Possible mites, thrips or ...?

[blue72]

Hi there,

this is my second grow and as I have not yet seen anything like this before, I hope you guys can help me out.

Random bagseed clones vegging for 2 months and
Royal Automatic from seed vegging for 1,5 weeks under ~500W CFLs @ 20/4
Fan blowing directly at the older plants

Bigger girls are in 5 liter containers, seedlings container size in not known
Soil pH not known.
Hesi Bloom Complex & Root Complex & Phosphorus Plus (not used in veg) for soil every second watering
EC & PPM N/A
Temps are ~27C when the lights are on, ~23C when off
No other chemicals have been used before.

I´ve used both tap water and groundwater, pH unknown


(Click to enlarge)



The problem has existed for some weeks now. At first I thought it was
caused by the wrong pH of water, but the ferts I´m using have a pH neutralizer in them.
Many, but not all, leaves are covered with small black spots, some have a little silver
glare at them. Some looked really really bad, so I alrealy ripped them off before taking pictures. I´m thinking spider mites or thrips.

Any advice/suggestions/thoughts?

Great thanks in advance.

PS. Sorry if the pics are too large or not very good. If needed, I can take new ones.

 

[whodair]

i call those mites. the tiny bugs are under your leaves munching away. i use insecticidal soap on them. keeps them at bay. and treat the top of the medium where they lay their eggs!!

all the best

 

[blue72]

If I remember correctly, I took a peek below the leaves in the morning and didnt see any bugs or other suspicious things. If I get home, I´ll take a better look and make some photos.

Edit: Sorry, I was mistaken. There are LOTS of small black dots!

 

[Darkstarlive]

You got thrips.
The classic rasping of the leaf surface and silvery residue.
Look for little patches of black dots, that's the feces of the thrips.
Get Monterey garden spray, Jack's Deadbug Brew or Bullseye, anything that has Spinosad in it and after 2 applications your thrip problem will be gone.
Good luck.
Peace..

 

[Kcar]

Totally agree with DarkStar.
Thrips - get spinosad! Kills caterpillars too!

 

[blue72]

Thanks a lot for such quick and helpful answers.

Something with spinosad you say? I´ll do my best to find something with it. Will report back!

 

[WeedChuck]

monteray garden insect spray contains spinosad. Its def what you need.

 

[3dDream]

I put this in the sticky, dunno if you folks saw it. Basically spinosad only works on the two spotted spider mite.

Abstract

Laboratory bioassays were conducted to characterize the activity of the insecticide spinosad against the twospotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch, and European red mite, Panonychus ulmi (Koch) (Acari: Tetranychidae). T. urticae females and larvae were individually placed on bean, Phaseolus vulgaris L. (Fabaceae), leaf disks treated with four rates of spinosad (25, 55, 121, and 266 ppm) and a water control. Significantly fewer T. urticae completed development on any spinosad rates (<15%) compared with the control (>85%), whereas spinosad exhibited no significant effects on P. ulmi development; 72.5 and 83.1% of P. ulmi completed development on apple (Malus pumila P. Mill, Rosaceae) leaf disks treated with 75 ppm spinosad and the control, respectively. T. urticae adult females placed on spinosad-treated disks had significantly higher mortality and lower oviposition rates compared with the water control; no significant mortality effects were observed until 3 d after placing adults on leaf disks. In choice tests where half of a bean leaf was treated with 55 ppm spinosad transversally or longitudinally, T. urticae females were repelled by spinosad and largely oviposited and fed on nonspinosad treated areas. Spinosad did not affect the behavior of P. ulmi females. When T. urticae females were released on potted bean plants (two-leaf stage) in which leaves received spinosad sprays on the adaxial or abaxial leaf surfaces, or complete spinosad coverage on one or two of the leaves, mite population increase lagged significantly behind those released on control plants. These results indicate that spinosad has significant acaricidal effects against T. urticae but not P. ulmi.

 

[Abja Roots]

I'd agree with the Thrips answer.

Nowadays I spray neem, spinosad, and burn sulfur. Pretty much as a preventative. I also use gnatrol to prevent fungus gnats. It may seem like overkill. But my thinking is the time to concern yourself with the insects and pests is before you see them.

I'm always very happy when I can go a whole cycle with no bugs at all.

 

[WeedChuck]

I put this in the sticky, dunno if you folks saw it. Basically spinosad only works on the two spotted spider mite.

actually isnt that a study of spinosad on those two types of mites. I dont think it has anything to do with the rest of the pests that it does ocntrol.

 

[3dDream]

dont think it has anything to do with the rest of the pests that it does ocntrol.

WeedChuck - Me too. I was just posting about mites. Sorry I wasn't clear. I just found the info and while researching I found many posts where people said spinosad did not work on mites.

 

[Dr Dog]

Thrips dude, you may have mites, but I do not see the damage from them

I see thrip damage, no doubt about it

 

[Kcar]

Western Garden Thrips i'm betting. Spinosad = Thrip Death

 

[blue72]

Damn, I just now found out that they don't sell anything containing Spinosad here in EU.
I did buy some insectspray, which should help against thrips, but after reading all those threads here on ICMag about only Spinosad doing the work correctly, I´m quite sceptical about it.

Argh! I would kill to get hold of that Monterey one, but buying something for 10$ and then paying another 60$ to get it shipped is ridiculous

 

[Dr Dog]

Hey man

I tried to run a search for that bio pokon bottle, but it only brings up Pokemon stuff LOL

I am not sure if that would work, without causing damage to your plants.. You have a hydroponics store around you

 

[ranneG]

Hey Blue get some spinosad here it'll last you a life time, no problems getting it to the EU
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Conserve-Natu...0?hash=item3ef0d2cff9&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177
I think you might have mites as well, get a scope and check underneath the leaves

 

[Norrath]

i can SEE the thrip larvae crawling on your leaf in the 4th picture, i count 5, maybe more on that one leaf.

i consider myself lucky when i only pick 1 or 2 of those off all my plants per day. it's an ongoing battle in my small garden with those, that i have yet to win.

spinosad isnt illegal in canada but none of the retailers avidly sell/promote it. even most of the hydro shops in this city know nothing about it. still, perfectly legal. perhaps similar situation to over there? whatever the case, that's definately thrips, i like neem oil and BT, seems to work okay

 

[blue72]

Hey Blue get some spinosad here it'll last you a life time, no problems getting it to the EU
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Conserve-Natu...0?hash=item3ef0d2cff9&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177
I think you might have mites as well, get a scope and check underneath the leaves

Thanks for the link!

I also found one Italian shop, who sells a product containing Spinosad. But they´re out of stock at the moment : (

I guess I´ll have to get it shipped from the USA then. I just hope my girls are still alive when the package finally arrives....

 

[Darkstarlive]

A year ago I had thrips but didn't recognize it for a couple of weeks, I thought the silvery shit was residue from foliar spaying. I had 25 plants that were infected with the thrips and I found this Spinosad and after only 2 treatments 4 days apart they were gone.
Thrips like to hunker down in the spaces of new growth and so some of the new growth will look wilted and brown but once you start treatment it will all be good..
They will scar up your plants pretty good but won't kill them too fast, left untreated and it will kill them for sure. After two treatments with the spinosad spray and your thrip problem will be gone.
Best of luck.