Few weeks until harvest, and these little unidentifiable mites have me panicking

I wouldn't have even seen them if I wasn't already looking at my yellow sticky traps with a 100x magnifier. The ONLY place I've seen them is on sticky traps and I've spent countless hours looking on leaves and even cutting open buds to see if I can find a live one in its natural habitat and I have yet to positively identify a mite on any plant material at all. The plants show no signs of damage or stress and plenty of white pistils still.

If the mite isn't feeding on the plant, where is it feeding? I use rockwool slabs, are they bulb mites even though cannabis isn't a bulb plant?

I tried putting in lady bugs tonight but since I sprayed the rockwool and tray (not the plants at all) with pyrethrin last night it would appear to have killed all the lady bugs, but I only put down 50 or so I have hundreds left in the fridge. I have some swirski mites showing up Wednesday to use in an attempt to kill off the unidentified mites but I don't know if they will make a difference.

Am I worrying over nothing if the plants don't seem unhealthy? The only thing I noticed when looking in the buds themselves was the occasional black specks but I can't say for certain if that was mite poop or just motes of dust and debris that end up in the flowers from all the airflow, since I never saw any black specks accompanied by a mite, and the area surrounding the black specks didn't entirely look like it had been pillaged by a mite population.

Also an important note about the pics below, they are of the same mite and the purple/black looking speck you see near the back of the mite isn't actually a marking or anything but seemingly mite poop because I've seen other mites on the yellow traps that don't have that and some of them that have the black specks behind them.

Spinosad (sic?) You can spray up to day of harvest.

It is a bacteria found in residue from the brewing process. Spray twice, with a 5 day interval. OMRI certified.

That should get you to the promised land. Good luck.

Looks like hypoapsis miles. Beneficial soil mite. Do an image search. But my guess is that you are fine

HUGE said:

Looks like hypoapsis miles. Beneficial soil mite. Do an image search. But my guess is that you are fine

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This.

Those lil guys are on your side.

Let them do their work.

Lifebreather said:

This.

Those lil guys are on your side.

Let them do their work.

Click to expand...

So it's possible for these soil mites to arise naturally even if I'm indoors and growing in hydro rockwool?

"I've spent countless hours looking on leaves and even cutting open buds to see if I can find a live one in its natural habitat and I have yet to positively identify a mite on any plant material at all. The plants show no signs of damage or stress and plenty of white pistils still."

it sounds like you may be causing more stress to teh plant than the insects
you seem very diligent in your care and i totally understand babying your girls, but man, you went full nuclear on this one

The first step is to identify!

You can't control an unidentified pest!

It may not even be a pest? My money money is on 'storage mites'. Do an Internet search of that term to see if you recognize them?

moses wellfleet said:

The first step is to identify!

You can't control an unidentified pest!

It may not even be a pest? My money money is on 'storage mites'. Do an Internet search of that term to see if you recognize them?

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Ok guys I got some more pictures and even video of one of these mites that hadn't already been submerged into sticky trap goop which obfuscated some important features.

https://vid.me/9Gfm

The video shows that it seems to move relatively fast for a mite, and both the pics and video show, if you look for it, that the mites seem to have four little wisps of hair or whatever coming out of their ass end. When I was looking at them I also noticed a pair of wisps coming out the front.

Still for the life of me cant find them anywhere else but the sticky traps. Not on the roots (I didn't look too deep there since it's all rockwool) and none on the stems and none on the leaves or in the buds. They have to be feeding on something right? There was enough residual pyrethrin on the stems and plastic covering rockwool to kill all the ladybugs I put in yesterday within hours, but these god damn mites just keep on kicking.

I don't want to say the flowers look stunted, but honestly they usually start turning color right about now and all of them are still super white. The plants are still drinking a near fuckton of water every day, more than I've ever seen a crop drink every day.

Anyone willing to try running these mites through this mite taxonomy would be very appreciated if you have the time:

http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~srivast/mites/key.html

After running through it myself, I've reached different conclusions different times because of my poor understanding of the subject. But the one I have landed on that looks the most like mine is this one:

http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~srivast/mites/s/ZH7.html

"Juvenile Oribatids With Distinct Setation"'

From the page:

"- presumed fungivore / detritivore / algivore"

I have beneficial fungus I inoculated with during veg, there's inevitably leaves and material that falls down and decomposes, and there was definitely algae on the outside of my rockwool cubes and now its gone.

Your thoughts?

Pictures of the underside of one. I find most of them near the edges of the sticky part on the sticky trap, and just today found a live one walking the perimeter of the sticky goop.

First things first. The real dope.

What kinda camera is that? It's pretty fuckin' neat minus the 70's porno haze. Haze.

If you examine any area long enough, you will find signs of life. Mites, among other things. Google "hair follicle mite". Everywhere. Dust mites, skin mites, grain mites, boiled shrimp, fried shrimp, shrimp cocktail.

Your job isn't so much to scan each square millimetre for the first invader but to be observant enough to catch it early and react to a plan.

Hypohortichondria. But no worries friendo, the cure is the disease. Roll up, burn up and untuck your ginch.


Pick a day of the week. Anally check your plants that day. This is scouting. Actual IPM.

Nothing to tie it all together. Wheat paste maybe.

70's porno haze...? Is that a strain. If not can I use the name?

Yep the man needs to relax, if there is no damage and the mites are not migrating towards plants then I don't see a problem. What kind of sticky trap are you using, it's possible that sticky goop is nutritive and those mites are coming to feed?

I opine that most life is beneficial.
I also think that if the life is not on the plant itself it's all good.
More harm is usually done in trying to kill the life you see.
Ratz

That's a soil mite bro let them be they'll eat fungus gnat larvae and juvenile root aphids. I get them every year naturally indoors around this time of year and towards the end of summer usually September.

I remember the days I used to piss my pants over every little thing, do a google search if you don't believe us it'll help ease your mind lol

Mikell said:

First things first. The real dope.

What kinda camera is that? It's pretty fuckin' neat minus the 70's porno haze. Haze.

If you examine any area long enough, you will find signs of life. Mites, among other things. Google "hair follicle mite". Everywhere. Dust mites, skin mites, grain mites, boiled shrimp, fried shrimp, shrimp cocktail.

Your job isn't so much to scan each square millimetre for the first invader but to be observant enough to catch it early and react to a plan.

Hypohortichondria. But no worries friendo, the cure is the disease. Roll up, burn up and untuck your ginch.


Pick a day of the week. Anally check your plants that day. This is scouting. Actual IPM.

Nothing to tie it all together. Wheat paste maybe.

Click to expand...

It's just this lighted magnifier with my smartphone camera held over the viewing port:

http://www.lightinthebox.com/100x-l...d-magnifier-versatile-endoscope_p1107413.html

After your responses I'm taking a step back from the intense investigation and just letting the ladies finish their flower in peace, after all as someone said, I've done more harm to the plants than any soil mite has.