Dreaded, blasted Mites!

[mmstickybuds]

Hi Guys

As you may have guessed, I have mites on my lady. She is about a week and a half from harvest, and only a few days ago realised the damage that has been caused. You can't see anything when the lights are off, but when they are on if I look closely you can see them walking around having a great time.

I have used a biological pesticide which is some kind of bacteria that feasts on the mites but this only works at night as the sun or any UV rays destroys the bacteria. So I have to keep repeating until they go. Does this sound okay to you guys or should I take a more aggressive approach. I don't want to use chem pesticides and have seen 'Neem oil' mentioned here but I don't know where I can even get that in South Africa.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Nelson]

We all get mites at one time or another they are truly a pain in the ass. I spray with insecticidal soap when I get them alternating with neem oil. Mix as instructed on the bottles they come in. If you can use a hose inside spray the plants before you add the different product. I treat them every three days alternating products. You have to keep going for about two weeks alternating back and forth. You have to keep alternating back and forth cause new ones hatch out and reinfect the grow if you don't do it for at least 2 weeks. Sometimes I h ave to do the 2 week treatment twice in a row. If the way you do it really works well for you let us know cause my method is truly a pain in the ass. The only good news is that it doesen't seem to hurt the plants or ruin the smoke. Every time I treat the mites I get the itches I don't know if it is because they get on me or just my mind playing tricks on me. I do it this way cause I haven't found a better way.

I hope your method works for you. I went through about tyhree products before I settled on the neem oil and insecticidal soap method.

Hi Guys

As you may have guessed, I have mites on my lady. She is about a week and a half from harvest, and only a few days ago realised the damage that has been caused. You can't see anything when the lights are off, but when they are on if I look closely you can see them walking around having a great time.

I have used a biological pesticide which is some kind of bacteria that feasts on the mites but this only works at night as the sun or any UV rays destroys the bacteria. So I have to keep repeating until they go. Does this sound okay to you guys or should I take a more aggressive approach. I don't want to use chem pesticides and have seen 'Neem oil' mentioned here but I don't know where I can even get that in South Africa.

Thanks for any help!

 

[mr.mcgregor]

so close to harvest its not worth doing anything, aslong as you dont have anything else growing in the same place, anything you use to treat them you will be smoking in a week so not a good idea

imo remove her now and disinfect your grow room

 

[mmstickybuds]

We all get mites at one time or another they are truly a pain in the ass. I spray with insecticidal soap when I get them alternating with neem oil. Mix as instructed on the bottles they come in. If you can use a hose inside spray the plants before you add the different product. I treat them every three days alternating products. You have to keep going for about two weeks alternating back and forth. You have to keep alternating back and forth cause new ones hatch out and reinfect the grow if you don't do it for at least 2 weeks. Sometimes I h ave to do the 2 week treatment twice in a row. If the way you do it really works well for you let us know cause my method is truly a pain in the ass. The only good news is that it doesen't seem to hurt the plants or ruin the smoke. Every time I treat the mites I get the itches I don't know if it is because they get on me or just my mind playing tricks on me. I do it this way cause I haven't found a better way.

I hope your method works for you. I went through about tyhree products before I settled on the neem oil and insecticidal soap method.

Sounds intense Nelson, thanks for the advice though! The owner of the shop I got the product from says it is the only way he would recommend getting rid of em, that apparently because the bacteria feed off the bugs for one thing the mites never grow immune to them, and for another thing it has absolutely no effect on your smoke, because the bacteria literally just die and fall off or burn up once the UV turns on. So yeah, I will definitely let you know if it works, have only given her two treatments so far so I may be expecting this to go away way too soon. I find the same thing with the itches. As soon as I have checked my plant, see one or two, squash them and then close the cupboard I feel certain they are i my hair eating my scalp LOL!

 

[mmstickybuds]

so close to harvest its not worth doing anything, aslong as you dont have anything else growing in the same place, anything you use to treat them you will be smoking in a week so not a good idea

imo remove her now and disinfect your grow room

Oh no that's not good news..
I also do have a 21 day old lady growing right next to her, I know she is clean though, have checked her thoroughly. You mean remove her and harvest her? Do mites easily live in these spaces but not on the plant? I know they can live in the medium but will my whole cupboard be infected, or unsafe now? The stuff I am using is a natural bacteria and is killed off every time the lights come on..does this still apply? I also thought I could let her go for 2 solid weeks still because I had no reflector, being a noob, and only got it yesterday so wanted to give her time to fill out the buds cos she is still growing well!

 

[mr.mcgregor]

there not called the borg for nothing! look how small they are, all it takes is one with buns in the oven to get onto your other plant and away they go. the longer you leave them the harder they are to get rid of. it took me about 2 and a half years to get rid of my spidermite problem. I didnt think they would be such a problem and I got lazy in getting rid of them, which made it 100 x harder in the end to get rid.

Predetor mites are good, they eat spidermites like fat people eat chiken. then when there all gone they die.

 

[cres]

24hrs later you wont see a live mite...


woops missed the S africa part...

 

[dykster]

I would chop now and clean up your grow area. Too far into flower to safely do anything.

 

[mmstickybuds]

24hrs later you wont see a live mite...


woops missed the S africa part...

I am actually able to order these through a courier company here, but after reading through it says it shouldn't be in living spaces, and my closet is in my living room..have you used it in a closet type setup? Is it safe to have air pushed out of my closet and into the room with this vapour in it?

---------- Post added 10-29-2011 at 02:04 PM ----------

I would chop now and clean up your grow area. Too far into flower to safely do anything.

But...I have significantly reduced the number of them so far, a few days ago there were a lot, and today there is only one or two visible!
Is it not a better option to just keep getting rid of them til she is ready and I may move my small plant out of the closet until then, clean the entire closet and still be able to possible save the girl? I would rather lose the younger than the one that's almost done, if possible...

 

[mmstickybuds]

there not called the borg for nothing! look how small they are, all it takes is one with buns in the oven to get onto your other plant and away they go. the longer you leave them the harder they are to get rid of. it took me about 2 and a half years to get rid of my spidermite problem. I didnt think they would be such a problem and I got lazy in getting rid of them, which made it 100 x harder in the end to get rid.

Predetor mites are good, they eat spidermites like fat people eat chiken. then when there all gone they die.

I don't want to leave it at all, I'll clean everything out I'm just desperate to get my first grow fully developed and then harvested! That's all, I feel like I would be murdering her if I let them beat me! I have just been treating her with the bacteria and it seems to be working pretty well so far. I understand what you're saying but I don't want to leave it much more than a week to be honest...maybe a few days more. I think these bacteria are like predator mites, not mites I don't think but they eat them and die when the UV hits them, so I think as long as I was the bacteria off and flush it should be okay maybe? I dunno....:cry::no: