i am 4 weeks into flower and have found spider mites on one of the strains i am growing. they seem to only be on my girls that are all in the same tray. Ive been told that i could use azamax and mist the underside of the leaves. but i really dont want to use any chemicals on any of them. my room is sealed to hold co2 so i tried opening up a tank in the room because having the co2 at 10,000 ppm for an hr will suffocate the little mites. the tank froze in less than 5 minutes and i could no longer hear any of the gas coming out of the tank like i could when i first opened it. what is the trick to making these things not freeze?? any help will be greatly appreciated! i really dont want to lose all my girls to these damn spider mites!!!
If you see them on one tray they are everywhere. Azamax is ok to use during flower but you probably shouldn't use it the last couple of weeks and you have to alternate between that and say neem. In-between sprays I spray with cold water to keep them knocked back. Lady bugs are excellent also. I have never heard of that co2 used that way sounds expensive.
I had spider mites about a month before harvest and had to get rid of them fast so I used Azamax right upto within a week of harvest and not one person complained about taste. On the bottle of Azamax it says its safe to use right to and on harvest day.
I put a few lady bugs I caught in with the plants when I had spider mites and all they did was cruise around on the tops of the leaves where the spider mites werent.
My ladybugs do the same during lights on but at night they go to town. Be careful cashing wild ladybugs because there are jap imitators that look the part but are not good for your garden. I always buy mine online from a reputable dealer so I know what I'm getting plus they are cheap and you get enough of them to put a dent quickly in the mite population. If you have 10-20 of them they aren't gonna do much in a large garden. 2,000 of them will though and they only cost about 10$.
I've successfully killed off all spider mites using a CO2 tank. I grow outside in a shed...virtually no control over bugs out there. Yes, the tank will ice over to some degree, but I would argue that you are releasing it too quickly. Slow down your release some, allowing for a steady release over about 70 minutes. I admit, I have no idea at what rate I discharge at, and I have no idea the final CO2 concentration, but I release it [fairly] slowly through a 3/8" outlet for 70 minutes. When I say slowly, I'd say I give the knob no more than a 1/5th turn through a pressure regulator. The outlet is noisy, I can absolutely feel the CO2 coming out, but it's not blazing out. The tank ices over, yes, but I'd say only just enough to scratch off with a thumbnail (not like a 1/4" sheet of ice!). I really have not had any problem at the valve freezing up. This is a complete mite killer -- carcasses all around afterwards, and all are killed off immediately...unlike Neem which is an application-over-time based method. I want to say a I have a 20# tank...maybe a 25# tank...and one application sucks off about 1/3rd the total CO2. Your tanks are larger than mine...perhaps 40#? In any event, assuming your area is similar to mine (8'x8'x5'), I'm releasing ~8# of gas into an area this size over a 70 minute duration. It's not a cheap solution, but it absolutely works.
Just remember I'm running it out through a regulator, so when I say 1/5th turn, really, it's not as if the tank is releasing CO2 at 400psi -- more like 15psi. Reviewing your pics, I don't know if you are attaching a regulator. If you are just opening the tank valve directly, then I'd say you need to just crack it just a very little to get the same flow rate that I've been using.
my garden is 12x18x8. both of my tanks are 50 lbs. and yes i have regulators for both of them. when i tried gassing them with co2 the first time i did not have the regulator on because i thought the regulator would freeze because i have had that problem when the co2 is running during the day. i dont have that problem any more cause i run two at the same time. ya i have lady bugs in there right now. a whole shit load of them! and a bunch on reserve in my fridge for after i suffocate the first batch of mites right now. ok so what flow rate should i have these regulators set to & how long should i leave them on? thanks everyone for your help!!
We got a good number of established nurserys around here that sell them. Some have been around since I was a little kid, well over 20+ years so I dont think they would sell the bad ones. I just remember being told to put them on your plants at night if outside or they`l will fly away.
OK. I'm using the exact same regulator as you...but only for CO2 enrichment. 15 cfm, which is is the max rate for this device, I'm pretty sure is not sufficient to get the concentrations you need to kill the mites. So you will need to remove that regulator; I think you said you already did. The attached pic is the regulator I use for mite killing -- I already had it to carbonate homebrew kegs. I'll tell you this -- feel the output of your enrichment regulator at max, at 15 cfm. I'd wager that when I'm killing mites I aim for a flow rate about four times as strong as that through my beer regulator. My tank is 20#, 175 cf -- or 8.75 cf/pound (I'm totally guessing here, but I think this is close) As I'm using ~8# to kill mites for 70 minutes, I'd guess that at 8.75cf per pound I am using 70 cf. Yes. At a flow rate of 4x15cfm (my estimation based on the feel of a 15cfm rate on the back of my hand and that I am turning it on at 4 times this rate), yes, I'm running at a 60 cfm rate for 70 minutes, getting me about 8# of CO2 and dead bugs everywhere. 60 cubic feet per minute for 70 minutes for a 8'x8'x5' room. Adjust your numbers accordingly, and you'll get some dead bugs my friend...
well i ended up using 3 tanks...since i had an extra one here. like u said... the regulators we use for co2 enrichment are only 15 cfm so im hoping that since i used 3 of them that it will do the trick. ran them for about 2 hrs since my room is a little bigger...im crossing my fingers!!! thanks so much!