Spider Mites In Soil?

[ernst]

Hey all sorry if this has been a topic before I don't have a computer and have to use my phone to go online. Anyways I had noticed a few gnats buzzing around my room so I did some research and learned to check the soil for larva/maggots upon doing this not only did I find gnat larva but I seen these tiny little red bugs so I went to my bible and came to the conclusion they were spider mites ..... But after googling it I kept reading spider mites are only on leaves so I spent several hours checking the tops and bottoms of the leaves and found nothing all the girls are healthy few leaves here and there with some yellow but nothing that resembled a spider mite attack. So far I know I have to get rid of the gnats ( not sure how) and what ever these tiny little red bugs are but without know what they are I do t know how to kill them..... Any help would be greatly appreciated since I'm in need of this crop I'm out of Meds and still have atleast 6 weeks till its ready and absolutely no funds to get any ..... Ohhhh and I'm 2 weeks into flowering Thanks in advance

[ernst]

Awesome where might ( no pun ) I find this and how much does it run? I'm on an extremely tight budget...

[ernst]

I'll do that for sure man thanks so much for the help

[ernst]

Alright so after more smart phone google search ( pain in the butt) I'm positive these are root aphids.....

[Shredder]

I use neem for mites, thrips, and gnats, but you have to use it regularly, works well for me.... Tiny red spiders that move very fast are your friends they will eat bad bugs......best of luck.....shredder

[ernst]

Thanks shredder ..... I'll also look into that this is only my third time so in still new and never had a pest problem.... I hope I cought it in time..... The girls are looking nice and healthy

[Croppled1]

I heard of something different for spider mites to use in conjunction with other treatments like neem oil . Take a piece of cantolope and set it in the pot rind down overnight . It is like cotton candy to spider mites the next day they should be all over it . Carefully put it in a plastic bag and take it to a utilitiy sink rinse em all down the drain . Repeat as desired with any other treatment such as neem you use . Eat the rest of the cantolope and be healthier for it .

 

Learning how to create your own seed from known F! stock and always starting from seed is the best way to not only transfer genetics but remove a way for pests to enter your grow room . Eventually we all have to recover from a catostrophic event or emergency that takes us away from our grow room like hospitilization . Many of us dont' have allot of $$$ so raising your own seed by gently brushing some male polen on a few lower buds sacrificed for that is a wondeful task to learn and practice . Just make sure to label the parents and date harvested .

[mrd]

Sounds good but I am allergic to cantaloupe! There's always something!

[Honeyoil]

Thanks for this tip. Natural controls are the best!

[tooldini]

sorry to jump in here but figured this was a good spot. I think I may have spider mites but not really sure. I do see little strings of web material on some areas of the plants and sometimes from one pot to another but I don't see any little spider mites or signs of them. I have fan leave issues but have figured it to be cal/mag def after a lot of research and history over the year+ of grows. All of my plants no matter were grown have this leaf issue but first time for the web like matter. Could it be something other than mites? It is almost harvest time and the buds and all look good like in a week or 2. If these are mites does it render my buds useless?

Edited February 1, 2012 by tooldini

[CaffeineForAll]

sorry to jump in here but figured this was a good spot. I think I may have spider mites but not really sure. I do see little strings of web material on some areas of the plants and sometimes from one pot to another but I don't see any little spider mites or signs of them. I have fan leave issues but have figured it to be cal/mag def after a lot of research and history over the year+ of grows. All of my plants no matter were grown have this leaf issue but first time for the web like matter. Could it be something other than mites? It is almost harvest time and the buds and all look good like in a week or 2. If these are mites does it render my buds useless?

 

Could be spider webs, particularly if you see no sign of infestation. Shouldn't be much of a concern, but I wouldn't smoke any material I find with spider webbing, just to be safe.

 

However sounds like you have signs of an infestation, spider mite damage can be wrongly diagnosed as cal def. Find a leaf that looks like it has cal def, flip it over and stare long and hard at it. If you see any pencil dot sized marks, see if they move. If they don't then get a toothpick or something similar and "poke" them, if they still don't move, then its probably not mites.

 

Better yet, get a magnifying glass/jewlers loupe/microscope.

 

As for the safety of the meds, there will always be debate, but play it safe and either toss it, or if you are willing to take the risk, smoke it your self. But never share it.

[Dman]

 

Better yet, get a magnifying glass/jewlers loupe/microscope.

 

 

 

Once you have an infestation and see how much damage they do. You will buy one of these. I use mine a lot.

[MrShpongle]

If you are certain that you have mites and you're close to harvest, all is not lost. You have several options, depending on how bad the infestation is, how creeped out by mites you are, and how close you are to harvest. The two things you need to consider are 1) how bad do you want to stop the mites, and 2) what is your tolerance for mite damaged medicine?

 

To stop the existing problem, you need to figure out where on the continuum of health consciousness you want to land. At one extreme, some people grow totally organic and use nothing stronger than mild, natural-based insecticides throughout grow. While this theoretically ensures the “healthiest” medicine for the user, most of these treatments are slow acting and often less effective. On the other hand, you could bomb your plants with Avid, Floramite, etc., which would give you immediate knockdown of the entire mite population. Unfortunately, these chemicals are hazardous to humans and would remain in the buds long after harvest. Most growers will agree that the closer you get to harvest, the weaker you should go on the insecticides (many will not use any insecticides in flower ever). If you decide that you must eradicate them ASAP, I would suggest going with a pyrethrum, a natural compound found in chrysanthemums. It also breaks down very quickly, so traces of it should be gone by the time you harvest.

 

Once you harvest, you need to assess the damage and do a gut check. You will have dead mites and eggs in your buds. If the problem is mild, some people just ignore it. Many fruits and vegetables are loaded with insects and nobody thinks twice about it. People have differing opinions on smoking it – some do, some don’t. I can tell you that if you’ve ever smoked commercial brick weed from Mexico, you’ve smoked a ton of mites already (and who knows what else). If you determine that smoking is not acceptable, all is not lost. You could still make medibles (butter/oil), or Simpson oil, or tinctures.

[GregS]

Does anyone here use pyrethrum? What I read about it looks interesting.

[purklize]

Awesome where might ( no pun ) I find this and how much does it run? I'm on an extremely tight budget...

 

A little late, but don't waste your money on SNS products, or any other "organic pesticide," they're universally complete ripoffs. Look at the ingredients and mix up something yourself. I used something identical to a SNS product, except instead of being something crazy like 30-40 bucks a bottle, it cost me more like... 10 cents. Literally. Don't believe the bs hype that they use a "special kind of rosemary" or whatever other crap people say to try to justify it... it's not true.

 

I successfully eradicated root aphids using rosemary oil from a health food store, 1/4tsp shaken up with a gallon of water and a squirt of soap... very deadly to them. Peppermint is also extremely effective, try to switch to a different pesticide every few weeks, or they will start developing resistance. You need to treat your soil once a week for probably 2 months to have any chance of eradicating them - there's always stragglers in soil that make it through each treatment due to little air pockets. Switching to hydro allowed me to permanently eliminate them in one treatment (dunked all the DWC plants in a bucket of rosemary oil + soapy water and left them there for 30 minutes with the air pump off).

Edited February 2, 2012 by purklize

[tooldini]

thanks guys I do have a 45X microscope and looked at 2 of the plants pretty good, but did not see anything unless I just don't know what I am seeing LOL I will clip off a damaged looking fan leaf and inspect down stairs in the sun light with the scope also to see. I scoped a little on some of the damaged leaves tops and undersides but still only the occasional string of web looking material. I do see a couple gnats flying also are those a big problem?

[purklize]

Gnats will damage the roots some... make sure they aren't root aphids. Gnats fly up to your face, and are stupid, slow, easy to swat. Root aphids are much tougher, they look like tiny beetles, they can run like crazy and they are clearly aware of your presence and can dodge if you try to swat them. Root aphids will ravage your garden and require drastic action.

[LongHairBri]

mite are EASY to detect. they put tiny white dots on lower/larger leaves first before attacking the newer growth,

 

root aphids are easily spotted in the root zone with a microscope. they have a nymph that will scare the do-do out of you at 60X

 

fungal gnats are easy too. first you'll see them flying around and stuck to your lights. the maggot is easy to spot w/microscope and can also be seen by the naked eye. look about 1/2 to 1" below the surface for a 1/16" white maggots

[tooldini]

All newer growth is beautiful just my big fan leaves are crispy and I do see some random spots like a string of web from one leaf to another or sometimes I have seen them from one pot to another. I think I just have gnats but will go up in a little bit and check for sure.

[Catfinger]

Examine some of the bottoms of your leaves by looking at them from the bottom up toward your veg/flowering bulb, by using the leaf to block the bulb directly. When you view them like this, it will backlight your leaves from the top and you will be able to see fairly clearly if there is any activity on the underside of your leaves.

Occasionally, and I mean occasionally regular spiders will find theier way into your grow and move around via webs, so on rare occasions some string webbing will be standard house spiders but if the webbing has any density to it at all its likely mites. If you use stakes to hold your plants mites love running up and down those also, so just putting a stake in the plant you think has a problem will probably have little guys running on it in a day or two if you have them.

[CaffeineForAll]

Examine some of the bottoms of your leaves by looking at them from the bottom up toward your veg/flowering bulb, by using the leaf to block the bulb directly. When you view them like this, it will backlight your leaves from the top and you will be able to see fairly clearly if there is any activity on the underside of your leaves.

Occasionally, and I mean occasionally regular spiders will find theier way into your grow and move around via webs, so on rare occasions some string webbing will be standard house spiders but if the webbing has any density to it at all its likely mites. If you use stakes to hold your plants mites love running up and down those also, so just putting a stake in the plant you think has a problem will probably have little guys running on it in a day or two if you have them.

 

Wear some sort of sunglasses if you do this for "safety". I do this as well without glasses, but I'm reckless about my own health. Have to many others to worry about.

[puffaway]

Why worry about burning a couple of microscopic bugs? Watch "Fear Factor" on monday nights and see people eating big bugs alive! I'm sure the networks attorneys have already approved it.

 

A big infestation is certainly serious. But if your plants are healthy and near "the end" it can't be as dangerous to use them as it would be to put poison on them and in your own body later. If you have plenty you can trash it. I'd probably make brownies out of it and not pass it on to friends. Maybe they would give the brownies some extra flavor.

 

Obviously just my humble and uneducated opinion. Rock on Garth

[tooldini]

thanks guys for the help. How long of a web can they make, cause some I see are over a 12" long from one pot to another or from an upper leaf down to the pot or something like that. I am gonna look in the morning I got busy today and missed my change in the light

[Hempcheff]

mites keep the webs localized, long webs from pot to pot would be regular spiders i would think

[tooldini]

Hemp thats kinda what I was thinking. I did clip off a large damaged looking fan leaf but did not see anything unusual on it except for the crusty damage I knew of and expected due to me not checking PH which most seem to think caused a nute deficiency. I guess I will let them grow out a week or so and then chop and inspet.