Broad mites anyone?

[doctor_nelson]

Growing sativa clones from some bagseed in coco in tents. Noticed one mother slowing down and showing odd 3D leaf curling - lengthways - ie along the central vein, longways - i.e "clawing" and the edges rolling down. Damaged leaves have an odd wet look and a mosaic raised pattern. Lots of damaged new growth as it progressed over a few days. I thought N toxicity so lowered the feed strength then noticed it had hit some seedlings too. Google broad mites cannabis to see photos exactly like what I saw. It looks like multiple nutrient deficiencies all at once and I can now see it starting in some of my other clones.

 

Grabbed a 100X pocket microscope and under the damaged leaves saw tiny round eggs everywhere - not trichomes, and lots of little mites moving pretty fast for their size - definitely look like all the photos of broad mite adults. Some dead bugs in attached photos at about 50X - you can barely see the little critters but they're monsters at 100X especially when they're alive.

 

 

 

My guess is they came from our garden lemon which sometimes has shown silvering of the fruit - apparently a broad mite symptom and I now realise that I must have brought some in when I washed some coco coir right near the lemon to water it with the runoff. Stupid idea that...

 

Saturated everything with a white oil treatment last night. Little critters still running around apparently unaffected this morning. Added aspirin (not paracetamol!) to the feeds because it helps decrease the damage, and am currently saturating both tents using mosquito coils (alletherin - a synthetic pyrethrin) with the exhaust fan off. It's killing the little buggers - I can see dead adults on the affected leaves - but the eggs are everywhere and the next generation may be resistant to alletherin - but I'll see how I go. Next up will be wettable sulphur.

 

These little suckers are really scary if you start reading about them...Apparently they persist in meristem tissue so recurrence is almost guaranteed even if I treat this lot and the current eggs/nymphs and I may have to destroy all my seedlings and clones, clean up properly and start again.

 

 

Moral: wash your coco away from that lemon tree...

Edited September 27, 2017 by doctor_nelson

[greenqueen2]

Sorry to hear that doc i had a bad infestation of borg spider mites a couple of seasons ago actually had em for two years running i tried just everything and in the end despite my dislike of chemicals i ended up spraying my entire yard with some heavy duty insecticide/miticide, after wasting hundreds of dollars on a multitude products i went with the heavy duty stuff and haven't a pest problems since it did upset the bees and spiders and ants for a while but after a few months all the good bugs were back to there normal activity and no sign of any bad pests for three years now i love doing everything as organically as possible but there are times that sometimes you just have to pull out the big guns so to speak,if your interested let me know il put you on to the product,good luck sorting out those little bastards doctor,GQ

 

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[doctor_nelson]

borg spider mites

 

The really good stuff for broads (forbid, avid,...) is really, really expensive here (like $125/L on ebay!) if it's available at all and you need to alternate at least 2 different poisons so you don't generate resistance while you are killing the subsequent generations that keep appearing - I have eggs so at least a month more of killing to do.

 

I'll keep at it with pyrethroids for the moment because the mosquito coils seem to have killed all the adults after a full day of allethrin mist. I've read about pyrethrin bombs - a coil is probably pretty much the same and is unlikely to hurt the plants. I'll be doing that every third night for a month and hoping for no more damage. I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on poisons just yet... I may feel different in a few weeks if I can't get rid of these little buggers.

[greenqueen2]

Yes hopefully persistence and alternating with different products will get you across the finish line doctor, happy gardening mate,GQ

 

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[doctor_nelson]

I just looked at a photo from a week ago and have a nice image of what an early Broad Mite infection can look like

 

 

In the lower right quadrant is the plant which went very sad, very quickly. I saw adult Broad Mites as described above 5 days after this was taken - I did not look using a 100X scope at the time I saw these.

 

There's an odd almost engraved "mosaic" pattern with extra shine and darkness on some maturing leaves where there is also clawing, folding down along the central leaf vein and also tips curving down. That odd combination in otherwise happy plants is the main thing to look for. New growth at the growing tips looks curly and deformed - also typical features because that's where the nymphs are feeding - I see that easily now in retrospect. Note that the next door plant on the left of the photo has proven resistant. Odd - they're bagseed sativa sisters but there you go.

 

This may be an indoor tent or other closed greenhouse problem. Apparently these mites can move clinging to the legs of those common little fungus gnats and white flies so they are always a risk. My advice is that if you see these features and it progressively worsens and spreads, you should grab a clawed leaf and a 100X scope for a good, long hard look for little blimpy fuckers rushing about on the undersides of your leaves. If you see them, prepare for battle. Or cut, burn and move.

Edited September 28, 2017 by doctor_nelson

[cardrona]

https://www.planetnatural.com/product/live-ladybugs/

 

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Buy some

 

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[doctor_nelson]

Have you eradicated Broad Mites with them?

 

I see there are expensive predatory mites for these beasties available in the USA - good luck getting them imported - but I'm not sure ladybugs will help with this horror.

https://www.planetnatural.com/product/live-ladybugs/

Edited September 28, 2017 by doctor_nelson

[cardrona]

You can get them in oz...

Yes they work great and you dont spray chemicals ..they multiply readily

 

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[cardrona]

http://www.biologicalservices.com.au/predatory-bugs.html

 

Yes i am in the hort industry..they are locally available just search

 

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[doctor_nelson]

https://www.planetna.../live-ladybugs/ is a US site - can they be imported into Australia legally ?

 

Never read about ladybugs being useful for BM - I thought they were good for aphids. They're very pretty. They sell these predatory mites: https://bugsforbugs.com.au/product/californicus/ from your second link and they are specifically labelled for BM. They're in Australia already so no biosecurity issues. I might grab a tube - they're not expensive and you get 10k little bug munchers in a tube!! Will order some tomorrow I think...Thanks for the link - I was thinking predatory mites were only available in the USA - this is great news and I don't need a biohazard suit to spray avid or somesuch poison on my weed.

Edited September 28, 2017 by doctor_nelson