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Broad mites: ID and Organic Antidotes that work!

FatherEarth

Active member
Veteran
So, the dreaded BM infestation that makes people nuke their plants or risk loss of whole gardens , valuable genetics, not to mention $$$.

Well I get bored from time to time and Jah must have heard me say it in another thread.. " I wish I could get broad mites..." Being anything but humble at the time. Although truly being genuine about my wish.. I've finally been given the infestation I so longed for! Perfect timing too right before taking my plants to the GH for a mid summer dep harvest! I was really trying hard to get an infestation and let me tell you how. I've collected 30+ dif genetics from a myriad of sources and kept them all in the same room with no quarantine and no IPM , introducing newly whored cuts into the room weekly. Never once did I check for BM's, lol... Here is a list of the genetic stock I have compiled.

Key Lime Pie
Star dawg Guava
Stephen Hawking Kush
Gorilla Glue #4
URL
cherry pie OG
sour Urkle
Kappo kush
Pure OG
Sour tsunami
JSour Diesel
Sky walker OG
Z-9
White fighter
Sour apple kush
Herbie CBD
Pie Face
Hashberry
Mango Haze
Shiatsu Kush
Cobra Kai OG
Fire Alien
Fire Alien Romulan
Lake Show #1
Lake Show #2
Black Russian
Chernobyl
LSD
Cherry Cookies
Sin Mint Cookies
Pure OG
Face Off OG
XXX OG
SFV OG
Fire OG

A bit on the line to say the least, not to mention the dep harvest that is crucial for me to bring in successfully ... Can't forget about all my patients who need meds too!

Now, this is about to be my: how to rid yourself of BM's organically journal. Microscopy ID pics, plant symptoms, and organic products & DIY remedies and an in depth discussion of how to never see another BM again. Confident? Yes. Prepared? Overly. Scared? Never. Fool hardy? Maybe so, time and this journal will tell.
I'm going to let some people tune in while I start collecting data and taking pics. Pull up a chair and bring some hash this should be a fun ride!

Steadfast with Lamp oil burning!

Bless up!

FE
 

FatherEarth

Active member
Veteran
So first product on you should always keep on hand..
Note it does not harm beneficial insects!


PFR- 97

http://www.certisusa.com/pdf-labels/PFR-97_label.pdf



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PFR-97 Applications

Application Guide
Printer friendly PDF format
Active Ingredient: Paecilomyces fumosoroseus

Safety: Compatible with releases of beneficial and pollinator insects and other Integrated Pest Management practices

Rates: 14 to 28 oz. per 100 gallons of water (see label)

Spray Interval: 7 days

Re-entry Interval: 0 hours

Mode of Action:

Paecilomyces fumosoroseus, the active ingredient in PFR97, is a naturally occurring soil fungus that infects several insect pests, including whitefly, aphid, thrips and spider mites. Under proper environmental conditions, spores of the fungus attach to and penetrate the cuticle of the insect pest. The fungus grows inside the insect causing its death. The fungus then emerges from the dead insect to release more spores to infect other insects.

Timing:

PFR-97 is most effective when it is applied before or at the first sign of insect presence. Because PFR-97 is a biological control and efficacy occurs over several days, initiate applications before the pest populations reach a crisis level. Monitoring of pest pressure is critical to the effective use of PFR-97.

PFR-97 can be applied with other insecticides. Do not tank mix PFR-97 with any fungicides, or use a stand-alone fungicide for five days after the application of PFR-97.

Application Rate (see product label)

Low Volume Application (see product label)

Frequency:

Best results will be achieved when applying PFR-97 at least once per week, for two to three consecutive weeks.

Environmental Conditions:

Applications are best made in late evening or early morning when insects are sedentary and temperatures are moderate and humidity is high. Cloudy, rainy days are optimal times to apply PFR-97.

Storage: Keep product refrigerated at approximately 40 to 50 degrees F. in a dry place.
 

HL45

Active member
Veteran
Heat treatments and swirskii mites have worked the best for me.

I order swirskiis on a regular basis and havent seen the broads return.

Do you think that pfr 97 would take care of broads but leave the swirskiis alone? Seems counter intuitive..seems like the swirskiis would eat the broads and then have the microbe inside them. I suppose that swirskiis are a "predatory" insect more then a "beneficial" one such as a soil mite....
 

panick503

Member
Heat treatments and cucumeris mites for the motha fukin win!!! Only reason i went cucumeris is because they eat broads too, and are half as much for twice as many. Well that and OG Biowar for me, but i think any biopesticide that utilizes entomopathogenic fungi would be effective, IF u maintain the proper humidity and temperature levels.

I caught the borg about 4 months ago now, chopped everything and cleaned house, but made a couple rookie mistakes, and 4 weeks and 1500 in genetics later, not to mention new pots and soil, they were BACK!! Sometimes in life u can't run from ur problems. So, as soon as I realized the symptoms were reappearing, I nuked em a couple times, but man forbid will mess plants up almost as bad as the mites. I say almost cuz a plant will recover a lot quicker from forbid phytoxicity. After a 3 treatments in a week and a half with nasty chems, I heat treated my room weekly for a little over a month. At that point growth had resumed a quite healthy rate, and the plants were outgrowing the room, so I had to flip, although I was still uncertain if the nasty toxin the broads release had fully vacated the plant. U hear horror stories from people who say everything looked good in veg, only to unexplainable fail in the first few weeks of flower. I now believe those people never really had their pest problem as under control as they thought they did...

Anyhow, sprayed og biowar twice a week during the first 3 weeks of flower, and weekly for 3 weeks after that, all the while dropping 150,000 cucemeris mites weekly the evening after spraying. I'm about a week from chopping everything and it looks like it's gonna be one of my better crops both quality and quantity wise. I don't care what anyone says, if ur willing to put in the work these bugs can be beaten. Now totally eliminating them from a grow is a whole different story...

Heat is awesome because it not only treats the plant, but the whole room as well, and has ovicidal properties. I read a study on bed bugs and heat. Bed bugs die at 80 minutes at 112 degees, and something like 12 minutes at 118 degrees, but it toom 45 minutes at 118 degrees to kill their eggs. I'm assuming it's similar for broad mites. I had troupe with heat treatments slightly damaging some of my plants, as a result of hot spots from my hoods, so I had to figure out something else for flower..

I also read some studies on various entomopathogenic fungi, it included the one OP mentioned, as well as beauvaria bassiana, and whatever is in met 52, and the ovicidal effects on two spotted spider mite eggs. Can't remember the details, but all the various fungi had ovicidal properties. The big reason I see these fungi being so awesome in veg is two fold; no phytoxicity, at least for og biowar, and they are much less lethal to predators, so the two treatment can be used in conjunction. In my veg room I have sprayed og biowar twice, a real half ass job both times, and besides that the only treatment I have done is predator mites, and they look GREAT, and I've been scoping them too...

So that's what I came up with. The real key I came to realize is that whatever treatment u go with, u must find a way to thoroughly administer it in a way that doesn't damage the plants. The bugs are relatively easy to kill, even without the use of chemical pesticides, but many of the organic treatments, such as nukem, essentria ic3, and even heat, can badly damage the plant if applied incorrectly. If used correctly they wont, and can be quite effective too. But no matter what route u go, if u stop treating they will come back, so stay on it. A buddy of mine told me that now, his broad mites are only a problem if he forgets about them...
 

FatherEarth

Active member
Veteran
Heat treatments and swirskii mites have worked the best for me.

I order swirskiis on a regular basis and havent seen the broads return.

Do you think that pfr 97 would take care of broads but leave the swirskiis alone? Seems counter intuitive..seems like the swirskiis would eat the broads and then have the microbe inside them. I suppose that swirskiis are a "predatory" insect more then a "beneficial" one such as a soil mite....

http://www.certisusa.com/pdf-technical/pfr_beneficials.pdf

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FatherEarth

Active member
Veteran
I get twice as much PFR as i get for the price of OG BIOWAR. BIOWAR is way overpriced IMO.
5lbs of this stuff was 150$ including shipping. It takes 4 grams per gallon on the low end of the scale every 3 days. Applied with an atomizer it goes a long way.! Plus it's a soil drench too.the list of stuff it will control is lengthy. I was a fan of OG BIOWAR til I got sick of paying for talc and having to use twice as much as recommended to get good results. I'm done buying overpriced products targeted at cannabis growers. One more I can scratch off the list...
 

FatherEarth

Active member
Veteran
For those of you heat treating how do you heat your room? Do you protect the root system from getting hot? How about a steam room for heat treating?
 

HL45

Active member
Veteran
Nice find FE!

I heat the room, Its usually as easy as turning off your ac and exhaust and leaving the lights on. A space heater sometimes helps out if ya need it. I never had a problem in a hydro like setting.
 

panick503

Member
I get twice as much PFR as i get for the price of OG BIOWAR. BIOWAR is way overpriced IMO.
5lbs of this stuff was 150$ including shipping. It takes 4 grams per gallon on the low end of the scale every 3 days. Applied with an atomizer it goes a long way.! Plus it's a soil drench too.the list of stuff it will control is lengthy. I was a fan of OG BIOWAR til I got sick of paying for talc and having to use twice as much as recommended to get good results. I'm done buying overpriced products targeted at cannabis growers. One more I can scratch off the list...

Dude it is totally overpriced, and I run through about a kilo to spray my whole flower room. I was gonna do met 52, cuz I contacted Novozyme, and they said it only needed a humidity level above 50% to be effective, but retro grow kinda freaked me out with the whole met 52 isn't labeled for broad mites thing.. if u really look at the label, pfr 97 only has them listed under outdoor use, but not greenhouse. At least that's what I thought I read... but that don't make no sense, right? Either way, og biowar appears to be working very well for me, so I'm a little aprehencious (sp.?) to switch, but I agree pfr 97 should be just as or more effective...

On a side note, I contacted Dr raj, the guy in india everyone is buying these fungi on the talc carrier from. Think it was something like 20 dollars a key for the foliar pack before shipping. I was all ready to place the minimum order of 100 kilos of the shit too, but apparently u need a special licence to import it...

Have u used pfr 97 for the broads yet? If so ur running the humidity high after u spray too right? Im guessing u are, i just didnt see that bit in the info u posted. Pfr 97 says specifically 80-100% humidity for 8-10 hrs after spraying. For me that is not a problem, I turn all intake and outtake fans off while I spray, and it's 100% withjn an hr. About 4-5 hrs to spray everything, still another 7-8 hrs of darj and lower temops, I turn the fans back on, and it stays 80-85 percent til the lights come on.

Also, I just re read ur op, and saw u wanted this to be a journal. I won't write any more novels in here, do ur thang. Its just that someone started a broad mite thread about a month or two ago I was posting in, but ended up talking to myself...
 
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panick503

Member
For those of you heat treating how do you heat your room? Do you protect the root system from getting hot? How about a steam room for heat treating?

Protect the roots by fully hydrating the plant before u heat treat. Worked good for me, I'd have white fuzzy roots poking through the smart pots 2 days after I heat treated. The university of California has a page in there agricultural website for broads, and they actually recomendations a steam room, that is they said 110 degrees with 100% humidity. I found the higher the humidity, the less stress the plants seemed to suffer after heat treatments..
 

Dready_jake

Member
Thank you for including mode of actions.

People don't understand that you can't treat with the same mode of action twice in a row or the ones resistant to one mode of action will survive. You have effectively just bred them to be more resistant to that mode. Now change it up and chances are you got them all cuz they're not used to the second mode of action.
 
OGBIOWAR, and heat seem to be the easiest options. I was the one that tested OGBIOWAR on broads a few years back. It worked in one application. People have been using it ever since. :)

It is costly though.
 

panick503

Member
Don't forget the predators man... doesn't get much easier than dumping some good microscopic bugs to go eat the bad microscopic bugs. And they work with whatever entomopathogenic fungi u choose to use
 

FatherEarth

Active member
Veteran
The PFR is a real killer of insects.
Microscope examination revealed lots of carcasses of mites attacked by fungi.
Ive seen it with OGbiowar but not to this extent.
This stuff seems to be a couple steps above OGBiowar.
The clone trays with ground zero I treated once and quarantined with intention of killing off.
Closed in a plastic container and left for three days. Upon opening and microscope exam the results were clear.
Nothing except a few newly hatched bms, no eggs and hella carcasses.
The actual room was a bit less effective I suppose due to humidity levels not being as high as the cloners and still have bms after only two treatments.
Populations are reduced certainly but will need further treatments to totally suppress them.
I plan on going with the PFR and another treatment Ill discuss in a bit. finally introduce 50k, swirskis at once then in two weeks introduce another 25k slow release swirski units... My infestation is probably considered on the lower end due to close observation and being aware that my soil doesnt produce these sorts of symptoms, ever.
I immediately knew something was awry instead of thinking it was a deficiency as I assume a lot of unsuspecting growers do.
I culled plants right out the gate that didnt look right then discovered they had BM's after the fact.
So I tried to eliminate the worst and most infested first since I had plenty of plants and none would mean losing a particular cultivar from the gene pool.
This IMO should be the first order in any op once the infestation is discovered. If I wasnt counting on this round of plants, Id treat them with two modes of IPM, foliar feed them trace minerals and silicate, take clones then hit them with PFR in the cloner and finally introduce swirskis into the cloner for the last blow. Im confident that would totally eliminate the problem. Ive got some pics and video to share...

BM infestation video..
https://www.dropbox.com/s/h18uj9qytw7jy07/Broad Mites.MP4?dl=0

here is a spider I found in the grow room that has been encased with pfr-97 mycelium. Never seen anything like this with OG biowar..

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close ups of mycelium under the microscope


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Broad Mite Eggs

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signs of infestation on new growth

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Panick, feel free to comment and share whatever is relevant. Its a journal but its also a forum for discussion. Thanks for being considerate.

Respectfully,


FE
 

Avinash.miles

Caregiver Extraordinaire
Moderator
ICMag Donor
Veteran
thanks for sharing, FE, i def am interested in the pfr
your issues with the price and talc content in OGBIOWAR, i totally agree.

problem i have is that for PFR (and OGBIOWAR), is for them to be effective you must maintain high humidity for them to be effective. I'm in a super arid area, and altho i have a decent control of my grow environment, keeping the humidity that high for days on end is tough.
of course IF i had Broads or HRMs I would figure out a way, put my 2gal electric atomizer on an art-dne timer or even digital timer... I'd make the humidity thing work.

just thought it important to point out, that many of these "organic" treatments that are biological (like BTI, pfr, & ogbiowar) depend upon that high humidity to allow a beneficials to populate the phyllosphere. am i right?


thanks again father earth for starting this thread, and all your helpful posts.
on the topic of killing broads ( and hemp russets, which i have had the unfortunate pleasure of eradicating, however, wasn't aware of a broad infestation at that time or ever, knock on wood); dipropylene glycol makes essential oils water soluble for foliar spray, and agisil silica at a high enough rate kills many bugs.
 

Dready_jake

Member
That is crazy! The mites that survived will lay eggs that are resistant to your current treatment. Change that mode of action and they will be gone for good!
 

panick503

Member
That is crazy! The mites that survived will lay eggs that are resistant to your current treatment. Change that mode of action and they will be gone for good!

I believe research is showing that mites aren't buidling resistance to these various fungi, and either way, it certainly doesn't happen in one generation...
 
They do not build resistance to the various fungi's people are using. That's why they are so effective if you can get your humidity up. Hard to do here though.
 
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