Spider mites AKA The Borg

[Rodehazrd]

I keep the mites down with neem and no pest strips. If I stop fighting them they always show up. First on Bangi Haze then they spread. I keep spraying till a couple weeks into flower then just try to last them out. I crossed a LBL X Skunk with a Goji male and got a girl I want to share with my friends. I know I will share the mites too since I never get totally rid of them. Is there a dip I can use for small plants to clean them up first?

 

[Iowa Grown]

For me its 16/1 white vinegar and water dunks and it kills them all, and their eggs tool It will also kill any other bugs that could harm your cannabis plant and their larva too. I have 2, 40 gallon barrels, one I fill with plain water, and the other I fill with 32 gallons of water, then I add 2 gallons of white vinegar, then I mix that up good, then I flip any infected plant over and dunk it upside down for 15 seconds in the vinegar and water barrel, then I pull it out, making sure I cover the pot, the top soil, with a bath towel, (I wash those bath towels with fresh water only and then I dry them before using them), before I flip the plant back over. Then I shake the plant out a little, and then I let it sit for 2 minutes, then I repeat that process once more. then after that, I dunk the plant upside down in the clean water barrel for 15 seconds, then after doing that, I take it out of the fresh water barrel, then I flip it back over and shake it out a little, then I finally air dry it with 4 fans. Will it hurt the plant, NO! Why, White Vinegar is a synthetic 'acetic acid', Cannabis plants naturally create a form of 'acetic acid', IAA (Indole-3-acetic acid) it is used by the cannabis plant to build cell walls / cell structure, but it is also used as a defense mechanism by the cannabis plant to fight against fungi, molds, mildews, and other predators, to keep fungi, molds, mildews, and other predators from eating through its cell walls. So that's the reason why I use only vinegar and water dunks to instantly eliminate any and all bug and fungi infestations that could kill any of my cannabis plants.

 

[MD84]

So i've just noticed my first mite outbreak ever. Had a friend over last week who mentioned he had mites on his veg patch in the garden lol. I've ordered some predatory mites ( Phytoseiulus) but until they arrive i will spray with neem/soap. I was just wondering if i could use some ladybirds with the Phytoseiulus or would they be food for the ladybirds too?

 

[earthwyrms]

i got the borg somehow; either from mail ordered strawberry (maybe that one) sweet potato and mulberry or outside even though i was careful (i may have been slippy and picked some up and wasn’t clean enough in my clothes in the wash, me in the shower procedure;

my first attempt to treat was the mite eradicator
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=18473

, and my manipuri died because it was under watered. i lost a mulberry too, and my oldest cactus fell over in a colony pot but is still nicely green.

i found some on the other cactus and sprayed australian sandlewood oil in isopropyl alcohol on them

sandlewood oil from australia is sustainable unlike indian sources and i use it in a small amount in a spray bottle with 91% iso and shake it up to homogenize it and spray it on my stinky parts after the shower as “natural” deodorant .

it wiped out them but the cactus got some black bruises in places and what looks like sub skin mite sized bumps. it is under heavy light. but i found more today in my corn and freaked and spilled a lot more sandlewood oil into the cologne sprayer on accident and put about 3 or four parts iso in to try and dilute it. i sprayed the heck out of the two plants i needed to try and save and transferred them to a hopefully safe planter; and then rinsed a little with water (and they are under less intense light now)

and i found an article on sandlewood oil
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3215870/

that shows
“
Results

Acaricidal activity of essential oils

Mortality due to treatment with 34 essential oils and the number of eggs laid by the females treated with those oils did not differ significantly (P < 0.05) from the control (2.9%), although it approached significance (P = 0.0588) (Table 2). However, the mortality caused by treatment with sandalwood oil (89.4%) was highest, followed by that from common thyme oil (62.8%). In addition, the total number of eggs laid was lowest on the leaf disk dipped in the sandalwood oil solution. The number of eggs per live adult did not differ between oil treatments.

Because sandalwood and common thyme oil produced higher TSSM mortality compared with other oils, the acaricidal activities of the two oils were retested. Sandalwood oil was significantly more effective than common thyme oil and the two controls (0.0 and 1.1%) (Table 3). Mortality of the sandalwood oil treatment was higher and total number of eggs of the treatment was lower than that of common thyme oil. Mortality and the total number of eggs laid by TSSM adults treated with sandalwood oil in the 2nd trial were similar to those of the 1st trial. However, the effectiveness of common thyme oil decreased dramatically between the first and second experiments and did not cause any substantial mortality relative to the two controls.
“
i also found a page on how to choose types of predatory mites
https://greenmethods.com/persimilis/

and do’s and don’ts of use of dormant oils
https://hyg.ipm.illinois.edu/pastpest/200520f.html




since i also used isopropyl alcohol; i hope i worked better; but
i found that most importantly.........
https://hyg.ipm.illinois.edu/pastpest/200114c.html

“
Warm and dry conditions favor rapid spider mite development and increased feeding and reproduction. The life cycle from egg to adult can occur in 5 days at 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Females, which don�t have to mate to reproduce, live 2 to 4 weeks and can lay 100 to 300 eggs. Twospotted spider mites spend the winter in protected places, such as weeds, in ground litter, or in debris. They do not overwinter on plants, which means that applications of dormant oil sprays are not effective.
“

in at least the two spotted spider mite,

they can survive in leaf litter

(which :facepalm :/ have strewn around and have pot liners of tin foil to keep the light from the roots and algae formation :/ )

and debris, (maybe soil tops ? ) “Removing plant debris and weeds eliminates overwintering sites for spider mites. In addition, many weeds, especially broadleaves, serve as a host for spider mites”

so having no till may be terrible unless the ecosystem is balanced and moist with the fungus that controls them (forgot which page had the source; but paul stamet’s (fungi.com) mycogrow has an insect eating mushroom/fungus in the mix which other ones like great white, i don’t believe contain

i let my plants get too dry and that is when it kicked off. also they resurfaced on the broad leafed and cone-like-nooked corn and i tried blasting them there too, but

basically the mite eradicator helped but i must have missed spots and the debris and do i think they will come back, amd i have yo remove the leaf litter and spray / bleach the tent basin and then treat the pots and liners with sandlewood or bleach and then spray the plants with sandlewood iso or the mite eradicator .

but i don’t know if predatory mites will be needed then or if a population can really be wiped out for good

th





i just read strawberries are a good host for predatory mites; but the problem is nature seems to tend towards equilibrium and the spider mutes wiuld be managed by come back (not totally, but maybe wiped out kn an area like the predatory ones die off, and then the can cone back like the predatory mites can be reintroduced, from another area; so then it is a mix of zones with different absences and equilibriums, but i need to wipe them out completely)

 

[gladysvjubb]

I have been using NO PEST STRIPS for many, many years. NO mites. Just read and follow instructions.

 

[Zeez]

Don't poison yourself in the process trying to get rid of mites. Chances are you brought them home from your grow shop and those are the worst kind because everything has already been used on them unsuccessfully.

 

[GOT_BUD?]

Reading this thread is a great reminder as to why I have a specific set of clothes that I wear in the grow room that never leave the basement.

 

[zachrockbadenof]

i have not found a way to 100% kill these fukers- inside/outside my tent b4 each grow, i use a drdoom bomb twice over a 5day period, spray with clove and rosemary oil 2-3 time over a week , then a no pest strip is left in the tent for 7-10days- it keeps the population down, but once 30/40 days into flowering, i start to see some again...

my buddy alt spraying floramite and avid when they are vegging, and the 1st week of flowering...then stops... he def gets thru a 70/80day flowering without these fukers... but i'd rather not use these products...

 

[bigtacofarmer]

Get yourself down to a few small clones. Treat with neem every third (not fifth, not seventh) day until you have not seen a mite or egg for a few weeks at least. Clean grow thouroghly before and after every treatment. Make sure you are not walking though live mites on the way into the grow. Once you are convinced they are all eradicated put clones in flower and stop spraying them. Try to stay clean and hopefully not have to deal with them again.

Then thank yourself for producing a clean pest and pesticide free product!

 

[bigtacofarmer]

Also. If neem does not work. Stop taking in clones from dirty ass growers that do not choose to eradicate their problem and choose to share their resistant strain of mites they have been training to survive.

In my experience mites that come in from the yard are really easy to get rid of. Mites that come in from trading clones with the community can sometimes drink whatever you throw at them.

Best bet is keep a clean grow and start lots of seeds to avoid inheriting other growers issues.

 

[Zeez]

Some of the chemical stuff that people use, they really shouldn't even be growing. I've seen experienced growers recommend using heavy stuff for ornamentals only. Be safe.

I left the space empty and unused for a year and a half. That worked.

 

[rjrom90]

https://www.advancingecoag.com/plant-health-pyramid

John Kempf developed this chart to describe how soils and crops transition towards complete pest and disease resistance as they achieve higher levels of health.

https://www.advancingecoag.com/higher-corn-yields-in-kansas

Spider mites are attracted to corn plants with a specific nutrient profile which meets their nutritional requirements as a food source. When the nutrient ratios are shifted, corn plants become much less desirable to spider mites, and pest pressure can be substantially reduced. John and David described how to manage plant nutrition to produce crops which are mite and insect resistant.

 

[CannaRed]

I haven't had mites inside since I started adding Optic Foliar's Transport to my foliar sprays.

 

[earthwyrms]

so that was a bunch of rambling and data;

but anyway

the specific figures for sandlewood oil killing mites is ~87% of them so that is good but not 100%

here is a sustainable source of australian sandlewood oil at 60 bucks for 16 oz

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sandalwood-Australian-Best-Essential-Oil-MEGA-16oz-FREE-EXPEDITED-SHIPPING-/162151583115

that is the best i can find. it works out to be like the expense of deoderant if put in a sprayer with mostly isopropyl alcohol (91%) and a higher concentration of oil should double team the mites and work better; but

better isn’t good enough


i keep reading the same things, that people treat it but it comes back. i didn’t trad everything, but also alot of these are outside, where neighbors and shitty woodland/forest/swamp/nature environments are outside ones dominance;
so

i think that for indoor environments, as long as i am super cautious about changing my clothes like a biohazard suit if i am in a bad forest/plant contact; like tick prevention; clothes in hot wash, person in shower (in this case maybe. bleach floor and pathways and avoid porous or fabric materials or anything crevices; maybe spray shoes with chemical or something (bleach sucks on shoes, but i do it sometimes, sandlewood in iso would make it slippy and unsafe, and i usually put my shoes in the washing machine.)

i was thinking of trying to find pure spinosad and Azadirachtin and bifenazate, rosemary oil (? idk if it was in the list of essential oils tested in the paper i linked too in the previous post) and mixing it up along with sandlewood oil and 91% pure isopropyl alcohol

i guess it is hard to source the chems as a consumer (bullshit shit) and so buying theough a midleman mixer corporation, gives us high lrices brand name formulations with nice emulsifiers and crap you could buy pure too if the reapected fucking people; but anyway


i just figure that using the mite eradicator on everything from leaves to plant to floor and tents ect after shielding the soil, then rinsing;
then putting the shielding material in a bucket of bleach water and bleaching the floors and tents and everything and then spraying everything with a mixture of every damn mite eradication chemical along with sandlewood oul and a good deal of isopropyl alcohol, might do it.

i may be overeacting; or actually not but i am concerned about it because it just happened to me for the first time and i was being so cautious and the idea that i wont be able to totally get rid of them, and onky manage them, has me feeling mad and defeated and i don’t want this shit in my life

 

[earthwyrms]

oh, yeah, what i meant was maybe if a little survive one compound class, and some, a different class

that a mix of alot of alot of alot of stuff will take that 1/1000, 0.1% and make that population a .01% and more attack methods at the same time, a 0.001%, so it would be a total annihilation and not one could be stong enough, hopefully to survive, and never have the chance to pass on their resistance

because if they did, it made it a bad consequence for the future;

if indoors, than the environmental impact is none or minimal; but also a rarely used thing that isn’t regular because the biohazard type procedure of re-entering the house or building would hopefully mean that a contagion does not regularly spread; so the countermeasures are used at such low frequency, that the disease doesn’t have a high enough reoccurrence to make a 0.000000000001% survivors who could make super shit heads that nothing would destroy except predatory mites and predators that only keep an equilibrium and so we were forced to live with a persistent menace. like if we bring bugs and crap diseases to space or mars; whoops.

 

[Rodehazrd]

I did the vinegar dip it worked as well as anything. Next time I will leave in the water a bit longer I still had some eggs hatch.
Thanks Iowa Grown

 

[mr.brunch]

I’ve seen a few sites saying the herbs dill and coriander repel the Borg ... anyone tried companion planting? Wondering if it would work

 

[Zeez]

Two Spotted Mite. Pure evil.

Primary source - your grow shop.

 

[Drop That Sound]

I've had to wonder.. if they only really invade your crop (and relentlessly at that!), when you are putting your garden ahead of other things, ones that are far more important in life to get done. Things you have been putting off, and procrastinating on. Or perhaps being to greedy, like expecting too much from a plant that can provide just what you need, if only you went about it with the upmost respect. As in the universe is trying to teach you a lesson, and allowing them to feed off your misplaced energy.

Maybe this is why taking a long break is the only real way to break the cycle (lets face it they can lay eggs and go dormant for years), because during the break you put more effort into yourself than your beloved plants on pedestals.

I have a feeling that your vibe about the situation makes a big difference, and can attract or repel them, same with most of the pests/plant issues. In my case I took a long break now, and looking back I'm kind of thankful that the little buggers were trying to give me insight to my situations, in the 4-5 times they have visited in the past. I've been able to kill them with kindness, and give them so much respect, and feel that my next grows they will seek someone else that fears/hates them instead. I have a whole different appreciation for the plants now.

Any one else feel me on this?

 

[Crooked8]

I have to respectfully disagree. They can invade the humblest most wonderful respectful people in the world and ravage their world. Then they can leave the dregs alone and seemingly reward their lack of kindness. Its not karma. Although I do believe in karma overall. I think its purely situational regarding infestations and about prevention and correct and precise eradication efforts if they show. Ive made them go away for many people. If you maintain control and routine prevention methods they dont come back. They cant.