[Bird of Hermes]

After 8 days of wondering why my 2wk old flowers had shriveled up pistils from the get go i've made a soul crushing discovery with a 60x magnifier........russet mites

After endless hours of research ive boggled my mind reading about various expensive miticides with varying reports of success. Ive resolved to totally decontaminate and quit for 2 months so they have nothing to feed on. I have two grow cabs each with their own seperate can fan/carbon air scrubbers on the intakes and exhausts. The cab with 2 big kandy kush ladies is a nuclear wasteland every pistil turned purple and shriveled and buds look mutated and scrawny. I found the little white opaque buggers running around on the flowers. They are fast and appear to be broad/russet not spider mites and theres no webs anywhere.

The second cab has 2 big NL x SSH ladies and since its their bedtime i havent scoped their budsites out yet but they appeared totally fine to the naked eye besides some light nute burn. The leaves were all praying up to torwards the lights at a 45° angle and all pistils are white and stretched out.

I doubt its a good idea to use strong chems since its a room i sleep in so i was wondering what the best approach is here. I figured slash and burn all plant materials, throw away the old 3 gal buckets and promix soil bags. Could the soil have had the eggs or is it more likely a fly or moth transplanted them into the cab? If the unopened bags of promix are suspect i can ditch em and go back to hempy buckets for now and bake the perlite in the oven. The cabs are made from 2x4x6 metal shelvjng units and can be stripped and relined with pandan film if wiping with bleach wont work(that'll suck balls though). Then i figured id clean the walls and floors with bleach 2x a week for the 2 months.

[Bird of Hermes]

If i steralize the lights, cabs and grow equipment and use a sterile medium like perlite will i be able to beat this? I can clean my room throughly but if these things are living inside my ps4, tv or other things i cant get inside and clean then my smoking days may be over here lol.

When i check the other cab during lights on if i find just a few mites beginning to get it is there anything i could use at 3wks? Ive heard most chems are bad and that neem makes stuff taste terrible rather have no smoke then chemed up herbs. Thanks for any help what little threads of sanity i have left are being shredded by these microscopic demons.

[Bird of Hermes]

At first i thought it was nute/ph issue, then maybe underwatering. After that i figured they were hermies and began searching for nanners but finally whipped out my trichome inspecter and made the horrid discovery.

[Vanilla Phoenix]

That sux Bird. I had russets on a couple mom plants back in October and went nuclear with forbid 4f and avid. I got rid of them but the plants were small and weren’t flowering. Plus I caught it really early.

IMO, if you are already in bloom and they are well infected, your plan about breaking everything down and sterilizing is probably best. Spraying everything down with a bleach solution is good. I actually sprayed everything down with 91% ISO. I put that in a spray bottle undiluted and went crazy!

My advice would be throw anything away you can live without. And alternate a couple times a week between spraying everything with a bleach solution and 91% rubbing alcohol. I’d do this for atleast two weeks. And when I say spray everything, I mean EVERYTHING! lol Light hoods, ballast, walls, carpet, door knobs,....anything in the room. I might even spray some right outside the room. Anything you don’t wanna get bleach on (carpet, drapes, fabric, ect), just spray with the 91% ISO.

[igrowone]

never had these little nightmares myself
but i do read that one organic treatment for them is dusting sulfur
is it of any value here? i know there are the more experienced who might have some more knowledge

[oldbootz]

Not an option for everyone, but when I have a nasty pest in a room and have had to clear out the plants, I just let the room sit empty for a month and usually by then the bugs have died of starvation.

[Storm Shadow]

I prefer to use "FINAL FLASH" ... works like a charm

[Bird of Hermes]

Originally Posted by Vanilla Phoenix

That sux Bird. I had russets on a couple mom plants back in October and went nuclear with forbid 4f and avid. I got rid of them but the plants were small and weren’t flowering. Plus I caught it really early.

IMO, if you are already in bloom and they are well infected, your plan about breaking everything down and sterilizing is probably best. Spraying everything down with a bleach solution is good. I actually sprayed everything down with 91% ISO. I put that in a spray bottle undiluted and went crazy!

My advice would be throw anything away you can live without. And alternate a couple times a week between spraying everything with a bleach solution and 91% rubbing alcohol. I’d do this for atleast two weeks. And when I say spray everything, I mean EVERYTHING! lol Light hoods, ballast, walls, carpet, door knobs,....anything in the room. I might even spray some right outside the room. Anything you don’t wanna get bleach on (carpet, drapes, fabric, ect), just spray with the 91% ISO.

Yeah i just did exactly that i mixed half 91% iso with water and doused the kandy ladies. Then came back 30min later and repeated before chopping them down. I turned off the fans feeding that cab and have a 400w going hopefully with no air moving i can get the cab up to 120°F and leave it that way for a hour or so.

There is some hope at least im not finding any damage or mites under a microscope on my other cab with the NL hybrid ladies even though the kandy ladies were totally nuked to hell. Im going to keep those 2 ladies going and inspect them peroidically. Im hoping the seperate intakes and exhausts kept this to the one cab. Im thinking a small moth or fly that had some mites on its back landed just in that one cab or at least thats my hope. Mites dont fly from what i read its plant to plant contact or host flies that deliever them.

Either way im going to go 2mo before starting anything new and disinfect the room.

[Bird of Hermes]

Originally Posted by igrowone

never had these little nightmares myself
but i do read that one organic treatment for them is dusting sulfur
is it of any value here? i know there are the more experienced who might have some more knowledge

Ive heard of doing that along with vaping and burning it in the room but i also read alot about it being harmful and not advisable to use indoors ill keep looking into it though. Youre right it will kill them but if it harms the mammals in my house and smells the place up it might not be a option indoors.

[Bird of Hermes]

Originally Posted by Storm Shadow

I prefer to use "FINAL FLASH" ... works like a charm

I'll see if vegeta will teach me that so far i only know how to use the kamehameha and spirit bomb