I've tried bug bombs, hypochlorous acid, isopropyl, neem/soap and tbh they're very short term precautions between population appears to be out of control and girls take a while to recover. Just trying to get them to health at the moment but struggling... should I try SBPI? Killermite?  Harkers Harka-Mectin? 

Maybe go through the protocol suggested here? 

Today they looked like these photos. Are these fungas gnats about to be a bain of the last couple of weeks of my grow. I have liberally treat the soil with Fungal Gnat stuff just in case.

It's spider mites, isn't it?

Desperate times, desperate measures.

I sealed the room and cut the ventilation then emptied a 3kg co2 extinguisher in there. Left it for 3hrs.

It looks like all the mites are dead, theres loads of eggs though. Its frost bitten some of the plants quite badly unfortunately. So yep that's what I gone did done kinda worked/not worked.

Put out some sticky pads and managed to catch it. There are no other flying things anywhere else in the house, so it must have been in the soil, or hitched a ride somehow.

Any thoughts

I cant work out how to post photos in this post, but there are photos on my gallery.

Any help appreciated!

Anyone seeing a lot  of these guys lately??   

Loads about where I am, trying to get in   through the windows...    

If I had any bug infestations I'd nab a few  to go into the cab  and mother room     

 Free  predators   

I have never encountered them before but read a thread years ago so I ordered some harkers straight away and sprayed the affected mother plants as best I could I put the recommended dosage of 0.5 ml per ltr and some plant magic bio wetter with some plant magic  catalyst   

,I noticed there was no smell I expected to smell something, (could it be fake Harkers from amazon ? ) anyways forward 7 days which I read to spray them again, checking the leaves they were still mites creeping about all over but the webbing very minimal ,

this time  I really made sure i sprayed all under the leaves well and all over the stems some on top of the coco all over the leaves checked 24 hours later they are still creeping all over the leaves  .

Is there something better to get rid of them completely I read there is no systemic miticide and I just want them gone completely I have no issues with chemicals as they are just mothers and will have more than enough time for any chemicals to break down and dissipate .

Thanks to anyone who can advise me I want to act quickly and get rid as quickly and permenantly as possible so I'm not looking down the organic just control or might work but might not work route .

also what is best to use for cleaning the tent bleach ? I was told jeyes fluid but the new formula of jeyes fluid they now sell is nothing like the old 1 so I'm not sure what to use .

Thanks guys speerzy

Read an American article they was using praying mantis to control spider mite and most other pests as they eat just about anything. On my last grow 4 weeks into flower I got spider mite and used predators to wipe out the infestation I had so quite interested in to more natural pest controls.

I'm starting my next grow jaffadawg soon so have already ordered some Amblyseius Andersoni to live on the plant just in case. 

Looking at costs if each praying mantis costs £6 and you need 3 apparently and they'll live for 1 year thats a lot of pest control for little ££. 

Anybody tried it ?  

I was running an "experiment grow" in the 3x3 tent. Just 4 plants - all clones of the same cultivar. The experiment was to test mineral vs organic feeds vs soil amends.

They were at week 7 when I noticed the plant on the "soil amends" only was looking a bit poorly. Leaves were yellowing a bit but were getting mottled like a deficiency but it wasn't calcium or magnesium. I didn't think that much of it really and put it down to the plant being the least well fed.

I snipped a bud from each plant to check the trichomes under a microscope for ripeness and shiver me timbers I spotted the Borg. There wasn't any visible webbing on the plants and I counted maybe a dozen individuals on a thumb sized fresh bud. Going back to the tent I could see some very light 'speckles' maybe 4 or 5 on each leaf, I realised these were bite marks and I thought it was a bit of burn or I had overdone the nutrients.

Interestingly, the 3 well fed plants had limited infection and numbers. In a 3x3 the mites can basically get around very easily but they had hammered the plant fed only on organic amends. It makes sense that they hit that plant the hardest but it makes me wonder if the top-dressing and amends I was using (all organic) might have had eggs inside? These plants were reared as clones in an areoprop and were totally mite free until I spotted the infection in week 7. If they had mites from the start I'm sure they would have taken hold as I did nothing (IPM wise / treatments) to prevent them.

I used the top-dress in weeks 3 and 4 so that makes sense that it took them a couple of weeks to take hold - maybe?

The main issue I had/have is that I have 9 plants in the 4x4 about to go into flower. None of those plants are infected, I took a shower and gave them a good checking.

Any advice on best method/s and products to terminate them? Especially low budget ones as I am skint af atm. I have an unopened bottler of Harkers Harka Mectin (ivermectin) from years ago - expiry was 2018 but beign unopened I imagine it's worth using still? I've got yellow sticky traps up already and will try and find some predator sachets to hang up.

My mother/prop. box is opposite my flowering tent which is currently in the middle of week 3 so I am worried of them spreading in to there too - will check later when the lights come on. 

Thanks in advance,

DB.

Thrips are a fucking headache.

In glasshouse production of fruit, veg and ornamentals, thrips are the biggest and hardest to get rid of pest due to their pesticide resistance and the nature of their life cycle (two stages of which, applications of most pesticides don't effect them because they're in the epidermis of the plant or the soil), and of all pests they cause  the highest loss of revenue due to reducing number of marketable product/fruit, reduced yield due to reduced vigor and by vectoring plant diseases causing crop failures and loss of genetics.

1.) The first step into getting rid of them for good is hanging sticky traps and capturing as many adults as you can, it also helps to monitor the traps daily and keep a note of population trends - if anything, to know when a good time to spray them is, and/or to see whether or not what you're doing is actually working. Blue sticky traps are supposed to be better for thrips, but I've always had the better results with yellow traps.

2a.) Step two is initial knockdown, both on the aerial parts of the plant and the root zone. Its important to rotate knockdown products if the population is that big it needs two applications, but one generally does it. I found success with one spray of abamectin (dynamec, killermite), followed by one spray of pyrethrum 5EC a week later (if needed) - abamectin works better as a knockdown spray than pyrethrum does, because its trans-laminar which means it'll penetrate a short distance into the plant, helping to get those thrips that are in the crevices of foliage and flowers - which is where application of most knock down pesticides fails. 

(Pyrethrum 5EC dilution can be a bit tricky to work out based on whats printed on the label, my recommendation is 2 to 4ml/l for foliar applications. I personally used 2ml/l)

Both pyrethrum 5ec and abamectin are pretty "safe" pesticides, as far as pesticides go, deriving from chrysanthemum flowers and soil bacteria, respectively, both with very short breakdown periods on the plant, in the environment and soil. Neither are systemic!

2b.) you can use Pyrethrum 5EC as a root drench at 2ml/l to hit the soil dwelling part of the life cycle, which accelerates getting rid of them big style, but I'd test it on a plant or two first to make sure they can handle it before running through all of the pots - as an alternative, you can drop any  biostimulants and run liquid oxygen or silver bullet roots (hydrogen peroxide products) instead at low doses over the course of the treatment until you stop seeing damage on plants or if you want to be certain, until you stop trapping adults on the sticky traps.

3.) Step three is finishing them off - for this I like the product SKRAM, its horticultural oil/soap based so thrips (and other bugs) can't build resistance to it, and its actually quite effective against thrips if you don't get slack with applications. Start at spraying once a day for three days at 30ml/l, and then dropping to once every third day at the same dose until you stop seeing damage on the plants, but you're still trapping adults on the sticky traps, then you can drop to 15ml/l once every third day until you finish them off. 

(you can apply step three every third day between step two knock down applications to stop the population building back up as much between knock downs)

4.) - continued IPM - keep up the Skram applications at 15ml/l once a week to once every 10 days as a matter of course on all plants until they go past day 7 of flower (thats just my preference), keep sticky traps up and monitor atleast once per week, and apply hypoaspis miles to the grow medium once every 4 weeks - hypoaspis miles are a predatory mite that live in the root zone, and predate on thrip pupae and gnat larvae. 

A few changes to practices going forward pays dividends too, not just against thrips but all insects and some fungal diseases, like keeping the room clear of any detritus from previous crops making sure to remove it all, as well as cleaning the space and equipment with a disinfectant between cycles. It really pays where applicable to leave a space barren for a week or two between cycles also, to break the life cycle of any pests that have persisted. One thing some growers, including myself, have success with is a whole plant dip (aerial and roots) of pyrethrum 5EC at 2ml/l when cuttings are freshly rooted and are being moved out of the propagator to really kick start the protection - I would recommend testing it on a single, spare, cut first, as some genetics are sensitive and it could effect them negatively. I've yet to have this issue myself, but it has been reported.

obviously this is not for plants in flower and only in veg - duh!

It got me thinking why not just spray the plants - so have been experimenting with some males.

Quite a simple experiment just to find what concentration of Dettol kills plants.

The experiment subjects (victims) - 4 blues x nonames boys

The burning on the lower fans if from a previous spray of some neem and other stuff.

I started with 10ml per litre and sprayed a plant, added 10ml and sprayed the next one, added another 10ml for the third and then a final 10ml for the forth plant - so actually the concentration is a bit stronger than shown as I did not top up the water as I sprayed each plant.

After 6 hrs

Unfortunately i was a bit rough and bend the 30ml plants stem.

So part of it looking upset is caused by that.

The plant which got 40ml was not happy after 6 hrs.

But the others were ok.

By the next day the 10ml, 20ml plants were fine and back to normal.  The 30ml plant is ok and think its more upset about its being snapped than sprayed but there is some leaf curl happening.  The 40ml plant a lot worse.

Some close ups

So Part 1 of experiment complete and would say it is ok to spray plants with a concentration of Dettol between 20-25ml per litre with out serious damage.
 

Unfortunately these plants seem to be pretty mite free so cant really comment on actually how effective this would be at killing them at that concentration of Dettol.  

I will try and get some mites to start munching on the 10ml and 20ml ones for Part 2 - but if anyone wants to step in and give this a try please do would be very interested for other peoples input on this as if it kills mites at 20ml per litre its a cheap and easy to get hold of and could be a game changer in dealing with them.

Could anyone tell me how long after spraying Killermite is it safe to introduce predator mites? Am now at day 15 flowering with no mites visible They were sprayed at day 8 of 12/12

Cheers

Dan

Thanks a lot

Just to add….I trust the grow shop geezer and his advice. Always been spot on. Just looking for a second opinion

Amblyseius californicus foil sachets as I noticed a couple of eggs on a plant. Again ffs. I cleaned so fucking well after the last crop with IPA and smoke bomb but here they are again 

Anyway -am I good to leave the predators in the box for 2 or 3 days? I want to spray with SKRAM for a couple of days and then use the preds but dont want them to perish in the meantime.

Thanks 

Thanks in advance,

JB.

Sorry it’s the best quality I could get, I’ve had to zoom in on a phone pic.