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Spider Mites! AHH!

P

peppercrazy

I just realized i have some red spider mites EVERYWHERE. they have already claimed most of my bhut jolokias :( before i figured it out.

I have read on google and such to ...

-spray with 1:1 rubbing alcohol/water
-isolate
-shade
-raise humidity

And i have done all those things, any other suggestions? I have the plants locked in a 8x10ft shed with one small window, and i watered them before to create a sauna for them. :cool:


I need them to experience :hell:

Edit: oh, i also trimmed the most infested leaves, in some cases, this left some plants with ZERO leaves, i know it will grow back ( i hope)...
 
I used a pesticide called Seven. It took care of the aphids and spider mites. They both eventually came back though. If you choose to use pesticides, be warned that you can't consume the peppers for a certain amount of days. Products like Seven state that you can't eat any of the produce for a period of at least 7 days.
 
peppercrazy said:
I just realized i have some red spider mites EVERYWHERE. they have already claimed most of my bhut jolokias :( before i figured it out.

I have read on google and such to ...

-spray with 1:1 rubbing alcohol/water
-isolate
-shade
-raise humidity

And i have done all those things, any other suggestions? I have the plants locked in a 8x10ft shed with one small window, and i watered them before to create a sauna for them. :cool:


I need them to experience :hell:

Edit: oh, i also trimmed the most infested leaves, in some cases, this left some plants with ZERO leaves, i know it will grow back ( i hope)...
Click to expand...

Leaves will grow back but don't they need some to get sun?
 
Blister said:
I used a pesticide called Seven. It took care of the aphids and spider mites. They both eventually came back though. If you choose to use pesticides, be warned that you can't consume the peppers for a certain amount of days. Products like Seven state that you can't eat any of the produce for a period of at least 7 days.
Click to expand...

I have some sevin powder, didn't use any yet, I read that sometimes sevin makes them reproduce more aggressively?! I dunno how that is, but can't believe everything you read you know?

There are no peppers, most of these are seedlings or just little baby plants that haven't more than 10-15 leaves.

chillilover said:
Leaves will grow back but don't they need some to get sun?
Click to expand...

Yup I know they need sun to grow back, there is minimal light in the shed, I am certain a few days of shade wont kill them, when the leafless ones show signs of growing back i intend to give them some sun, but i think too much sun is what caused them to have such a serious infestation in the first place.
 
a little listerine in tobacco water works great.

I have a little tub in the garage I throw my cigar butts in. I also have a pouch of tobacco that I add sometimes(I smoke cigars 6 times a year or so).

Add a little listerine, filter the bits out, and spray.

Make sure to get the underside of the leaves.

Listerine isn't exactly organic, but I like it better than whatever TF is in sevin.

Spray after the full sun of the day.

May need to repeat a week or so later.
 
Since you have a shed to keep them in, I would suggest a "no pest strip". Hang it up in the shed and let it put off it's vapor. Then put your plants in the shed at night, or you could try leaving them in there for 24 hours. You will want to repeat the treatment a few times to kill off the next generation. If you want to reuse the strip you will need to seal it in an airtight container like a mylar bag. Good luck!
 
chillilover said:
No I meant without leaves how will the plant get sulight even in direct sun?
Click to expand...

The leaves grow back. If you cut off all the leaves, unless the plant is just really really small, it should have enough stored energy in the rest of the plant to produce more leaves.

I did this to my lemon drops in my hydro system back in July. Cut them back to nothing but sticks w/o any leaves. Now they are gigantic and covered in fruit :)
 
peppercrazy said:
I have some sevin powder, didn't use any yet, I read that sometimes sevin makes them reproduce more aggressively?! I dunno how that is, but can't believe everything you read you know?

There are no peppers, most of these are seedlings or just little baby plants that haven't more than 10-15 leaves.
Click to expand...

Well it's not that Sevin (or any pesticide for that matter) makes them reproduce faster it's that pesticides kill everything. It doesn't discriminate between the good helpful bugs (ladybugs for example) and the bad bugs (aphids, mites etc.). When this happens you create an environment that is primed for infestation by more bad bugs from other sources.

Think about it this way, the good bugs are there because the bad bugs are there. If you kill everything the good bugs wont come back until there's more food (bad bugs) there for them to eat. Bad bugs like aphids reproduce REALLY fast so by the time the good bugs like ladybugs come back you've got another outbreak of aphids. And because there were no natural predators there to keep the pests in some sort of balance, the pests often come back on a larger scale.
 
cheezydemon said:
a little listerine in tobacco water works great.

I have a little tub in the garage I throw my cigar butts in. I also have a pouch of tobacco that I add sometimes(I smoke cigars 6 times a year or so).

Add a little listerine, filter the bits out, and spray.

Make sure to get the underside of the leaves.

Listerine isn't exactly organic, but I like it better than whatever TF is in sevin.

Spray after the full sun of the day.

May need to repeat a week or so later.
Click to expand...

I dont smoke or know anyone who does, so that one would be difficult..

ZanderSpice said:
Since you have a shed to keep them in, I would suggest a "no pest strip". Hang it up in the shed and let it put off it's vapor. Then put your plants in the shed at night, or you could try leaving them in there for 24 hours. You will want to repeat the treatment a few times to kill off the next generation. If you want to reuse the strip you will need to seal it in an airtight container like a mylar bag. Good luck!
Click to expand...


Silver_Surfer said:
I'd suggest bombing those mites into oblivion.

Since you have your plants in an enclosed area the easiest treatment would be a fog.
Click to expand...

These both sound like a good idea, are these available at like any hardware store? I don't think i have time for shipping, lol. :( I've lost too many already. The mites need to die soon. ;)

Txclosetgrower said:
The leaves grow back. If you cut off all the leaves, unless the plant is just really really small, it should have enough stored energy in the rest of the plant to produce more leaves.

I did this to my lemon drops in my hydro system back in July. Cut them back to nothing but sticks w/o any leaves. Now they are gigantic and covered in fruit :)
Click to expand...

Yup leaves and entire trees can grow back, I have a pommecythere (ambarella) that got hit with frost really bad this last winter (yes, in Florida..) and we thought it was dead for sure. Cut it down to the root and currently it is about 5ft high with fruit.

It didnt matter me cutting off the leaves anyway, because they were falling off, i just sped up the process so the plant can move onwards with producing new healthy leaves.


Blister said:
Well it's not that Sevin (or any pesticide for that matter) makes them reproduce faster it's that pesticides kill everything. It doesn't discriminate between the good helpful bugs (ladybugs for example) and the bad bugs (aphids, mites etc.). When this happens you create an environment that is primed for infestation by more bad bugs from other sources.

Think about it this way, the good bugs are there because the bad bugs are there. If you kill everything the good bugs wont come back until there's more food (bad bugs) there for them to eat. Bad bugs like aphids reproduce REALLY fast so by the time the good bugs like ladybugs come back you've got another outbreak of aphids. And because there were no natural predators there to keep the pests in some sort of balance, the pests often come back on a larger scale.
Click to expand...

That makes sense now, thanks, lol. I know using pesticides does kill the good bugs, which is why i don't really like to use them unless i am faced with a large scale problem.

But I didn't think about the fact that the bad bugs reproduce so quickly, and create a bigger problem in that sense.


Thanks everyone for the replies!
 
peppercrazy said:
I dont smoke or know anyone who does, so that one would be difficult..




Thanks everyone for the replies!
Click to expand...

Right on...... at a cigar every 2-3 months, I don't consider myself a smoker either. But, like me, you could buy a pouch of tobacco that you never intend to use, to infuse the spray.

It is cheaper than sevin, and relatively organic, and (in my experience) 100% effective.
 
Buy a pouch of chewing tobacco, the stringy kind, and soak it in a gallon of water for a day or two. That juice will take care of aphids.
 
cheezydemon said:
....yeah!!! that!!!!


Sorry, this this the first time I have EVER been dismissed as a "smoker".;)
Click to expand...

Sorry man, I didn't mean any offense. :(

Anyway, I went out and got some neem oil, tried that; took the plants out of the shed; still saw the little buggers flying around trying to escape, so i took the sevin dust and coated them.

:( I'm pretty upset, most of the plants are suffering badly, a lot of the plants are just past seedlings with just a few leaves.

These mites truly have the iron will. If this stuff doesn't work after a few more applications later on I guess I'm just gonna have to let the mites have their way with the plants and wait til spring and try again.


I guess I realized this too late, I didn't know what was going on until they were full blown attacking my plants.

All the bhuts are gone :( the one i was looking most forward to, lol.
 
I just removed a bunch of chili plants from the greenhouse that were covered with aphids. I have about a dozen ladybug larva on patrol throughout, but since no one was using the chili's so I figured that I'd get rid of them altogether. It should really cut down on the aphid population and have the ladybugs focus on the remaining plants.
 
peppercrazy said:
These both sound like a good idea, are these available at like any hardware store? I don't think i have time for shipping, lol. :( I've lost too many already. The mites need to die soon. ;)
Click to expand...

"No Pest Strips" are widely available at normal hardware stores. They would probably be hanging on a hook in rectangle shaped bags.

I should also say that the active ingredient (Dichlorvos) is pretty strong but breaks down quickly. Read the warnings and decide for yourself. Two overnight sessions about 5 days apart should solve your mite problem. By the time you are ready to harvest there should be no residue left.
 
Well, Thanks for the help everyone, But after checking today, 50% of the plants are dead. Juice sucked right out of them.

The other 50% look like they will be joining the waste bin tomorrow.

I tried everything I could with the time given, Oh well for this season I guess. No head start for 2010 for me, lol. :(
 
You still have loads of time for a very early start for the 2010 season. Hell, this season isn't over yet by a long shot. :)

I won't be starting plants for next year until February.
 
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