Spider Mite

[kat]

My plants have spider mite...AGAIN... * sigh *. I lost some plants to mite a while back so I've been keeping an eye on it and luckily I think I've caught it early.

 

I've been reading an earlier thread in here about it, and made a note of apparent cures, and I have a couple of questions.

 

Firstly, with the white oil and neem oil, where do I buy them and do they need to be diluted, and if so to what ratio.

 

I read that lemon juice will kill the mite, and growing garlic in with the plants will act as a deterrent, I prefer to use the least chemicals the better, so are these two suggestions likely to be good?

 

I've also been told ( not here) to use either a flea/pest bomb in my grow room, or use mortein house and garden spray on the plants? Has anyone heard of that before?

 

I'm trying to go for the method that will be the least detrimental to growing time and the health of the plants...any help would be appreciated

[F420]

You can buy Neem from most places that sell plants or plant things like BigW, k-mart, garden shops, hydroshope etc.

 

Yes you mix it and the amounts are on the bottle but off memory its like one cap per litre or something.

 

Household flyspray does work, but I dont like the idea of smoking flyspray ewwww. It has to be the natural one though.

 

 

Little Buggers are immune to a lot of things since Dicofol and other chemicals mutated them years back. They are NOT a natural bug. We created these super bugs. The eggs are impervious to most sprays, so spraying twice a day for weeks might be required to beat their breeding program. I have found only one thing you can use, that kills them with one spray and kills their eggs as well, with only a 3 day withholding period.

 

The product is Vertimec, and costs about $200 per litre. (1litre makes 1000litres) It is NOT available from Garden Centres, and is a Commercial Spray, for farmers only. You can get it from Agricultural suppliers.

 

Predators are a long term solution that will cost a lot, because the numbers of mites to predators have to have a balance to keep the predators alive. As a result often they wipe themselves out by eating all the mites, and then the mites come back. Some people have good results with them, but its harder than a spray.

 

In between crops try bombing the room with a cockroach and flea bomb. Clean any Hydroponic system and remove before bombing.

 

Good Luck,

[kat]

thanks ferenge.

My plants are two weeks into the veggie cycle, so I've got another wo weeks before I turn back, from what I understand after reading the forums here, it should be safe to spray the plants with house and garden. This is a water based spray, and has the active constituents of bioallethrin and bioresmethrin. If I spray the plants when the lights go off, do you think this will affect the taste of the finished product?

I'm going to add some garlic bulbs to my tubs today, every little bit helps!