Who knows about spider mites? (not how to kill)

i'm just wanting some info about spider mites. can they live without living on plants? like can they sustain themselves in a home? can they live on cats? what happens if my cats get them? etc. ive got tons of them but have now harvested all the major plants that had them.

also, my plants that have them are drying in my bathroom. will the mites just crawl up the stems and die in the bathroom or whats gonna happen with that?

thanks for any info. +rep for u.

SayWord said:

i'm just wanting some info about spider mites. can they live without living on plants? like can they sustain themselves in a home? can they live on cats? what happens if my cats get them? etc. ive got tons of them but have now harvested all the major plants that had them.

also, my plants that have them are drying in my bathroom. will the mites just crawl up the stems and die in the bathroom or whats gonna happen with that?

thanks for any info. +rep for u.

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Spider mites are members of the Acari (mite) family Tetranychidae, which includes about 1600 species. They generally live on the under sides of leaves of plants, where they may spin protective silk webs, and they can cause damage by puncturing the plant cells to feed.
Spider mites are less than 1 mm in size and vary in color. They lay small, spherical, initially transparent eggs and many species spin silk webbing to help protect the colony from predators; they get the 'spider' part of their common name from this webbing. Hot, dry conditions are often associated with population build-up of spider mites.
The best known member of the group is Tetranychus urticae (the glasshouse red spider mite, or two-spotted spider mite), which is common in tropical and warm temperate zones, and in glasshouses. Other species which can be important pests of commercial plants include Panonychus ulmi (fruit tree red spider mite) and Panonychus citri (citrus red mite).
Spider mites, like hymenopterans and some homopterous insects, are arrhenotochous: females are diploid and males are haploid. When mated, females avoid the fecundation of some eggs to produce males. Fertilized eggs produce diploid females. Unmated, unfertilized females still lay eggs, that originate exclusively haploid males.

[edit] Countermeasures

Chemical control of spider mites generally involves pesticides that are specifically developed for spider mite control (miticides or acaricides). Few insecticides are effective for spider mites and many even aggravate problems. Furthermore, strains of spider mites resistant to pesticides frequently develop, making control difficult. Because most miticides do not affect eggs, a repeat application at an approximately 10- to 14-day interval is usually needed for control.
Various insects and predatory mites feed on spider mites and provide a high level of natural control. One group of small, dark-colored lady beetles known as the "spider mite destroyers" (Stethorus species) are specialized predators of spider mites. Minute pirate bugs (family Anthocoridae), big-eyed bugs (Geocoris species) and predatory thrips can be important natural enemies.
A great many mites in the family Phytoseiidae are predators of spider mites. In addition to those that occur naturally, some of these are produced in commercial insectaries for release as biological controls. Among those most commonly sold via mail order are Galendromus occidentalis, Phytoseiulus persimilis, Mesoseiulus longipes, and Neoseiulus californicus.

As the bud dries the mites will leave. If you have already harvested, I would not do anything to kill the mites or you WILL be smoking mites. Once the food is gone (Wet Bud), the mites die off and go away.

Not really, they depend on plant sap to survive and reproduce.

Possibly, your cats or you could carry them. I don't think they're parasitic to animals, though.

newgrowerguys said:

I would not do anything to kill the mites or you WILL be smoking mites.

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what exactly does this mean? thanks for the input dudes. anyone else have anything to say??

newgrowerguys said:

As the bud dries the mites will leave. If you have already harvested, I would not do anything to kill the mites or you WILL be smoking mites. Once the food is gone (Wet Bud), the mites die off and go away.

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if you just leave your bud to dry the mites will leave by crawling up the stem and away, into your home presumably... but if you spray anything right now the mites will die in your buds, thus you will be smoking mites man!! I'd set off hella bug bombs as soon as you but them pretyt buds in some mason jars... hopefully next grow prevention will keep all these bastards out... Happy Smoking!!

avid...... and ive read a few places they are like hibernational (not sure thats a word) things. so they can hide out in your room for a few months and come back after a sleep.... and avid.. and thiers stirrup M and a spreader i dont remeber atm.. dont even have to spray the bottem sides of the leaves.

also for future reference,,, treat all people like they got stds... wither its mold or mites.. dont let other growers into your rooms.

they can lay dormant in a room, as well as the eggs can lay dormant till the heat and humidity are conducive to reproduction.

they dont live off of animals, but as said before can be transported by people or animals.

as soon as you cut the plants and they begin to die off, the mites will try to escape to find a new host plant.

what i do when i have them is get sticky stuff you put on trees and put a glob around the base of each stem (the stem will be at the very top and they will crawl to the top and get stuck) and then i put sticky stuff on each end of whatever line i am hanging them from, so that if any mites get off the plants, onto the lines, they will get stuck at the end.

this essentially gives them no way to escape.

after your grow be sure and bomb the room, vacuum every corner, and clean the walls the best you can. the best thing to do is get a hold of some floramite or avid.. it will kill em off in one application.

damn thank you for that!!!!! where is a good place to pick up floramite or avid? shits creepy man. every time i feel a slight anything on my skin i start inspectin hard core, lookin for a little mite crawling around on me

if you live in cali you can get floramite under the counter at some hydro shops.. i think some peeps might still be selling it on ebay too.. i got like a 25 ml vial, used abour 3 ml on my whole room and havent seen one since.. great stuff

if you do go ask at your hydro shop, dont ask by name cuz that shits illegal.. ask if they have any thick white stuff for mites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_mite
Try this

what dude, why is floramite illegal? shits crazy.

Floramite is a professional grade miticide meant to be applied carefully with protective equipment on in a large greenhouse environment. It's not a consumer level product.

It's systemic meaning it will soak into your skin. You must not get it on you, or breath it, etc. The directions say to have all skin covered, wear a respirator, rubber gloves, and have everyone else out of the area.

Having said that, Just be very careful with it. Avid is the same. I apply it outside when the wind is steady so that the stuff always blows away from me, I do wear rubber gloves and cover as much skin as I can and hold my breath while spraying ea one until the stuff blows away.

It is worth all this though. I had so much trouble with mites fuck all the consumer shit, it was time for the serious stuff and this is it. Search ebay, you can get little 1oz bottles that will make 50 gallons to 100 gallons of spray for $25 - $35. Anywhere else they only sell quarts, and those are around $250 for a quart.

Flojo

Your sticky stuff on the end of the stalk is not 100% either though, I'm sure you know this I'm just saying it for others. Spider mites fly. (Well sort of) Have you ever seen spiders babies all hatched and when they're ready to move on they let out a string of webbing and let the wind catch it and carry them away. Same deal with spider mites. They can travel on the wind any distance they like, if conditions are good enough. In your drying room they'd just land gently on the floor and then hibernate if they can't find food.

What wakes them up from hibernation is an increase in temperature or a change in light cycle. Yes they really somehow can tell while hibernating when you switch from 24/0 or 18/6 to 12/12 and they will wake up.

They are really pretty impressive little shits when you think about it. How the hell tiny little things can do all this is beyond me, but it's all true.

ya i know that they hibernate till the 12/12 cycle, which is why i said vacuum thoroughly and clean the shit out of everything.. if you dont put the sticky stuff on there, then the 1000s of mites on your plants just crawl right off, at least this way you put a dent in their population

true true true

Mites like two things heat and dryness


At 80 degrees, with low humidity 2 mites will reproduce 10,000 mites a week.


at 90 degrees, with low humidity 2 mites will reproduce 100,000 mites a week.

Higher humidity is what they don't like.

Ways to get rid of them.

1. spray, spray, spray with water, they hate it. They like to hang out on underneath of leaves. If they are on tops of your leaves you have serious infection or if you can see spider webbing.
Just by spraying water on the tops and bottoms of leaves will rinse a lot away and help keep down the future breeding.
2. take dish soap, put a few drops in hand held sprayer that is filled with water, spray the underneaths and tops of leaves. wait 5 minutes and then rinse off your plants. do not let the soap stay on plants, it will act like magnifier glass and burn your plants. Do not spray soapy water on the plants when lights are on.
3. Keep the humidity up in your room, they hate moisture.
4. fill up bucket with water, put paper around base of plant and cover up dirt in pot, turn the plant upside down and immerse the entire plant (except the pot you are holding) in water for a minute, holding the pot in your hand, swish the plant around in the water, this will get them under control and drown most of them.
5. Did I mention getting the humidity up in that grow space, anything over 40% and they will hardly breed.

awesome. just awesome. thank you all for ur helpful insight. i definately dont feeel comfortable now tho. +rep to all