Hello there all, I was wondering if someone could help me out here. I just got home from work and for the first time I noticed there were these TINY TINY little black bugs on the bottom of some leaves. I could only find about 5 or 6 of these little bugs and it was quite hard to find the ones I did. However each one I found I kind of just crushed in fingers and all that was left was a little brown smear.. my plant in about 3 weeks into flowering and im growing with CFL lights. I would take a pic of these bugs but im pretty sure you would not really be able to see anything because of the small size. Can someone confirm what these are and what I need to do about it. Thanks for any help!
sounds like spider mites...the black or red ones are mature spider mites....so theyve been there for a while ..but you can use neem oil or sum lady bugs if you dnt wanna use any chemicals....goodluk
I agree, sounds like spider mites for sure. Neem oil works well against them if it is introduced early on into the vascular systems of the plant, but at this point, it wont help much. A nice, mellow solution that tends to work okay is Garden Take-Down Spray which contains canola oil and natural pyrethrins; however, it is not as effective as a hard core chemical such as Avid. Like mrbotanist said, there are other ways to control these little suckers but ladybugs wont do it. Ladybugs prefer aphids as their diet and will leave the room in search of them. There are spider mite destroyers which are a type of lady-beetle that is black with a red spot and can eat many adult spider-mites and eggs daily. Also, there are carnivorous mites that feed on the two-spotted spider mite (the one effecting your garden). Check online for breeders of these bugs and you can get the ones that can live in your garden's environment.