predator help needed

[The OrigF/clred]

okay, posting this for a friend's grow, he's computer illiterate and actually hostile to computers and the recent NSA scandals didn't do a lot to help. I'm helping him with his grow or rather, learning what it takes to bring plants to full flower or bud

first, kudos on one heckuva forum - especially this infirmary - i've picked up a lot of good info for my bud

now to the problem - he's been finding white specks on his leaves, but no damage to any leaves. The specks look like a small pc of cigarette ash, and as he's a smoker, that's what we thought they were, but they started increasing in numbers. Some of the specks are brown, and look like brown powder - both the white specs and the brown / amber spots rub or clean off the leaves.

 

[The OrigF/clred]

sorry - hit enter and the thing posted before i was finished - if the mods could delete thiws duplicate thread, i'd appreciate

 

[Granger2]

Do the specks fly when roused? He smokes in his grow room? Put up Yellow Sticky Traps to monitor pests and numbers. Good luck. -granger

 

[al70]

Just a guess, hope this helps, some pics would be great, goodluck.

Spider mites (also called spidermites) are not insects but are more closely related to spiders.

Read complete tutorial here:
http://www.growweedeasy.com/how-to-get-rid-of-spider-mites

These arachnids have four pairs of legs, no antennae and a single, oval body region.

Most spider mites have the ability to produce a fine silk webbing. Spider mites are very tiny, being less than 1/50 inch (0.4mm) long when adults.

Spider mites have tiny mouthparts modified for piercing individual plant cells and removing the contents. This results in tiny yellow or white speckles.

When many of these feeding spots occur near each other, the foliage takes on a yellow or bronzed cast. Once the foliage of a plant becomes bronzed, it often drops prematurely.

Heavily infested plants may be discolored, stunted or even killed.

Web producing spider mites may coat the foliage with the fine silk which collects dust and looks dirty. Spider mite species seem to be warm weather or cool weather active pests.

The two spotted, European red, honeylocust, and oak spider mites do best in dry, hot summer weather. The spruce and southern red spider mites do best in cool spring and fall weather.

All spider mites go through the same stages of development. Adult females usually lay eggs on their host plants.

The eggs hatch in days to weeks into the first stage, called a larva. Larvae are round bodied and have only three pairs of legs. The larvae feed for a few days, seek a sheltered spot to rest and then molt into the first nymphal stage. The first nymph now has four pairs of legs.

The first nymphs feed a few days, rest and molt into the second nymph. The second nymphs feed, rest and molt into the adult stage.

The males are usually the size of the second nymph and have pointed abdomens. The females have rounded abdomens and are the largest mites present. Most spider mites spend the winter in the egg stage but the twospotted spider mite over winters as adult females resting in protected places.

This cannabis leaf shows the first signs of a spider mite infestation: dozens of tiny yellow spots.


Click for a closer view


Solution: Early detection of spider mites, before damage is noticed, is VERY important.

The tiny spider mites can be detected only by a full and thorough leaf inspection (on both sides of the leaf). If you find Spider Mites you must act fast and hit them hard.

The thing about spider mites is they are very quick to take over your plant, and even quicker to evolve and adapt to whatever methods you are using to try to kill them. They will soon develop resistance to almost any method you use to get rid of them.

If you have problems with spider mites, keep a constant and varied offence for the best chance at success.

If you already have an infestation, start hitting them hard with something that will kill them on contact.

Follow up in 2-3 days with something different that kills their eggs as well as a different method to kill the remaining adults (these ones will already be more resistant to your original method).

Repeat those two step at least one more time to ensure that you have really cleaned out your grow room.

Shake the plant, then kill the spider mites with something that kills them on contact, like:
A bleach solution (1 tablespoon of bleach to 1 gallon of 95°F, pH balanced, water in a spray bottle.)
Alcohol and water mixed togther will also kill the bugs on contact and shouldn't hurt the plant as long as the solution contains at least 30% water.
SM-90 mixed with water (1 part SM-90 to 5 parts water) kills spider mites on contact and is organic (it even smells good!)
Neem Oil works in a similar way to SM-90, though doesn't smell as nice

Using a mix of all the methods seems to work best for getting rid of spider mites.

I tend to avoid chemical sprays, or miticides with Abamectin or lindane because these are harmful to humans.

There are also insect predators that can help in providing some CONTROL but this does not mean 100% eradication. The insect predators can help to control spidermites if your infestation is out of control and chemical sprays are not your thing.

Spider Mite Prevention - The Clean Grow Room

Now it's all about prevention.

If you've had spider mites in the past, chances are you are unintentionally doing something to encourage or attract them.

There are many preventative products such as sprays or neem oil, which make plants less tasty to annoying spidermites. However, these should only be used to supplement good practices.

The most important aspect of spider mite (or any marijuana pest) prevention is a CLEAN GROW ROOM.
Never move other plants from the outside world into your grow room - this is the most common way people get spider mites. If you get a clone or plant, keep that plant away from your other plants in quarantine for at least a couple weeks to ensure it has no bugs. Get a handheld microscope and use it to look for bugs on new plants, too.
No old dead leaves in your grow room at any time - you must collect old leaves regularly and completely remove them from your growing space. It doesn't count if you put them in a neat pile or trash can in the corner, you need to keep dead plant matter out of your grow room
Make sure that you or anyone who comes into your contact space is clean (don't ever walk into your grow room directly from outside)
No dogs, cats, rabbits or any other pets in your grow space

 

[The OrigF/clred]

appreciate the responses - this post was an incomplete duplicate post - the full post is below a few threads, i had hit "enter" as in "line feed" and the damn thing posted B4 i was finished

the white specks and the brown spots that look like a fine brown powder spot, all wipe off, some more difficultly than others that may just flick off with a puff of breath. Nothing flies or moves when we attempt to wipe them off, so the white specks are at least droppings. Need to get a good magnifier to assess the brown powdery residue spots.

Yesterday when i went over to his grow room, the white specks had grown by a factor of 3X, and he hadn't been in the room with a cigarette so we kind of ruled out cigarette ashes.

Then i found a short silvery, almost chrome looking streak on one leaf, maybe 1/8" long and actually looked like a sliver of the mylar film coating. It broke up and fell off when i tried to knock it into my hand. A few leaves over found a small brown bug, looking like a tiny lilliputian loaf of bread, about 2.5mm long (80-90 thousandths), maybe 1.5mm wide (1/16") and 1mm in height. It looked like a small brown ballon full of liquid and squashed easily.

He's been drenching the soil and spraying the leaves with a habernos tea (hot chilli pepper ground up and simmered in a pot for 15 minutes or so) - he started using that against the fungus knats while the mosquito dunks arrived - the stuff seems to work against the knats as the airborne population has dropped from 3-5 sightings a visit into the room down to zero sightings.

What's odd is there is no visible leaf damage

al70 - tks for the spidermite tutorial, i'm headed over to review it now

 

[The OrigF/clred]

JUST TOOK A look at the spidermite tutorial - doesn't look like what i have. The white specks are only one to three specks per leaf - all leaves have at least one speck. My bud has been wiping them off whenever possible and the next day there'll be more on the leaves he cleaned.

will try to get a camera and take some shots

 

[Green81]

There called thrips and are easy to get rid of using chemical sprays or with biological control.

Good luck

G81

 

[Green81]

Maybe that or a type of leaf fungus but not powdery mildew, something different.

 

[al70]

Thrips

Thrips are small, fast-moving insects with wings.
They rasp, or grate the marijuana leaves open, and suck the sap out.
Thrips prefer flowering tops, and fresh, young leaves.
Affected leaves have shiny, silvery spots. This is caused by the thrips sucking the chlorophyll out of the leaves.
In spite of the fact that they're small, you can see them marching in columns on an infested plant.
Solution: Thrips can be fought with your favorite insecticide. Or predatory insects, the thrips' natural enemy is Amblyseius cucumeris.
A thrip problem can be solved basically the same way as aphids. My favorite way to get rid of them is misting your plants in a solution made of 1 part SM90, 5 parts water.

 

[Granger2]

Check the Thrips sticky. Drenching the medium with Spinosad breaks their life cycle, usually giving complete control. I would drench medium, spray foliage. Best to do a follow up in about 3 days. Good luck. -granger

 

[The OrigF/clred]

thanks - i ordered a 30x jewelers scope, but have my bud order some of the spinosad or the sm90 - i'll let him decide but i'll print out what i can on the thrips and the two recommendations

i'd read the sticky on thrips and had ruled them out as there was no sign of any destruction to the buds that are flowering - plants went into flowering about 2 weeks ago and are just showing some nice shape & size. The thrips sticky had indicated the filaments or hairs on the flower (forget what they're called) would brown and die from thrips attacking and his plants are not showing any sign of that

 

[The OrigF/clred]

Thought i'd wrap this thread up - i did some research on the various miticides suggested, narrowed it down to sm70 & spinosad, printed it out and gave it to my bud - he went with Granger's recommendation, spinosad

he sprayed the plants well, under leaves 2X and top foliage 2X in the same session, then again 3 days later

the white specks have disappearred totally, plus he sprayed with some habaneros (hot hot chili pepper) tea - that stuffed also seemed to knock the shit out of the fungus nats while the mosquito dunks started kicking in.

thanks for the assist guys