How do I get my Spidermites out for good?

[Chrellyboy]

Hi,

I have a "2 in 1" grow right now.
1 2
|_*_|
Two Ebb/flood tables with no "seperation" so that the two lamps "help" eachother.

1 = 600W, 2 = 400W.
1 = 8 weeks old, 2 = 4 weeks old.

Part 1 of room is harvested in 1 week. Both parts are hit my spidermites, but luckily very lightly.

My plan is to continue misting part 2 with pyrethrin, and then when I harvest part 1, I will spray EVERYTHING with pyrethrin and wipe it all over the room, too.

I also happen to have a "Fortefog mini P fumer". Here is the item description:
Fortefog P Mini Fumers contain 13.5% Permethrin, for the control of Flying insects use one fumer per 120 cuM.,for control of Fleas and Bed Bugs use one fumer per 30 cuM., for other crawling insects (such as ants and cockroaches) use one fumer per 7.5 cuM. Harmful to fish and pets until smoke has cleared

My room is only about 20-30 cubic meters (not growing area, total room area). Would it be a good idea to use this smoke bomb in the room if I harvest all plants first? It's inside my home, so I would have to seal the door with electrical tape and leave the house for a few hours. I have cupboards and stuff in the room, would these (including the things in them) be ruined from the permethrin?

BTW, I am mentioning two different products in this thread. Pyrethrin, which is an organic poison from chrysantimum flowers, and permethrin which I believe is synthethic.

Looking forward to hear from you I would really love to have these buggers gone for good. Miss those bug-free days....

 

[PoopyTeaBags]

avid and forbid in veg... if you have them in flower all you can do is azamax till they are done they spray the whole flower room down(after harvest)

you need to rotate these two products every 14-21 days until you cant find any more then do it agian....

 

[kstampy]

SNS-217 works great and it's just rosemary.

 

[hazydreams]

gas the f*ck out of them with co2. take a 20 pound bottle. crack it in the room. unplug your fans with the lights OUT! and let it sit for a few hours. CO2 ppms should be past 10,000, Plug the fans in an air the place out then treat with known miticides, neem, forbid, avid religiously. you will win the battle. but the CO2 kills everything but the plant.

 

[Chrellyboy]

Kstampy and Poppyteabags, thanks for your replies I am probably not going to buy the products you mentioned, but I will look into the ingredients which will help me make my final decision on how to make an "endlösnung" for the mites

Poppy, when you say spray for 14-21 days, do you mean 14-21 days while there are no plants? Will I have to wipe the whole room down more than once?

Hazy, CO2 is a great idea! I will probably do this when all plants are gone, since too high levels can kill the plants. I have no CO2-measurer, so I will end up just switching a tank on in the room, which will make the CO2-levels over the top. But I will surely leave the house while it's on.

BTW since I already bought this permethrin smoke bomb, I would love to hear experiencces/knowledge on this stuff and info on its harmfullness (does it break down with oxygen like pyrethrin?)

To sum up: so far I will wait the 4 weeks till everything is harvested, and then use CO2 maybe in combination with permethrin (if it's okay to use permethrin with things in the room such as joint papers, filter tips (roach clips), hawaiian baby woodrose seeds etc... I mean: "consumables".).

Thanks again friends!

 

[gmanwho]

best way is to get every thing back down to a few moms.

clean all areas, buckets stakes walls refelctors containers& floors. do it again a few days later. bleach everything.

the mothers use a floramite at 1 tbsp per gallon, get bifenthrine an run at 2-3tbsp per gallon. add a wick agent to the mix. place that mix in a container big enough to fit your mothers. place something over the medium an turn the plant upside down an DIP THEM.

hold the mothers for about 3 weeks. apply every 3 days for 3 times at first. then the 2nd wek start every 7 days. use the left over dip to spray the walls an containers and floors. use long gloves an a respirator.

sounds drastic. but that how i beat them after 3 years of unsuccessfully fighting them.. been almost a year now an none returned....

spidermites casue for drastic measures. most arent ready for it. key is hitting them over an over to break there reproductive cycle.

ya gotta get them down to mothers. bifenthrine is to poisoness to spray on flowering plants. flowering plants also repel the sprays or liquids from there oils.

DOWN TO MOTHERS... only way..

good luck

 

[Mountain]

BTW, I am mentioning two different products in this thread. Pyrethrin, which is an organic poison from chrysantimum flowers, and permethrin which I believe is synthethic.

I tried all kinds of stuff over the years. When I absolutely positively had to get rid of them I went with Avid and Floramite rotated. Never tried Forbid though and heard Oberon is like a nuclear weapon.

Bombs work temporarily but will not eliminate them. Once I used a bomb designed for 1,000 sq ft in half that space and they came back pretty damn fast and guessing there were still viable eggs. Only thing the bomb did was mess up my plants.

No-Pest strips are nasty but work IF you cut off ALL ventilation except oscillating fans. A friend once had a large room woven in a trellis late in flower and they showed up, she carried them in. I recommended she over dose with strips lights off for 3 days then repeated a week later and that got em. While the stuff is highly toxic I was impressed just the strips hanging did the job.

If you're in the middle of an infestation cleaning areas out best you can by wiping things down is a must. My grow rooms always looked like you walked into a hospital surgery room...was the cleanest room in my house...lol.

 

[DaPurps]

I love the No Pest Strips for flower... set it in front of a fan.

 

[Marshall]

I used floramite a couple weeks apart, a dr doom fogger at some point, and I use azamax as a preventive now.

I have heard floramite can be used in flower up to 30 days before harvest

Avid is also good from what I hear.

Floramite and Avid are pretty pricey

 

[Mountain]

I used floramite a couple weeks apart, a dr doom fogger at some point, and I use azamax as a preventive now.

I have heard floramite can be used in flower up to 30 days before harvest

Avid is also good from what I hear.

Floramite and Avid are pretty pricey

Floramite has a life of 21-28 days. If anything I'd just use it at the flip if you're experiencing problems. Depending on where you're at in the country there are areas with Avid resistant mites exist. Avid is nasty stuff but works.

Floramite and Avid are not expensive really cause a small amount goes a long way and will last in the bottle for years and years.

 

[Chrellyboy]

Wow, thanks for all those replies

To treat the CURRENT infestation on flowering plants, I just bought 2000 Phytoseiulus persimilis KILLERMITES. These should kill the spidermites that are there right now, and hopefully eat a lot of eggs too. But I still feel they might come back after that, so I made a plan how to make sure they wont.

I do have 2 mothers, but keeping them is not so essential as I have not yet got the cloning going too nicely (the clones wont grow very fast after roots show but I'm working on that) aerocloner btw.

So my plan is:

1. Getting the room cleaned out, finding places in other rooms for my joint papers and stuff that shouldnt come in contact with permethrin. These items will not return to the room, as they could in theory be infested... though unlikely that joint paper would contain mites imo.

2. Step 2 begins when all the flowering plants are harvested. I will remove the two mothers I have in order to get the room 100 % plant (and plant media-)free. I believe the soil that my mothers are in might keep some mites, so fuck that soil. Next time will be hydro mothers. Then I will clean up all accessable surfaces with some IPA + water + pyrethrin.

3. Now that the room is empty of plants and a lot of items that are best left untreated, I will fire the permethrin bomb which is oversized for my room, but this will probably not hurt.

4. A week after, I will treat with a very big CO2 tank. I can only get ahold of 1,5 meter tall tanks, so I will probably let that sip out CO2 for 5-6 hours.

5. A week later, I will fire another permethrin bomb.

6. Yet another week has passed by, and CO2 will be deployed again to make sure.

7. Last but not least, I'll once again wash the whole rooms surfaces with IPA + water + pyrethrin solution.



So the room will be treated like this:
Day 0: Permethrin Day 7: CO2 Day 14: Permethrin Day 21: CO2.


I just read that the spidermite can hatch within 4 days.

Would it be better to do a more intensive, but faster treatment such as?:
Day 0: Permethrin, Day 4: CO2, Day 8: Permethrin, Day 12: CO2

I realize 1-2 treatments would probably be enough, but I cant be wasting my time on these awfull insects anymore. I want them done for good.

 

[Mountain]

To heck with CO2...save your gas.

 

[Chrellyboy]

To heck with CO2...save your gas.

Do you recon the permethrin should do the job?

BTW, I dont have the gas already, but I can get it almost free.

 

[stihgnobevoli]

i havent tried floramite and avid and all that other stuff, but i did have a ton of mites infesting my grow i tried all natural shit like cold water, alcohol, i even took a plant supported the pot so the dirt wouldnt empty all over the floor and dunked the whole thing in a bucket of icewater and alcohol none of that worked. when they had killed everything down to my last plant i couldnt take it anymore i got a no pest strip stuck it in there and in 3 days they were all dead, left it in a week just to be sure and i havent had a single mite anywhere since.

so short answer is get a hot shot no pest strip. its supposed to be some sort of deadly or whatever. but im not gonna eat the hotshot pest strip nor did i plan on concentrating and inhaling it. it kills bugs and i didnt die in the process. good enough for me. concerns about cancer and all that...shit you can get cancer breathing air. if its between possibly getting cancer from a no pest strip and losing all my plants to spidermites ill just take my chances with the no pest strip.

 

[Stress_test]

Liquid Ladybug, Neem Oil, and other similar products DO NOT KILL THE EGGS. Mites lay thousands of eggs a day and can hatch every 2-3 days. So, if all your doing is killing the adult mites your going to spend a lot of money on products that are not solving the problem- it's just a temporary fix.

Go get a can of concentrated frozen apple juice; mix as instructed and dilute 100%. (1 can juice + 3 cans distilled water + 4 more cans water)

Day 0 = TODAY... Spray all your plants @ lights on.
(The apple juice contains an acid that dissolves the adult mites and their eggs. BUT at the same time feeds the plants vital nutrients that help them recover more quickly).

Day 3 or 4 Re-spray again.

D-Day. After you harvest and all your plants are gone:
"Seal" the mother room and use some of that near-free C02 to supplement the mothers. Spray the entire room with 1 cup bleach per gallon tap water.
Wipe down entire room.

Return all those other remedies you have and go buy 2 or 3 cans of frozen concentrated apple juice, you will seldom need anything more severe to wipe out mites if you keep other plants out of your room and keep your rooms sterile clean.

However if you do want a more severe over the counter remedy: SNS-217 is the best product I've ever used. It's all natural, non-toxic and food grade safe. I have even used it on flowers and vegetables and not only does it not hurt my plants but it makes them healthier and heartier.

 

[Mountain]

Do you recon the permethrin should do the job?

BTW, I dont have the gas already, but I can get it almost free.

No I don't recon permethrin will do the job.

Honestly seen mixed results with high CO2 PPM's. If you don't have the gas then seems you are not set up with regulators/timers to dose effectively. Have seen some swear by it and others said it was a waste of gas. Would have to be done in a completely sealed space for it to be even worth a shot. Don't think it's necessary and won't kill eggs so a double dose would be necessary. If well into flower maybe a good non-toxic approach to try. Still don't see too many peeps that have used that approach over the years.

 

[Sam the Caveman]

what I would be more worried about is sexual maturity, sprays that kill the living mite will only be effective if they are not allowed to breed anymore. That will mean you have to spray before they are mature enough to breed again.

so if you spray once, an hour later an egg hatches, it needs to be killed before it can reach sexual maturity and start breeding again.

another thing to pay attention to is how long it takes for a egg to hatch.

I don't know for sure off hand how long sexual maturity is but I think it is 4-6 days, so for an effective kill all, you should spray 3 times spread 4 days apart.

I have had good success with this method using only neem oil.

good luck

 

[kstampy]

Kstampy and Poppyteabags, thanks for your replies I am probably not going to buy the products you mentioned, but I will look into the ingredients which will help me make my final decision on how to make an "endlösnung" for the mites

Poppy, when you say spray for 14-21 days, do you mean 14-21 days while there are no plants? Will I have to wipe the whole room down more than once?

Hazy, CO2 is a great idea! I will probably do this when all plants are gone, since too high levels can kill the plants. I have no CO2-measurer, so I will end up just switching a tank on in the room, which will make the CO2-levels over the top. But I will surely leave the house while it's on.

BTW since I already bought this permethrin smoke bomb, I would love to hear experiencces/knowledge on this stuff and info on its harmfullness (does it break down with oxygen like pyrethrin?)

To sum up: so far I will wait the 4 weeks till everything is harvested, and then use CO2 maybe in combination with permethrin (if it's okay to use permethrin with things in the room such as joint papers, filter tips (roach clips), hawaiian baby woodrose seeds etc... I mean: "consumables".).

Thanks again friends!

Go to the website and request a free sample you can spray at least 10 small plants or 2 or 3 2-3' bushes. They also send you a fungicide spray which is supposedly just thyme. I know there's recipes around to replicate the rosemary (sns217) for super cheap and the best part is it stops eggs from hatching unlike neem. I had a mother with mites on it, used my free sample and have not seen anything for a month or so just a bunch of dried up eggs. Smells great too hehe just bathes the room with rosemary.

Couldn't hurt for free!

 

[Madrus Rose]

mothers use a floramite at 1 tbsp per gallon, [/b]get bifenthrine an run at 2-3tbsp per gallon. add a wick agent to the mix. place that mix in a container big enough to fit your mothers. place something over the medium an turn the plant upside down an DIP THEM.

By all standards Floramite is the best miticide/ovicide out there ... that's incredibly high
dose G-Man you only need 1/2 tsp per/gal & that's double their recommended dose .

See specs here on the worlds largest Rose grower's site where i found this product many
years ago, remember it kills eggs too:
http://rosemania.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/page9.html

Their quote:
" Now this fantastic miticide/ovicide is available in a soluble concentrate.
The best miticide we have ever used. "

G-man is correct in cleaning your rooms & spraying down your moms twice B4 cloning is the 1rst place to start . This is done 4-5days apart & make sure you use a surficant like simple Baby shampoo in the mix (1tbs per= 1Qt sprayer) and be sure to spray all undersides of every leaf on the mom-plants . Do this twice in 5-7days & you should hav clean moms ...picking off & discarding all lower fans on moms is a must too.

Now all your clones will be almost mite free but as a follow up after clones are rooted & ready to transplant dip them again whole in Floramite (or Avid) solution . A 1qt cottage cheese or yogurt container works fine . Again do not omit the Baby shampoo /surficant as this ensures complete coverage of the miticide to every nook & cranny of the leaf surfaces .

You could do even one more complete spray of the undersides of young juvenile vegging plants before 12/12 & you are good to go for the duration . Just repeat these steps everytime , every cycle and don't forget to completely wash/sterilize your clone trays & domes before & after every clone round .

**You can buy $17 oz bottles of Floramite on Ebay ...forget the C02 that won't kill the eggs
& a technique used by larger grows anyways plus a pita really . You dont want the "EZ" fix ,
get in there & handdip & hand spray !




PS : this is the way Sam does it & hav been doing it for yrs ,
floramite early on & mites are truely gone !

 

[PURPorKUSH]

I have used forbid up to two weeks into flowers it only stays in that leaves not the vascular system of the plant so as long as there are no buds forbid love that stuff