, better than others for others...

Most people recommend starting with the weakest pesticide (plain water sprays) and eventually work your way up from there. Not me, I'm with Oz this time. I've had them so many times it's just part of the routine, now. Spray them once and be done with it...

If this is me (and I think it is), I would start with the warm bleach water recipe Xpod posted. This is my first choice and 9/10 times it only takes one treatment. But it's almost summer time and TSMs love heat ... it may not be sufficient. If I see ANY bugs after the initial bleach spray, I don't waste any time and move on to the weapons of mass destruction.

Now, for the womd chems. Abamectin is really effective on TSM's and it is pseudo systemic. It does have a fairly short halflife (few weeks) and is labeled toxic WARNING by the FDA. The drawbacks are it's very difficult to find 'over the counter' and if you find it online, it's terribly expensive. There is some debate over it's long term LD-50 and all that ... but what doesn't kill you. Let me know if you find it for cheap ... I need to re-up.

Something else worth considering, imo, is Ortho Isotox (verbatim). This **** WORKS! The best. First time. Virtual Guarantee. It's inexpensive, available everywhere (grocery store, lowes, home depot, etc) and carries the same toxic WARNING as abamectin (which is sold as ant bait, btw, bayer makes it). Like malthion, hexakis, and all the rest, it is a chemical and labeled not for food or feed. I got in the lindane debate on og and I'm not up for it again, you choose. Methinks you will be here eventually, anyway. Search for lindane on og, more details there. Now, from my experience with Isotox, I wouldn't recommend using it on cannabis plants scheduled to be harvested withing 6 weeks. So basically, you can use it up to the stretch, and that's it. There are some unknowns with lindane and cannabis, but it has been proven to persist in head lettuce for 3-7 days.

Microwaves are good. Microwaves are great. I have 4 1k MW in use frequently for sterilizing my medium. 1 gallon, 8 minutes, no more life .... but I've never used them to kill bugs on buds. I'll have to try that some time. I wonder if it works on shorttailed mealy bugs?

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Delta

Ortho Isotox is a TRUE systemic, too.


It's like the gift that keeps on giving ...

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Delta

I think you should do a controlled experiment on various pesitices and their effect on your type of mite. Hehe

Good luck!

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smokinrav

Thanks Oz, xpod, B420 and 3hounds. I got some work to do. The one plant is harvested. Doing the calculation, ive probably got enough stash to get me to my next harvest and still be able to make oil with that one. Oh wait! Im not calculating the oil in that equation!! Yeah plenty. Now I can focus on the bugs.

Hmmm....wonder what dead mites do when soaked in Everclear?

later

Smokin

HydroSan

Abamectin
Also known as Avermectin B1 and MK-936. Trade names include Affirm, Agri-Mek, Avid, Dynamec, Vertimec and Zephyr.

There's a fact sheet here: http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles...ectin-ext.html

Reading it, I figure the half life etc. looks safe enough to use within 4 weeks of crop time, just got to get my hands on some now

Not sure about Isotox as the FAQ says....
Can I use Isotox on or around my fruits and vegetables?
Do not use Isotox on any edible crops. We recommend that you do not apply the product within 18-24 inches of any edible plant. If Isotox has already been sprayed on an edible plant, do not eat any of the produce. Scary stuff

Note to my spidermite population: You may outnumber me now, but all 17 gazillion of you will soon die. You see, I have the HC knowledge and knowledge is power. enjoy the life sap of my girls while you can.......vengence will be mine

San