Mite Bites

[trichcycler]

I started with stranger clones I picked up from a market. I transported them in a sealed plastic bag. When I returned I rinsed off all of their substrate, and their leaves/ stems. I know cold water kills mites. I put the bag into the refrigerator overnight,  because they cannot live in 34 degree temperature very long. I immediately changed my clothes and laundered the dirty ones.

 

Next day after a good inspection turning up no results, I transplanted them into my veg room, last year. Still no mites, hmmmm?

 

 

My little jack russel just loves fresh trim and she follows me around the farm all day, waiting for a task she is more than happy to perform. she waits outside of the building door when I'm tending garden, like a guard dog, and will alert me to any kind of visitor in the yard. She'll stay their for hours until I come out. I can tell she really wants in though, instead of waiting for harvest rim.

I decided to start letting her into the grow room and she loves me even more for it !. she know the entire routine, and often guides me to the next steps. She sniffs, looks for intruders, eats fresh fallen little trim. she prefers the fat calyx over a leaf, go figure. I let her roam  my

garden with me always now, and the past years have been a delight doing it.My plant trays are up three feet off the ground, but that doesn't stop here form sniffing the air beneath everyone of them. I heard lots speak of letting their dog into the garden and blaming them for their mites.  Still no mites....hmmmm?

 

Like many growers I'm a grow sto ho, or at least I was for a couple years. I noticed that each time I visited that the most popular area was the poison shelf, which the store could hardly keep stocked. Nobody cared about the meds they were providing, or the safety of the sprays sold there. I mostly listened when I was there, while picking up my yearly promix bale, and couple bags of happy frog, maybe another pack of grow bags, a fitting or two, and some cool conversation with the employees. they tell me that the rack with poisons on it makes more money than the sales of plant food, ballasts, dirt, trays, or fittings combined. I cant tell if I should laugh or cry at that, but move on.

 

So, where did your mites come from ?  I'm trying hard here, and no luck. tehe

 

 

 

 

[I wood]

I have never had mites for more than a couple of hours.
They came on "guaranteed clean" clones from a farmers market. 

My mistake for not looking very close, but being at a farmers market for the first time was a sensory overload and I forgot to check until later.

[Kingdiamond]

I honestly believe my infestation came from Fox farms soil .

[trichcycler]

I've only seen them one time in real life, on a small houseplant I sent her at work, and she brought it home.  I contained them, studied them, co2 gassed them, and ultimately enjoyed watching them die.It was the last time I bought her flowers. period.  Still, no mites in the garden from this experience either.

I will admit that I proved to the grow store with a microscope that their ladybugs were actually packaged with mites to eat. I pitied the smart ones taking steps to keep mites out of their garden using these ladybugs.  

[Guanotea1]

Hi. I had mites this season for a short minute (a CO2 gassing followed by predators did their work quickly on them and no losses in the garden).

 

My best guess is that they came from a package of seeds sent by another grower. I take in NO OUTSIDE CLONES. And haven't for years. 

When the conditions are right remember that mites will flourish. Unusually high heat and low humidity mites flourish. At the time I got them I was 82F all day and night long. I have since corrected this problem but of course fall makes it pretty easy. My daytime temps are controlled by AC (keeping in CO2) my nightime is controlled by fans. My day and night are reversed and at the time of course it was quite hot during the day.

 

You probably have had a mite, but strong plants + good horticultural condtions + available predators = NOT a problem.

I suspect that the biggest problem indoor gardeners have with mites is (A) attempting to keep a 100% sterile environment while (B) keeping their environment in flower especially 100% the best environment for bad mites to propogate.

 

60F nights alone will do great things to keep the mites at bay. It's pretty easy for things to get out of control with 80F nights and all predators dead due to pesticide poisoning.

 

And yes I understand what you are saying about the ladybugs. For growers that insist on keeping conditions ideal for mites PERHAPS this would be a problem. Most likely NOT. Ladybugs are voracious. But by the time someone is actively releasing ladybugs the few mites that came in the package is nothing compared to the mite population already at work. Ladybugs as predators are, IMO, undervalued by the MJ community mostly because we don't understand how to use them. Ladybugs are good predator against fungus gnats AND mites AND many other pests. They are mentioned in university reviewed IPM articles and I can assure you are the real deal. The lady bugs in my INDOOR garden naturally occurred and their population naturally ebbs and flows with the population of pests present. It's an entirely different thing to release 1500 ladybugs all at once (LOL what!) in a small indoor garden. Of course there will be 1450 dead ones in a matter of days.  Yuck.

 

I highly suggest that anyone attempting to deal with or prevent pests go to the berkley or university of connecticut IPM website and figure out their pest management protocol there. Bottom line - everything is easier to deal with indoors and most people are making pest management WAY WAY harder than it needs to be. There is no way I'm taking pest management advice from growers that exclusively deal with cannabis and may or may not have ever picked up a book on the subject. Seriously, you think we are the first to deal with this moo poo? Greenhouse growers an university researchers got your BACK MAN!

 

Mites are ubiquitious!

[jimmiej48]

I have had mites one time and I used mighty wash and have never seen them again.. I sprayed them 1 time and there gone...and I feel the mites came from my 2 little dogs and they no longer are allowed in my grow room..

[trichcycler]

I think that was the safest thing I saw at the grow store. Frequency water, and I suspect a drop of lavender oil, but ingredients are elusive for this one.

glad they are gone !!

[phaquetoo]

I was told the mites on your dog that can cause mange are not the same as the ones the eat plant juice, my main thing about keeping my dog out of my grow is hair, I have a black lab and I cant stand hair in anything even on my head lol! but ive had myself convinced my dog brought them in the house and to my g.r,

 

last year we repotted two house plants that my lady has had for ever, I brought the dirt in from next door neighbors garden, im sure it came from there or my c.gs clones, he has mites now and I dont have anything, Im totaly redoing things, but I do know i could be suseptable to mites at any given time, dont take in clones from any one and the healthier you can keep your plants the less chance you have of having any kind of probs including mites, oh man I hate that word!

 

Peace

[trichcycler]

I hate hair too !!  that is interesting stuff about those mites.

 

I've heard "dirt" as a possible culprit a bunch, starting to wonder about grow room dirt bags.....dangit !

[Guanotea1]

How long are mite eggs viable?

What conditions will cause them to become non-viable?

[trichcycler]

Adult females have the ability to go dormant for a time after the photoperiod (daily hours of light) shortens, then re-emerge to lay more eggs a few weeks after the photoperiod lengthens again. That's one reason Spider Mites keep reappearing crop after crop on indoor plants. It's my understanding that if "sprays" are used for less than a six month period, mites come back.

[Guanotea1]

Brutal!