[yerboyblue]

Here's my 2 cents.
If you didn't catch the mites before you have flowers on the plants, sorry, you have mites and will have to live with them until the next cycle. You can only slow them down at this point. You CAN kill them, but it will really mess up your quality, more than the mites would. Let's say you have some nice buds going but they have mites. You can pyrethrin bomb them, kill the mites crawling on them, but the eggs will still live. The eggs will hatch and your buds will smell like pyrethrin. You can do it 2 more times, and MAYBE (most likely not, speaking out of experience) kill the mites off, and your bud will be covered in pyrethrins, and the mite damage anyway.
Okay, plan B, suffocate them with CO2. So you flood your room with CO2, but did you evacuate your entire room of oxygen before you did so? They don't need much to survive. I would like to hear from someone that this method was effective. You just spent money on CO2 with no effect.
Plan C, spray the buds and leaves with neem/pyrethrins. This will kill the mites, but you will have neem and pyrethrins, as well as the mite damage that is already there, on your harvest.
Plan D, use a systemic like Avid. Cool, now you have dead mites and mite damage as well as something poisinous as hell coating your buds. Ya, plan C tasted bad, but at least it doesn't give you cancer.
If you have flowers and mites, either cut down, or throw an A/C in there and make it cold. You will still have mites, but you might prevent the entire thing from being covered in webs.
Let me say on prevention. If you get clones from someone, spray them with a neem/pyrethin mix as soon as you get them. I prefer natural guard, it is the shit and is cheap. Make sure to run the branches through your hands as you spray, so you get the top and bottom (they live on the bottom of leaves mostly) of ALL the leaves coated with the stuff. Seal your rooms up extra good, and put filters on any air intakes that are coming in. When you come in from outside, take off your shoes, socks, clothes and put on something clean before you enter rooms with plants in them. Also check plants regularly before you flower them. If they have mites, spray everything in that room with the neem/pyrethrin mix, even if it doesn't look like they have mites. All at once. I get mites in my veg room regularly and keep them under control through early prevention. In between cycles, clear out the flower room, bug bomb with some raid bombs (no plants in there!) and hit the room with some peroxide or bleach.
Bottom line is cleanliness is key. You can either take the extra steps and be mite free, or cut corners and risk it. I've been mite free in flower for 2 years because I spent the extra minute before anything enters the flower room.

[greenluv707]

never make it cold with the a/c they just hibernate till weather get better suited for them.
what you want to do is raise the temps because it speeds up there life and cooks there ass. with sprayin every 2-3 days with neem should do it.

allways check your plants to see if its working and see if stuff is wiping them out.

for flower you have to make some decisions.ride it out or make your weed taste bad......

hope everything works out for you.

[yerboyblue]

making it cold with A/C and hibernating isn't bad if you clear out and clean the room well after the cycle. Make sure the finished product is sealed and relocated! heating it up will just make them reproduce faster. the spray I use will take them out in one app if they aren't heavily infested. 2 apps in a week if it is heavy (no webs but LOTS of spotting)

[bad gas]

Lavender oil tea or any of the essential oils have been recommended as an organic alternative. I use it as a preventative every 3 days. Cant' hurt and I've had no infestation in an area where mites are a problem. My room is not a "clean room" yet. I'm still building stuff in there and am in and out a lot without changing my clothes.

Tobacco tea can also be used.

Have a bug free day. bg

[yerboyblue]

damn, applying anything every three days just sounds terrible. Get that ish built and start the good practices!

[lost in a sea]

other more natural insecticides for mites include

marigold (tagetes minuta),mugwort,tobacco rustica,rhubarb leaves, pyrethrum chrysanthemum flowers of course,rape seed oil and other horticultural oils,,

these in any combination will kill mites effectively.. and horticultural oils mixed with insecticidal soap works pretty well if you blast all the webbing away first with water,,

dont know if you want to spray these things on ganja in flower though so keep that in mind,, dipping in floramite works well,,

[shaggy_skunk]

wow great thread .. i am going to use all this great info i have been reading , i have been fighting the little bastards for a while , neem oil and dish soap. i will be making a tobacco tea and use that and see how it works.

[moses wellfleet]

Originally Posted by B. Friendly

Biological Control:
TARGET: Spider Mites
AGENT: Spider Mite Preds
SPECIAL SKILL: Enjoys high humidity, breeds faster than spider mites.
WEAPON ID: The three main spider mite preds are: Mesoseiulus longipes, Neoseiulus californicus, and Phytoseiulus persimilis. These are available as a triple-pack from some suppliers. Highly recommended.
BRIEF: Spider mite predators are small mites that eat only Spider Mites. They not only feed on spider mites and their eggs, they also breed twice as fast! Each spider mite predator sucks the juice out of about five spider mites a day, or twenty of their eggs. Different species of spider mite predators have their own preferred temperature and humidity. If you use a mix then each type will seek out their preferred “zones” in the plant structure. Predator mites do best with warm temperatures and high humidity. The more moisture in the air the better. (Spider mites hate high humidity.) They move quicker and reproduce faster than the spider mites. For best results apply one predator for every five spider mites, so you best catch that infestation early or deploy them as a precautionary measure.
Need extra reinforcements? Try Stethorus Punctillum. These specialist spider mite destroyers are actually tiny ladybugs which can eat more than 40 mites per day as adults. They eat spider mites at all stages and can find new infestations on their own by flying. Adult female spider mite destroyers lay up to 15 eggs per day. Just 100 spider mite destroyers are enough to start up a colony to protect an average home greenhouse.

excellent info on predatory mites in this post ... here is more:https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=231839&page=2

[green planet]

brief and very informative post thanks

[lewis11c]

If you really want to get rid of spiders use pesticides.