HELP!

[budgirl]

A friend of mine is growing two plants under a 400hps and is about 5 weeks through flowering..when he opened up his room today the leaves of both of his plants were covered in small red insect looking things (only way i know to describe it) they are moving so i guess they are a form of insect. Does anyone know what may have caused this and how to get rid of them.......thanx guys you all rock

[Luke Skywalker]

Are they really tiny? Then you've got the bane of growers everywhere.... RED SPIDER MITE. They are some of the nastiest little bastards around, and very difficult to eliminate short of killing the plant and sterilising everything.

 

The good thing is you say that they're in 5 weeks. If they've got an indica strain, then they haven't got long to go anyway, and the plants should do okay, but you have to act now. If you have sativa strain, which can flower 12 - 16 weeks in some cases, you may have to keep a vigilant eye out, and the plants could be severely reduced in end yeild if the mites become entrenched. Mind you, the yeild is going to be down now anyway, because of the damage the mites will have already caused. They are very quick breeding, very prolific creatures, and they are right at home in the average indoor grow.

 

So what can you do? Well, I've always tried to use the least damaging insecticides possible, and preferably ones designed for use on food crops. Let's face it, you're going to smoke the stuff, so putting highly poisonous substances on the plants is not really a good idea.

 

I use white oil, the yates brand, at 15ml/L every 5 days. This has worked on indoor and outdoor plants, and when using indoors I've raised the hid to reduce the chance of burning. The lower the temp, the better. I've also had some success with wettable sulphur, but this can take up to a month to dissapate, sometimes more, and once again you need to raise the lamp, and drop the temps if possible.

 

Others will advise you on what other insecticides you can use, but really your chasing your own tail if you don't work out how you got them in the first place. Do you have any infested house or garden plants? Any pets able to get into the growroom? Or did the infestation arrive from outside sources, like the clones purchased? If you did that mind, or could you be passing it onto the plants after touching others with them outside?

 

Have a look at the situation, and asses what is best for you. I'm sure some of the other growers here will also have some advice for your friend, and take it all together and work out what you want to do about it.

 

Hope this helps.

[budgirl]

Thanx Luke....I have no idea how his plants may have become infested but hopefully he can work out where it has come from...I will definately pass on your advice to him and hopefully he can get it all sorted out for himself......again Thanx

[memnock]

spider mites suck :angry:

[Tom]

Check out this topic, I would try using two of the moth killers at first to make sure they head for the afterlife.

 

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