Got Spider Mites? Here, let me help you with that!
About a year after I'd started growing I found myself face to face with and battling THE most horrible creature god ever saw fit to put on this wonderful earth - SPIDER MITES. Or as I and many others prefer to call them - THE BORG!
I must have spent around a year battling with these little feckers before I found the answer to wiping them off the face of my grow room for good.
At first I tried all the usual recommendations such as Neem Oil, Predators, Various Dedicated Spider Mite Treatments, SBPI, Home Remedies... You name it, I bet I'd tried it but nothing I tried killed the borg.
Just when I thought I'd won I'd flip to 12/12 and within weeks I'd have floss buds from all the webs and very unhappy plants.
During my LONG battle with the borg I discovered two valuable things along the way which have helped me rid the mites completely:
1. Strain / genetics / health of plants plays more of a part to borg infestations than many people think. The borg will target the sickest weakest plant / genetics first and take hold from there. Strains with low resistence or sick plants are ideal starting points for these little feckers to take hold. In my room, it would always be the runt plant or one that's not doing too well where the infestation would start and then spread to the rest quite quickly. It was only quite by accident that I made a discovery when I got some free beans and decided to put one or two in along side my regular strains and discovered that the mites barely touched this new strain even though my regular strains, not inches away, were webbed up to high heaven. This made me realise that health / strain / genetics were important and that's when I stopped doing my regular strain and switched to doing this new one I'd gotten. That immediately cut the infestation down but didn't stop it. It was clear the mites struggled to take hold on this new strain and although they had a good go the problem wasn't nearly as bad as it had been on the strains I'd been doing regularly. The mites just seemed to love my regular strain even the healthy ones once they'd taken hold. It seemed to me that changing strains was an obvious tactic towards winning the war so that's what I did. But the mites fought back and remained although not as aggressively.
2. This is when I discovered a product called Harkers Mectin quite by accident. It was on another forum where I read about this stuff and how to use it. Given I'd tried everything else I thought I'd give this a go and it works. Boy does it work. Yes it is a spot on miticide for pidgeons but don't let that put you off. It's about £9 per bottle and one bottle should be plenty to clean a reasonable grow space and treat several plants.
This is my regime for using Mectin and in 2 - 3 years of doing this I've not had a problem with mites at all since. I don't see any anymore. This stuff has taken me from hell to heaven and this is why I recommend it highly.
Room Cleaning (best done when room is clear and empty):
1. Clear your grow space of anything that isn't fixed down.
2. Isolate any plants you currently have away from your equipment and your room.
3. Completely sweep or Hoover the grow space when empty
4. In 3 liters of hot water mix up: 1 FULL dropper of Harkers Mectin, 1 or 2 drops plain unscented washing up liquid, 30 - 40ml bleach
5. Using a cloth or a sprayer you want to clean EVERYTHING in the grow room from top to bottom. Be careful of anything electrical such as sockets etc. You want to go mad with the mectin and bleach but not soaking electrics etc.
6. Once you've cleaned the room you then need to leave it for about an hour and after an hour you should rinse everything down with plain water to remove any bleach residues.
7. When everything is dry, the room is ready.
OPTIONAL SUMMER TIME STEP:
8. This is an optional step I perform usually once a year just around summer time
9. When the room is dry from cleaning I'll shut the room down completely. No heater, no fans nothing.
10. I'll deploy TWO 11gPermethrin foggers - one in each corner of the room. These are smoke bombs containing insect repellant and they cover everything the smoke gets into with repellant. With summer being the worst time, I do this extra step.
11. After about 4 - 5 hours I'll return to the room and switch everything that needs to be on, back on. The room is ready.
Equipment cleaning:
1. When I clean my equipment such as pots, trays etc. I usually just mix up a strong dysinfectant solution in the bath to wash everything in and to that I'll add a dropper full of mectin. Making sure to rinse everything well afterwards before returning it to the grow room. Don't want any bleach of dysinfectant resudes left behind.
2. Also wipe down test meters etc. with a cloth of mectin and dysinfectant. You want to clean pretty much everything going back in the room as you can. Even wiping down any nute bottles especially around the bottoms where they sit on the floor.
Anything that goes in the room MUST be cleaned before being returned. Just one egg or baby and they'll take over again.
Treating Plants and Maintenence Doses:
1. Treat all plants just BEFORE they are put into the room especially cuttings you get from other people!
2. In a spray bottle mix up 1 - 2 drops of mectin for every liter of water and include 1 - 2 drops unscented washing up liquid.
3. Spray plants all over. Tops of leaves and especially the undersides of leaves where the borg love to live. I'll soak my girls until the water runs off them.
4. Return plants to room and allow to dry naturally or with the gentle assistance of a fan.
5. Commence your grow and re-treat all plants again in 2 weeks. When I spray the plants 2 weeks later I'll also spray the walls and floor immediately around the plants just for added precaution.
Some Important Considerations:
Don't be tempted to blast Mectin round your room or plants every other day or week. Mites are extremely good at building tollerance and you'll soon find the Mectin useless if used too frequently. Initially when you first use Mectin to treat an infestation the idea is to hit them hard. You clear out and clean everything with a good strong dose once. Then by treating the plants before putting them back in the room and then again two weeks later we've killed anything living on the plants prior to putting them in the room and the second treatment two weeks later kills any eggs that may have hatched. The only time you should ever need to use mectin again is to isolate and treat new plants coming in such as gifts from friends / cuttings etc where you would treat them once and then treat them again in 2 weeks or in 6 months time when you repeat the above room cleaning regime again. Inbetween times you should clean the room between grows with regular cleaning products as you would normally.
Also if people give you plants or cuttings NEVER take them straight into the grow room. Isolate and treat them first!
Also keeping the grow room free of any dead plant matter, soil spills etc will help to keep pests and disease down. Also avoid going out into the garden outside before going into your grow room. If possible wear clean clothes / footwear to go into your grow room so you're not dragging anything in with you.And finally, I personally never spray mectin or anything else on my girls after 2 weeks into flower. If your plants are further than 2 weeks into flower I do not advise spraying of any kind.
While the Mectin is not absorbed by the plants and disperses harmlessly within a day or two, the last thing anyone wants is moisure problems and rotten buds.If you follow these steps then you wont or shouldn't ever have to worry about mites ever again.
No one hates the borg more than I after battling them for a year and this stuff works. I don't even give mites a second thought any more.
Happy hunting!
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Originally Posted by skippy
Starsky & Hutch Pinball Champion!
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