Possible Spidermites but need confirmation (Pictures Included)

[SpongeBongWeedPants]

where do the mites come from in first place

Outside.
They are so small and light they blow around on the breeze. They can be carried in by humans and pets. They can be on you clothes / shoes so if you go into your grow room directly from outside in the garden you could be tracking them inside.
Once you have them, they start out by attacking and colonising the weakest, sickest plant in the room. From there they eat and breed and when you flip to 12/12 they go absolutely bezerk breeding like rabits on speed.
From there they then go on to spread to other plants by either building webbing networks from plant to plant or get blown there by oscilating fans.

They are the worst things nature ever invented and I hate them all

[Junior85]

guys, you are all legends!

thanks for the quick responses and for putting my mind at ease. i'll get back there today and take some more close up pictures to upload. i'm not sure how this has happened but i don't think it was excitement and ectoplasm as skippy suggests lol.

so if it's burn (as a few have suggested) will that remedy itself?

i'll put an update on later guys and thanks again

[Yekke]

I would get much more worried by having so much mold on my plants than I would by getting some spider mites.
You have a real problem there, check your relative humidity (up to 70 in veg, up to 50 in flower) and your airflow.

[skippy]

@spongeBongWeedPlants how/what dilution do you apply Mectin to plants ? First time heard of it.
Just priced it on google,worth having a bottle handy..just in case.

[Loki]

Looks like someone has spunked over your plants.

[SpongeBongWeedPants]

@spongeBongWeedPlants how/what dilution do you apply Mectin to plants ? First time heard of it.
Just priced it on google,worth having a bottle handy..just in case.

Hi mate,

When applied to plants following an infestation, I usually do two applications about 2 weeks apart at a rate of about 1 - 2ml per liter of water. You'll need to use a wetting agent too like a couple of drops washing up liquid but try to use something like plain washing up liquid, not that scented fairy stuff with anit bacterial stuff in it. You want the stuff like the good old fashioned plain green fairy liquid. That helps the water remain in a film on the leaves rather than pool up into beads. You can use SBPI (Plant Invigorator) if you have any with it which has a wetting agent built in but I found fairy and mectin were enough and stopped using SBPI when my last bottle ran out. It didn't do much against the mites and it didn't seem to invigorate my plants much more than anything they already had access too.

As part of a room cleaning regime, usually once every 4 - 6 months I'll wash the whole room down in the stuff. Everything that isn't removable gets drenched or wiped and for that I dilute a whole dropper full of mectin in 2 - 3 liters of water and lots of bleach.

I should warn you though not to use it too frequently like every few weeks because these little feckers build up resistance so where it works on one generation, it wont work on another so by using it a couple of times a year and giving the room a good strong bleaching the rest of the cleans, it keeps them down to virtually zero.

I also mix it up a bit with my cleaning routine by introducing Permetherin foggers and maybe twice a year I'll drop a couple of those in the room during a massive clean. The mites seem to hate those too. Look up forte fog.

Obviously when you clean a room out with the stuff you'll need to get everything out after mite infestation and clean the whole lot. All your gear, the room.. everything needs spraying, washing or wiping.
Personally, if you're any further along than 2 weeks into flower I'd wait until the next grow and clear it all out, clean the room and everything as I've said above and then treat all plants and cuttings you have as directed above 2 weeks apart and then re-assess.
Start fresh in a clean room next grow and then treat all plants two weeks apart. I bet you wont see a mite again for a good long time, if ever if you keep up the cleaning routine.

These little sh*ts are a pain in the backside and I suffered for many grows and I can tell you I've tried just about all solutions from organic to predators such as lady birds to neem oil to all sorts and nothing touched them.
Floss buds every time until I found Harkers Mectin. But please, as I've said, don't be tempted to throw the stuff around every few days / weeks or you'll shoot yourself in the foot. You're not just fighting mites, you're fighting future generations so you want to avoid them building up any resistence tollerance from over use.

Hope that helps matey. I have nothing but sympathy for anyone that's unfortunate enough to encounter these little blighters....


Good luck buddy. Hop you wipe the s0ds out! You now have the equivalent of a mite nuke in your aresenal

[SpongeBongWeedPants]

guys, you are all legends!

thanks for the quick responses and for putting my mind at ease. i'll get back there today and take some more close up pictures to upload. i'm not sure how this has happened but i don't think it was excitement and ectoplasm as skippy suggests lol.

so if it's burn (as a few have suggested) will that remedy itself?

i'll put an update on later guys and thanks again

Okay, just a couple of ideas to be going on with:

First of all, have you checked to see if this wipes off and it's not something spilled and dried like nutrient spill / spray? It may not be burn but it's difficult to tell with those pics.
Try and gently rub just one of the affected fingers on one leaf and see if it wipes away. If so, you may be able to wipe it away gently with a damp cloth or wash it off with water spray.

In the mean time a couple of things I would do in your situation assuming it doesn't wipe off.

1. Never put the lights on when the plants have any water on them. Let them dry off with air flow / fans or whatever first.
2. Never allow feed to spill / splash on the leaves as this burns and can leave a salt residue. Then if lights go on as well, this also burns.

With one and two observed, give it a couple of days and see if it's getting worse. If not then it's probably careless watering / splashing that's not been noticed and the lights have caused it to burn or just the nutrient splash alone has burned it.
Assuming of course for the moment that's what it is - in the absence of evidence.


If it's worst case and mould / mildew I can tell you right now that you'd better isolate those girls and either get them treated or bin them.
And if it is mould / mildew then you have a RH / Airflow issue somewhere and the plants are sitting in their own night sweat / breath which means you'll likely end up with bud rot if the grow carries on with a RH / Air flow issue.


More info is required but I've tried to cover as much as I can on educated guesses based on what is known - which isn't much right now I'm affraid.

Please let us know what you find when you check back with your grow. Take as many notes and pictures as you can about what you see / discover.

[Junior85]

so i've been back today and i have some answers for the questions i've been asked.

the "substance" does wipe off and after cleaning all the plants, they looked the same as they did a few days earlier. i'm hoping the cause off this was in fact "splash" (and not the sticky kind) which as you've kindly informed me, leaves a burn on the leaves.

i honestly don't think it's mould as my humidity sits at 40-50, my in and out are both working fine and the girls that were in there last week grew some decent stuff, but that's not to say something's gone wrong so i will look into this further.

i've managed to take a close up picture which may help diagnose further; see what you think

J

[SpongeBongWeedPants]

I'd still say it's liquid splash and burn from the lights at this stage.

If it doesn't spread, and you're careful not to splash water on them and then have the lights on, that pretty much confirms it for me.

For now, just keep a good eye and see if it returns or spreads or not.

[Yekke]

It is not a burn if it is easily removable by scrubbing.
If you can remove it with your finger - it is very likely a mold.