So these are spider mites, right?

bigbadbiddy · Mar 4, 2019

Howdy folks,

look what decided to visit my newly rooted clones ...
Tried Neem seed oil emulsion that I had lying around, sprayed over 3 days, sometimes several times a day. Seemed to affect them, they actively avoid the stuff, saw more white younglings and fewer red adults after. But the clones... don't know if they take so much neem so well? They were "monstercropped" (cut in ~week 4 flower), rooted great, big healthy roots, not sure how much of their current looks are "normal" and how much might be due to the neem and how much due to these little buggers ...

help please

Only attached pics of the buggers for now. I think if I identify them with your help and use the right counter (spinosad? rosemary oil emulsion?), the clones will be fine, so for now only attached pics of the pests.

Thank you all for your help in advance!

bsgospel · Mar 5, 2019

Do you have some full color pics of the leaves? I find the pattern of their particular destruction is just as useful in identifying them. I can't really say from that pic.

The ways that thrips eat up leaves is distinct to how mites demonstrate their presence, you know?

troutman · Mar 5, 2019

Hard to tell by those pictures what they are.

Just know that no bug I know is really beneficial to Cannabis directly.

So if in doubt kill them. Just try to not poison yourself. :tiphat:

smilley · Mar 5, 2019

You need moor zoom. Can't tell what it is. You need a hand microscope or good magnifying glass to tell what you've got there. You can compare to pics on the mag to determine. Sorry, that's all I've got.

f-e · Mar 5, 2019

Your description and first pic suggest your right, but the second pic doesn't really look the part. I'm sure you can find mite pics online, to make a comparison yourself.

While cuttings, you can probably submerse them. Certainly a 2% neem can be sprayed and watered in. Dunking offers total coverage. If using a little less known treatments, you can still turn a cutting upside down to just dunk the cutting, not the substrate. Mites can be wiped out in a week this way, using just wetting agent to drown them before breeding age. Get your temps right, to ensure everything hatches during that week, and drown within 3 days.

I think that's the right timing. The lifecycle is well published online. Anything just laid on day one will be safe until it hatches, which shouldn't take a week. And they can't reproduce for a few days after hatching. So that is your treatment window.

Mites can be resistant to many things. Drowning isn't one of them. But adding some pesticide still helps, as they might not be mites.

bigbadbiddy · Mar 5, 2019

I will try to get better pics of the buggers.
But I am afraid that's all my camera can do, don't have a microscope I could use unfortunately

They are visible to the naked eye, needle pin sized (the adults) and slightly smaller (the young ones).
Bulby red (adult) or white (youngling) body with spider like legs. That's why I thought spider mites.

There is no damage to the clones that I can see so far. At least not to the leafs. No buggers eating away, larf covering the underside or the like. The clones just look a bit droopy and wild because they were monstercropped (at least I think so).

Will snap a pic of the clones regardless.

I read another thread here in the infirmary and the buggers looked similar to mine, just not red in the adults. Someone in that thread commented that they are compost mites that are nibbling away on brown roots... They said the soil/compost was likely too wet and overwatered, hence the breakout. If I keep things drier, they should disappear.
Another experienced member said to just squish them or use sticky traps. Apparently they are not "the borg" or "thrips" or "russet mites" or any of the other biblical pests and should be relatively unproblematic.

I will stay clear of the spinosad for now and try to let them dry out more and continue spraying with neem.

The neem definitely brought their numbers down considerably and I think it will be enough to kill them off for good from what I could gather.

Will keep you all updated.

Thank you for the help and feedback so far, will post better pics if I can.

All the best

BBB

Douglas.Curtis · Mar 5, 2019

Insecticidal soap, the potassium fat based kinds.

Mites are slaves to their breeding cycle, no need for neem or other oils. Spray them down every 2-3 days for 15 days. As long as you've removed the original source, they're gone. Not coming back.

Micronized wettable sulfur also works very well.

PCBuds · Mar 5, 2019

I think I've got the same type of mites.
I've got no damage to the leaves and I've only noticed them on the soil.

After reading this thread I've convinced myself that they are compost mites and pose no threat to my plant.

I'm going to ignore them along with the springtails.

PCBuds · Mar 5, 2019

I had spider mites too and they're a lot smaller.

I didn't see them until they spun their webs.

PCBuds · Mar 5, 2019

Douglas.Curtis said:
Insecticidal soap, the potassium fat based kinds.

Micronized wettable sulfur also works very well.

I figure if they don't cause any real damage then I don't want to spend the time, effort or money to kill them.

I think they'll die off when they run out of all my dead roots from my over watering.

smilley · Mar 6, 2019

bigbadbiddy, you can get cheap microscope for under $20. https://www.amazon.ca/Carson-60X-120X-Lighted-Pocket-Microscope/dp/B00LAX52IQ

Perfect for identifying really small insects (gnats, mites etc) and checking for ripeness in your trichomes.

I regularly pull off leafs and scan them for pests, don't wait till you see webs, it'll cost you yield and quality.

Blu3Kush · Mar 6, 2019

You should get this product call tweetmint its advertised as a cleaning product but it should work on spider mites. Spider mites have a exoskeleton that pretty much repels water making them hard to get rid of with certain products. Insects with exoskeletons molt and when they do they use and enzyme they naturally create to split and remove its shell it's at this point where they are vulnerable. Tweetmint uses the same enzymes that insects naturally use when they shed their exoskeleton so this is definitely the first thing you want to hit them with. I heard about this on the Adam Dunn show they had Jeremy from buildasoil and a women from Arabic talking about. If you want more info you should take a look at this product on buildasoil Jeremy has tons of info that I wouldn't be able to fit in one message. I wish you luck

PCBuds · Mar 6, 2019

f-e said:
...I'm sure you can find mite pics online, to make a comparison yourself.

I tried that but there's 80,000 types of mites.

PCBuds · Mar 6, 2019

smilley said:
bigbadbiddy, you can get cheap microscope for under $20. https://www.amazon.ca/Carson-60X-120X-Lighted-Pocket-Microscope/dp/B00LAX52IQ

Perfect for identifying really small insects (gnats, mites etc) and checking for ripeness in your trichomes.

I regularly pull off leafs and scan them for pests, don't wait till you see webs, it'll cost you yield and quality.

This is what I use..
You can take pics and videos.

Blu3Kush · Mar 6, 2019

PCBuds said:
I think I've got the same type of mites.
I've got no damage to the leaves and I've only noticed them on the soil.

After reading this thread I've convinced myself that they are compost mites and pose no threat to my plant.

I'm going to ignore them along with the spring tails

Yea those look like hypoaspis miles I have had them for a while. They are good for getting rid of fungas gnats in their larva stage. They mainly stay in the soil the only time I see them on the plant itself is when I water sum of them run up the stem to avoid drowning but they wont do any harm they are actually beneficial to the plant

PCBuds · Mar 6, 2019

Blu3Kush said:
Yea those look like hypoaspis miles I have had them for a while. They are good for getting rid of fungas gnats in their larva stage. They mainly stay in the soil the only time I see them on the plant itself is when I water sum of them run up the stem to avoid drowning but they wont do any harm they are actually beneficial to the plant

Awesome!! Thanks !!

I was hoping they were a part if my beneficial micro-herd.
Sort of a top predator. They're probably eating my Springtails.

smilley · Mar 6, 2019

PCBuds said:
This is what I use..
You can take pics and videos.

[URL=https://i.postimg.cc/qMv0hNq1/Screenshot-2019-03-05-20-37-24.png]View Image[/url]

Man, I'm living in the stone age, lol.

PCBuds · Mar 6, 2019

smilley said:
Man, I'm living in the stone age, lol.

It works great for trich pics and you can chase down bugs for a video.
You can check the whole plant without pulling pieces off.

PCBuds · Mar 6, 2019

smilley said:
I regularly pull off leafs and scan them for pests, don't wait till you see webs, it'll cost you yield and quality.

I didn't notice the spider mites until they covered my buds with webs and I panicked.
I mistook the webs for mold and quickly cut down my plant and soaked it with peroxide and alcohol.

I should have inspected my plant, but I freaked out because apparently mold can kill a crop in a couple of days.

If it happens again I'm gonna check the plant to see what it is then just spray them down with Dawn if it's spider mites.

It's safer (they use it on ducklings) and gets rid of most of the bugs.

thailer · Mar 6, 2019

it will happen again and you'll need more than soap.

if there were webs on one plant, you'll find more webbing. you're just not looking enough under the leaves. they're there.

there's lots of different kinds of mites but you want to look for the two spotted spider mite. http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/r71400211.html

So these are spider mites, right?

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