Spider Mite, Little Advice........

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Dont put the preditors on your plant after you spray anything it will kill them instanly or with in and hour or so ! good luck peace. What bug killer did you use?

 

Check here for info: http://www.growquest.com/spider_mite_control_info_page.htm
I think you can get them just about anywhere. Don't hesitate!!! Rinse off the insecticide you used (I hope it was pyrithrium or something safe). And get those "Killer Bugs" on there as fast as you can. They're the best defense, especially during flowering!

 

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I see that Bug Clear claims that it is safe to use on fruits and veggies right up to harvest time -that's good! Yeah, you still want to rinse it off real well, because it probably doesn't taste very good and the residual effects aren't good for you or the preditors either.

As to how many? It's hard to say, it depends on which species you are going to use. I'm more familiar with Ladybugs (Ladybird beetles) they are hungry little suckers and work pretty well. The smallest size package is usually about a thousand or so bugs - that should be enough. If you get a bigger size, try to spread half of them and save half for a "second attack".

 

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Preditors are no use in flowering they become dormant when light drops below 18 hours daily. Have a good fan blowing on your plants then spray them once a day with plain water. Spray tops and bottoms of all leaves.This should keep there numbers right down untill you have finished flowering. Also keeping temps below 80 will help.

 

OR, make some garlic tea ( soak a goodly amount of powdered garlic in a pint of water, for a day or 2, strain water into spray bottle) spray affected areas. no more pests:>)

 

Be sure to be careful after you harvest. Leave some long stems when you hang them as the mites will climb to the top -> carefully and quickly dip and kill em. Death to all spider mites!!!

 

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If the Hairy-one recommends it - it would be worth a try. If you do have a mite problem never grow lax in the battle. I always wondered if they could survive a nuclear blast like the cockroach

 

Thanx for th' vote of confidence BB.

got the clones from a bad source so the mites moved in with 7" clones on 11/14/06. Started spraying w/Garlic (1 pint sprayer) about a week after when they became obvious.
Used nearly all of the tea in a couple of days, never saw another mite just harvested last week! Don't ask why it took so long to harvest, between power outage (4 days) and near freezing temps I'm amazed they matured at all=>/

 

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