whiteflies grasshoppers and spidermites oh myyy

i have a big problem guys. my plants are being eaten up by spidermites and in about 2 weeks im going to have about 200+ grasshoppers ( they come every year ) there are also these nasty prehistoric looking grey bugs on my plants. my plants are already budding and have been for about a month so i dont know what to do. someone told me NOT to spray if they are flowering and i read somewhere else that it wouldnt matter because it detoxifies during the drying (10 days min). Any advice would help at this point i dont want to loose my first babies!!! ill post pics soon.

Purchasing predators isn't a bad idea, but often they fly to the vacant lot next-door where all the good bugs are, leavng all the other bugs back home. Organic pesticides like neem-oil and pyrethrum are very effective but possibly mutagenic, so are best used as a last resort. Get a 20 gallon hose-end sprayer, IOW when twenty gallons of water have gone through the hose, the sprayer-cup will be empty. Into the cup put:

1/4 cup lemon dish soap, but not a strong one like dawn
1 cup lemon ammonia, bugs don't like the lemon, and the NH4 is a foliar feed
3 T hot sauce (mmm...habenero)
1/2 cup tobacco juice

Go easy at first, its strong stuff. Wear gloves so you don't OD on nicotine. Oh, and don't use it right before harvest. If you have too many slugs for the old beer-can trick, sprinkle a mixture of pelletized lime and AlSO4 around where they go.
Spider mites can be controlled but not eliminated by spraying with corn starch and water. T he starch dries and suffocates them. Diatomaceous earth also kills invertebrates.

The first question you've got to ask is are the grasshoppers doing damage... or are they just sitting on your plants? Try these simple things; if they don?t work, then we start using poison and other less desirable methods...

Passive Repellants

If they are doing heavy damage to the leaves, try placing a few dead ones on your plants, hang them there in plain view. Smash up some fresh cloves of garlic and spread them around your plants. Try Moth balls (They seem to repel all kinds of critters).

Set up some stakes around the perimeter of your plants, and use a fine mesh around your plants. It will let in lots of light, air, rain, etc but keep the larger critters like grasshoppers out. Make sure you do not trap a bunch of them within the mesh when setting it up. This method completely ruins a stealth garden. In addition, you must remove the mesh when you water/feed your plants, and you will have to keep raising it higher as your plants grow taller.

You can try spraying with a homemade mixture. Mix water, crushed garlic, hot peppers, tobascco sauce, and other hot and/or repulsive ingredients into a big pot, bring to boil, stewing everything around. Let this mixture sit for a few days, stirring occasionally. Strain the liquid out into a spray bottle and spray your plants two or three times a week, and after rainfall. Try not to spray the bud sites later into the season. That should keep the buggers away; however the sweet liquid may attract ants, which are easier to kill off.

Chemical control

If the hoppers are persistent, you can add poison (like diaznol or similar) and spray the plants, but be very careful not to spray the bud sites! Some chemicals are 'puffed' onto your plants, however after morning dew or rain, the powder will get wet and run into your buds! As a result, the powder will remain as a wet clump and cause mold, ruining your entire crop. If your crop does survive, you are smoking poison.

Stoner133 has brought to my attention that the natural enemies of grasshoppers include beetles, birds, mice, snakes, and spiders.

brokenear suggests this recipe:
7 pints water
1 pint liquid Sevin % Dust
1 pint molasses
10 pints wheat germ

Mix all together to form a dough-like substance and roll into balls to place around your plants. You can even mold a string into the balls and hang them in your plants. Apparently the hoppers love it, to death! Bait provides yet another option for grasshopper control. Sevin insecticide can be impregnated on bran bait at a rate of 2% or 5% to provide good control, when properly timed.

i just noticed i have slugs now too i dont know what to do i have buds already. it has been blooming and it looks like its almost ready to pick how will i know when it is ready? and will it be safe to smoke it if i use the organic methods? ie. spearmint spray and corn startch? i think you mentioned before that i should do it right before a harvest?

Whiteflies are a nightmare where im at and the diluted dish soap has worked for me. The prob is you have to spray every outher day...Im going out today to get some Neem Oil and im going to give that a try. (i heard it works real well.)

space_weaseal said:

Whiteflies are a nightmare where im at and the diluted dish soap has worked for me. The prob is you have to spray every outher day...Im going out today to get some Neem Oil and im going to give that a try. (i heard it works real well.)

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neem oil has been my salvation.

so do you guys put it in the soil, on the leaves, or around the premise?

when i get spidermites outdoors i just give up on them, i never seem to be able to keep them away, ive tried everything but they always come back.i guess that makes me lazy and calouse but the 4 plants i planted neer my house have a bad case of the mites, and im just cutting them loose, if they survive then good for them if they don't oh well, wasn't counting them anyway.

Wigmo said:

so do you guys put it in the soil, on the leaves, or around the premise?

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i dilute it and spray it on. make sure to saturate the plant. i have seen where some people add a little soap (i use dr. bronners peppermint it's organic and the peppermint oil acts as a natural pesticide) just to make sure it adheres to your plant.