so i was checking on my seedlings today and to my horror i realized there were quite a few spider mites crawling around in the soil. i sprayed each plant with neem oil and was considering using a dilute bleach solution but don't want to kill the babies (one sprouted sunday, the other two just started to today) no obvious signs of damage that i could see but they are tiny so its hard to tell. i cant afford to pick up proper pesticides atm so i was wondering if anyone had any suggestions that are cheap and/or i could find around my house. any help would be much appreciated *Edit* i also should mention, this is a micro grow in my bedroom closet so i cant use anything that would be potentially toxic for either me or my animals to be around
You need to get these: These can be found at Home Depot or similar store and they are less than $10 each. They work by releasing Dichlorvos poison into the air, so you need to put your lights and plants into a small area that you can seal up with the no-pest strips. You also need to cut way back on any ventilation, since the poison needs to be able to build up in the air around the plants in order to work. This will kill all adult mites, and new mites as soon as they hatch out of eggs and try to breathe the poison air. You need to leave the plants with the strips for two weeks to make sure that all eggs that have been laid have time to hatch. If you take the poison away with unhatched eggs, your problem will just start up again. You will of course need to open your sealed area to water and check on the plants, but for most of the time it should stay sealed. Once the two weeks or so is up and you have checked to make sure there are no mites crawling around, rinse off the plants with water really good to remove any residue that might have been left from the strips. These things work great, and they are cheap, definitely the way to go in your situation.
thanks for the reply antigen, one question though, i have the plants in the closet of my bedroom, will it be harmful to either me or my snake (his tank is in my room) or will it be fine if i just seal off the door to my closet with a bit of duct tape? i should have mentioned that they're in my room, i'll edit the op
You can make yourself a batch of Insecticidal soap. Add two tablespoons of Dawn dish washing detergent to a gallon of distilled water. Spray the plants and soil with this solution and then spray with water to rinse the soap off the leaves within 15 minutes. This works because the Dawn dish detergent washes away the protective coating on the mite and disrupting its membrane functions, thereby causing death. The insect will die quickly, but it needs to get hit with a droplet of the solution (leaving this on your plants will not continue to kill them). You must use distilled water because Calcium, Magnesium, and Iron (trace elements in tap and spring water) precipitate the fatty acids and render them useless against the insects. I have never tried this on a new sprout, but I don't believe it should do it any harm. Try one first as a test or just spray the soil. If there are no side effects a few days later you can probably do the rest of your plants. Realize that you are not going to get every mite. You will probably have to repeat this procedure every two days or so as you will not get every mite and it will not kill their eggs.
The closet sealed off with tape would be a great place to do it. I know I have used 2 at once in my small closet and it didn't hurt me or my cat. I can't say for sure that it is safe for the snake, but as long as it's not in the room with the poison I would think it is OK. Depending on the size of your closet you might want to get two strips instead of one. You can try one to start and if you are still seeing mites walking around after a few days I would throw another one in there.
Try Middleton's Spider Miticide. $7.99 on ebay it's all natural ready to use and it works. Most natural spider mite sprays only confuse mites to not lay eggs if they even work. This stuff kills on contact and prevents existing eggs from hatching. Good luck with your medicine and happy tokin'!