A couple questions about hemp russet mites...

Like many others I first mistook the russet mite damage as a pH, nute, virus, or soil problem. I had it narrowed down to a boron deficiency. Nope. Hemp Russet Mites. For sure. No doubt. Saw them crawling and the smooth eggs, not the dotted ones like the Broad Mites lay.

I have spent the last couple days reading up on these evil little bastards and my brain is a bit tired but I have a couple questions I seem to have not found the answers to.

1. I reuse my soil. I had some issues and had to stash my grow in a travel trailer in a field for a few months and was not able to take care of them like usual. I reused some soil a few times without the proper treatment it usually gets. Now I can treat my soil well again. Question is: Can these little bastards survive in the soil, in any form, when the soil is being flushed heavily with 120+ F water?

2. I keep reading about people using Avid and Forbid to take them out but I don't want to use that strong of stuff. I am reading that Azamax and Neem Oil do not work on these mites. Question: Why not? There is the smothering them to death function of Neem and it's an ovicide so I wonder why that does not kill them? Shouldn't heavy foliar application every three days for 15 days do the trick and if not, why not?

3. I have learned that the Broad Mites inject a toxin that messes up the growth even after the mites are dead. The damage pics I've looked at seem similar for both Broads and Russets. Question: Is there long lasting damage from the Russets or will the plant return to normal after getting past all the stress?

4. Aspirin at 325mg a gallon in the soil feed and 150mg a gallon for foliar is being used to stimulate the plant's immune system to assist in getting through the terrible stress these infestations are putting on the plants. Question: How often can a plant be watered and sprayed with aspirin before it starts to cause a new problem?

Thanks in advance for taking the time to help me out. Peace and Good Health.

 

Thanks for that inf. on questions 2 and 4. It is good news for me. I hope you are correct as there are a ton of folks disagree on the Azamax working on these devil bugs. I suspect, as you alluded to that they did not apply it properly.

Any thoughts on questions 1 and 3?

Thanks and Peace.

 

I just checked on the ladies. They seem to be a bit more stable than before using the aspirin and the second Azamax spray down.

Does neem oil work as well as Azamax? There seems to be a lot of differing opinions on this as well.

 

They have all died.

I must assume the mite russet mite damage was just too extensive even though I was only ever able to find a dozen or so or it was the three foliar dosings of neem in ten days and one root flush midway.

Soil pH was fine at 6.3-6.5, not over watered, or over nuted.

I have been into this hobby for quite a while and kind of know what I'm doing.

They did get stressed pretty badly when we moved but had six weeks of intensive care after and just continued to slide downhill.

When I was able to find the mites it was with a 100x scope and they were still hard to see with my old eyes but it was russets and possibly some broad mites also.

Time for total sterilization and restart.

Any one know of a good seed shop based in the U.S.?

Peace.

 

Thanks for the seed bank leads.

Any idea why Azamax and neem don't work on russets? I've been reading a lot from many sources and there is so much differing opinion. Even on this thread Waterhead69 says it does. If it's just the smothering action of the oil I would think, and did hope, it would work. It does not seem to have.

It's very odd to me that I was unable to locate many mites when using a 30x-100x scope. I did find some and believe I identified them correctly.

 

Yea. It really sucks. I lost some of my own strains and some other great genetics. I have no medicine. My patients are now "on the street" looking for meds.

It seems like a lot of growers are using Forbid and Avid to get rid of these mite. Scary stuff in my opinion.

I am a bit depressed about all this. So much wasted energy trying to get rid of them without poison and still they are gone.

I'm trying to get my head around how to restart. I have a ton of soil. Toss it? Sterilize it? How to make sure the room is clean for a restart? Sterilize all tools and equipment, clean, clean, clean...

And if I miss a few mites I will be in a battle forever...

AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!

 

Buck up... You are correct. If I don't buck up, accept the reality, do the work, I might as well give up and that's not an option. Peace and good health.

 

Thanks Mook. Are the mosq bits you mentioned mosquito dunks? How much would you use in the soil and why would those work?

So I think I am coming out of my depression brought on by the successful "shock and awe" campaign the russet mites and broad mites that decimated my garden.

Now I am looking toward the restart. I could use some advise from someone who has battled and beat these little evil bastards.

My garden was/is in the basement. There are still a few mom's that have not completely died but they are on the way out I assume. Should I just cull them?

The intake for the furnace is in the basement. Do I assume the mites are all over the house now?

I am having trouble making an action plan that will clean the house and not just move stragglers from one spot to another and set myself up for re-infestation.

It would be nice to take the entire house to 120F for an hour and get them but I know they will be hiding in crevices and shit and anything that does not get hot enough will just cause all the other work to be a waste.

I'm thinking of designating one room as the "clean room". I could start by plugging the air vent in there and getting that room clean and start moving item in there as I clean them.

I am running soil through the oven, one turkey roaster pan at a time, so that should be done in a few months. lol. I am placing the "cooked" soil in covered bins and hoping there are not bugs and eggs in the wind that slip in there when I open the lid.

This feels like a very daunting task and if I miss one female or healthy egg I will be trying to control them forever.

This is killing me. I'm not in the best physical condition and am nervous that if I don't do the job well enough all the work will be meaningless.

Any recommendations on a plan of action besides clean, clean, clean? I need to figure out how to not just move stuff around that has , hopefully, been cleaned just to have it pick up stragglers.

This really sucks.

 

I don't know what you mean by "app CPR". I googled it and came up with a ton of apps to do CPR on a person...

I do now know what you mean about the nugs of mosq bits. Good tip for nats.

I have been reading and learning a lot. Getting a plan together for knockdown, clean, restart, integrated pest management.

Wish me luck. Good luck. Peace.

 

I hope it's not too bitter. I can take pretty bitter but there are limits.

So I had written the ladies off as dead. They continued, and still continue, to degrade after the treatment I chose to use: Azamax foliar, 2 day rest, Az foliar again, three day rest, Az root drench and foliar, three day rest, pH 6.3 water rinse and root flush, one day rest, Bayer 3-in-1 (Imidacloprid - 0.47% Tau-Fluvalinate - 0.61% Tebuconazole - 0.65%) They are not brown and crispy but they look like hell.

Borrowed pic 'cause I've no decent camera (dropped it down an ice fishing hole)

They have me befuddled because I just spent an hour scoping them at 100x and can find no moving critters on the plants or in the soil. I think I see a slew of dead ones but they look a lot like leaf hairs and are very tough to confirm as bugs.

A also think I see a bunch of eggs but they are the same size as leaf trichs and I can't be sure.

I wonder if I maybe did kill the bugs and the plants are just very, very stressed. There is no new growth, just continued deterioration.

I getting into the mind frame of the total restart move but am having a hard time killing the last ladies when I can not find living bugs on them. Maybe there is hope for survival...

I have been reading and reading and there is so much differing opinion, even on University AG pages.

I would love to get some opinion on my situation from someone who has been through it.

But, on the other hand, I have been reading and studying for days and don't really know what new inf. I may get.

Damn... This one is tricky.