i am not a first time grower and i have had problems with spider mites in the past... but this time they are out of control. i've removed the plants that have been affected the most. i've neem oiled undersides, topsides, sidesides of the ones left (every 14 days or so).. and they still seem to be there!!! Neem oil usually works super, but not this time. i've also fingered my girls more than i want, to try to pinch them to their hungary little deaths!!! the girls (bc god and kush) are on a rotating cycle so it's not just cut them down, clean it up, and done... Does anyone here have any other suggestions???
if you use neem, spray every 3 to 5 days heavily 'til the leaves are dripping from both sides. mix to the dose recommended on the bottle. if it gets worse then mix 40% rubbing alcohol and 60% water and try to target spray wherever you see the little suckers and their eggs. Your leaves will burn some if you do it in the light, so always do it in the dark. They might still burn a bit in the dark from the alcohol, but better that than a plant full of mites and eggs and no chlorophyll left for the plant to photosynthesize with.
You can also use nicotine, You take 3 or 4 butts and put it in 400ml of water for 24 hours and then just spray it on the plants, but you should probably research it first cuz there are people that boil the water first and put it in the frigs and stuff
Any product with Spinosad will kill them off. I use Monterey Garden Insect Spray. It is a bacteria that kills most leaf eating bugs. It colonizes on the plant, bugs that ingest leaf matter die off in 2 days or less. It is OMRI rated for organic. It's about 16 bucks a pint at my hydro store. I use it with a wetting agent (directions say it works best on mites that way) like DM Penetrator or AN's Wet Betty. Use it every 7-10 days throughout your grow, even through flowering if needed. I found that after 3-4 weeks, all hatching eggs died off and I had no more mites.
thanks for the info!!! good idea... it's just so much extra work!! i wish they would just die off after one spray, or better yet stay the hell out of my garden!! haha! the last time i neemed seemed to finally catch them suckers off guard.. so now i'm gonna stay on top of it. thanks again for your time.
Buy biologicals man! predatory mites are awesome...I always use Phytoseiulus persimilis...its a predatory mite that wages a war on the spider mites and then after they kill them all they eat themselves...there are predatory wasps as well...I have a nice little scope and you can see some pretty awesome shit when you use biologicals....a good site to go to is www.koppert.com
