Mites and more

Hi everyone. I’m fairly new at joining in on groups . so thank you in advance I started about five years ago actually I grew my first seed after I got it off a ad on the internet was so excited she grew slow and battled spider mites oh I do not like them bugger made alot of mistakes and learned from them Lolo she finally started budding I was so excited she grew so tall and stretched her arms outs way to much but when it came time to cut her it broke my heart I’m one of those growers.that talks and sings to her plants …so I’m really interested I. Finding out how do you really completely get rid of spider mites I’m fighting them again. Almost lost three in budding ewww them buggers were hurting my girls I sprayed with water and alcohol at first it slowed them down but the next day they were covered so now down to three in bud and just a couple of more days they’ll be done but them buggers are still around I check every inch of them. Can’t figure out how they are getting to them???

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Hello @map and welcome to this wonderful place that is growers network.
I am a noob myself, and I had to battle a really nasty infestation lately. It got so bad I was almost to the point of scrapping everything and start fresh.
I checked the Farmer’s Almanach, and they were stating that dusting self-raising flour (the kind for baking) on the buggers would kill most of them.
And then the growers here suggested using insecticidal soap. Which I did, I sprayed everything 3 times a week for 2 weeks. Last week-end I finally emptied my tent of everything.
Washed and disinfected the tent twice and then I repotted my 2 plants with fresh soil and discarded the old one.
Finally, I washed and disinfected all the fans, lights and gadgets and reinstalled everything.
If you washed everything and you still have the buggers, they probably come from your soil.
I would transplant them in new, clean pots with fresh soil (different batch than the one you have now…).

And please keep in mind that I am also fairly new at this, so don’t try anything I say just on face value (mostly the self-raising flour bit), check what the great growers here have to say first.

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Most indoor growers get them. Try using insecticidal soap. And diatomaeteous earth. Maybe some lady bugs. You might want to treat your property. Blast it with seven dust.
You might also be contributing to this. By entering your tent of grow area. Especially when coming from out side you can be bringing them in with you. So there Are a of options

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Eh mate, those buggers are a real pain

I would have a look at these products

gnat nix
mosquito dunks
gnatrol
water and H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide)

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So hydrogen peroxide. Hmmm didn’t try that but did try alcohol and water it kept at bay but I finally had to pull them as I saw webbing again so gotta start all over again gonna bleach paint and do the outside my cat could be the culprit…thank you all for your advice well noted…

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The absolute best treatment for mites is azamax it is organic and omri approved.it will kill the adults dead one shot.and keep treating every 3 days for two more weeks after first treatment.also use other treatments inbetween works every time for me.

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I knew I forgot one, couldn’t remember the name of it and I knew someone else would chime in :slight_smile:

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Hello all,

I’m new to this site but not new to dealing with spider mites. As posted here if they are on your plants foliage you need to spray them down to knock them off and or kill them with water (knocks them off) or the Azamax treatment (kills them slowly) interrupts their life cycle. Can use Azamax for both foliar spray and for soil soak. The trick is to keep them from getting back up onto the plants as they are also in the soil and that where they will keep coming from after treating the foliage. I had to remove all my tie downs (those are on ramps that allow the mites in the soil to get back onto the plant) as well as putting Diatomaceous Earth (DE) at the base of the stalk coming out of the soil. This keeps them from being able to get back onto the plant and eat it. The trick is to keep the DE dry as once it’s wet it won’t kill them by cutting up their soft bodies and they can when wet walk up it and onto the plants.
I still have a few mites in the soil dealing with 13 plants and haven’t had to spray the leaves in over a month by keeping them from being able to climb back up from the soil.
I used a old plastic lid from a to go Chinese soup container and cut a slit from outside to center then cut the middle out to allow it to fit around the base stem where it meets the soil then I (think funnel) folded the lid and taped it to create a well to put the DE and this helps keep it dry when watering and keeps the mites from climbing back up the stalk to the foliage.


This will get me through my harvest but the ultimate goal is to eradicate them from the soil and that is the hard part. I will be tossing the soil from those plants once finished and will took the soil into my compost pile for outside use and wash the grow bags for reuse.
Seven dust is not very environmentally friendly and would in no way eliminate mites that are outside.
3% Hydrogen Peroxide either used straight or diluted 50/50 with water is a good solution to use to spray the plants as well as using captain jacks dead bug alternating them until they have been removed from the plants.
Again if you don’t block the on ramps where they can get back on the plant from the soil you’ll be dealing with them the entire grow unless you kill them all in the soil. By removing my tie downs I had to get a little creative to try and get OK yields with that style grow and keep the DE dry where the stalk meets the soil.

gnat nix
mosquito dunks
gnatrol
These are what you would use if you had fungus gnats not so much for mites.

Hope this ramble helps

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Thank you all for the advice gonna
keep them in mind on next crop got some really good seeds coming that are really resilient against spidermites…

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I’ve eradicated spider mites with purecrop1 in veg. I wouldn’t recommend iso and water in flower because iso is a great solvent for removing the trichome heads.
Beneficial predators is a good idea too.

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Hi and Welcome

I’ve seen a lot of people have success using gnat nix, mosquito dunks, gnatrol for mites, especially mosquito dunks, on different forums, and this goes back to the old cannabis world days :wink: I do know that they are primary used for gnats. I guess it depends on how heavy your infested.

A trick for outdoor growing back in the 70’s was to piss on them around the base of the stem, nowadays people use urine growing indoors and it is used as a fertilizer for cannabis because it’s rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

I personally haven’t tried this, and I grew a lot in the 70’s

Lol I just did the same thing yesterday. Pissed in a cup diluted 10:1 with water and watered 2 of my plants that’s was needing some N

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Another things that helps with bugs in general is to stop them getting in period. I use passive air going in and my AC Infinity T6 for exhaust.

Go to any dollar store and buy some of these or similar, if you don’t know what they are, ask the wife or girlfriend

Put them on your intake and outtake and the intake inside the tent

Sorry for the shakiness, my left arm is dead.

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Do you notice that the cfms go down by using those?

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No, not at all, another option would be mosquito netting.

I’ve looked on amazon for screen covers for the outlets and they are expensive and most people complained about what you just asked (cfms go down).

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Panty hose, mosquito netting, is very thin, very breathable, works perfect

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Welcome Skydiver!

@BudBrother get your ass over here!!!

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I’ve seen him post in the past he’s here :wink:

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Spider mites - Mammoth Bio Control worked

https://forum.growersnetwork.org/t/about-the-mammoth-biocontrol-category/25795/7

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