Are these mites or something else?

I am in soil, no-till. It’s from seed, so not sure. Wish the video worked. It has flanges on the back and front and the way it moves reminds me of a street sweeper. I’m not really seeing damage no stipiling and I’m not seeing a bunch of excrement. I’m not sure if it’s covered in eggs or trichomes. I imagine if I scoped the soil I would find all kinds of stuff crawling around. I’ll update with plant pics if my phone will charge. :frowning:

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Salutations Scissor-Hanz,

Looks trained enough to me, oh and it’s more complicated than i’d have ever expected!

« …feeds on various mites including two-spotted spider… »

Mites eating mites!! What a confusing nightmare… :dizzy_face:

Good day, have fun!! :peace:

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If you see no damage they are beneficials. I freaked first time i seen them on my leaves too. Just do your regular ipm. If they leave they wernt ment to be there:)

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The OP photos are spider mites. You never need to throw out mite or PM infected plants. This is an easy fix.

The CURE for mites and PM: Organic, not that I grow all organic, but this cure for mites is. Also can be sprayed any time, right up to harvest. Also cheap as chips. It also WORKS! I got this recipe from George Van Patten (AKA: Jorge Cervantes).

1 cup of white sugar
1 cup of 3% hydrogen peroxide
mix the above with one gallon of water.

Saturate the entire plant with the spray as it is a contact spray. It does not work on mite eggs, but kills all stages of hatched mites on contact. It will also kill PM. Plants also like it and will improve in health when sprayed, as the sugar is absorbed it will increase the brix. The H2O2 breaks down into water and O2. If you do not like the sugar residue and spray right before harvest, you can rinse the colas when you harvest them.

Now for an all inclusive mite spray that kills the eggs as well, add 100:1 70% refined neem oil, which is 3.5 TB per gallon of neem per gallon. You can add it to the sugar/H2O2 spray mix for more effectiveness. It will kill any mites eggs that it comes into contact with. Neem breaks down pretty fast in light, so you want to spray in the evening or just before lights out. Some are bothered by the smell of neem, but I am not. Some claim that neem is toxic, but I do not know of a single case where anyone has ever been killed or became seriously ill by using neem, raw or refined. Refined neem has had the aza removed, so it will not go off after 4 months like raw neem will. It is also easy to mix and spray and does not need a spreader, unlike raw neem which needs a spreader and has to be mixed in a specific way to spray. You can also use the refined neem oil alone at the rate of 100:1 to kill mites, mite eggs and PM. After spraying with neem, the PM will be gone in 2 days, tops. I use refined neem on strains like GDP that are prone to PM with good results. I usually spray refined neem on PM prone plants every 2 weeks as a preventative to keep the PM away.

The plants seem to love this combination spray. I know several people that have used it effectively, including myself. With the sugar/H2O2 spray, you can spray just a cup of H2O2 in a gallon of water for a follow-up spray, as there is usually enough residual sugar on the leaves from the first spraying. Finally, mites and PM cannot become resistant to any of these ingredients like many other sprays. You can spray them over and over or rotated in with other sprays.

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Now that’s some good information

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Potassium Soap spray will kill them too…

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I’m with @lotus710 on this @ReikoX if no damage is done let them be , my guess if these are soil mites that have throughly cleaned up your soil they may be looking for other guys by venturing out into new territory they will keep themselves in check by dying off if there’s no food for them but as said by others get aggressive if plant damage occurs!

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@BigSur you’ve got it man! That’s FAQ material for Mite Control right there. Really enjoy all your replies and the knowledge you share. Use that Miracle Grow!

Cheers

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I had some yellowing on these two bottom leaves. I normally wouldn’t bother with it, but my dad told me he has mites on his plants. So, I took out the scope and had a look. This is what the leaf looked like. It doesn’t really look like bug damage to me, just looks like normal fading of the lowest leaves.

As you can see the plant look nice and healthy. I wouldn’t think there was a deficiency or problem, other than another week or two of stretch, hopefully they will stop before burning on the lights.

Here is a shot with the lights on. I scoped one of the top leaves of these plants and there was nothing to be found.

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Posted the video to my IG account @reikox420

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Scoped a lower leaf on all my plants and found nothing. Scoped some mid leaves in the no-till cab and found them on those leaves.

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Aaahhhh!!! The BORG, run for your lives.

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I wish it were funny. I’m stressing out over here. :frowning:

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Do not worry. I will keep using the MG. Or any other cheap water soluble fertilizer and other cheap organic fertilizers that are available. Plants are pigs. They do not care where the fertilizer comes from.

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Bugs can be managed. If you see mites or PM on your plants, do not pass GO, go straight to SPRAYER and mix up a batch of spray. Spray, spray and spray again. Then spray again! And then again! The sugar/H2O2/refined neem spray works great, and your plants will love it. Refined neem is harmless to most beneficial insects and bees as well, and pretty harmless to humans. Though they warn you about contact with neem here in the US, in India it is used for all kinds of skin problems and bugs, and in soaps and lotions.

For really bad mites on ealry non-flowering plants, I use Avid. Avid is abamectin, a naturally occurring miticide that was originally discovered in soil bacteria. Why Avid is not organic and Neem with aza is, I do not know. Abamectin can be gotten pretty cheap on Ebay and it only takes 1/4 tsp per gallon to mix. I use a sticker/spreader with it for better wetting action. Anyway, as long as you are 45 days or more from harvest, Avid is “safe.” I know several growers on NorCal and on other forums that have used Avid and after 45 days harvested and sent their buds into a lab that test for it, and they came back clean with 0% abamectin. According to Cornell University. Abamectin has a half life of about 2 days on leaves under any kind of light, and less in UV light. The advantage of abamectin is that it is translaminar, and so it moves through the leaf that it is sprayed on, so you do not have to get every inch of leaf with it. However, it does not kill eggs. The spreader/sticker will kill the eggs though, as well as about 80% of the mites that it comes into contact with. Oil and soap sprays are about 80-90% effective against mites, so you need to spray them multiple times. Mites will build up resistance to abamectin, so you need to rotate their diet after spraying one to two times in succession to knock down a bad infestation. Depending on the mite species and the time of year (heat factor) you want to spray in intervals of the particular mite life cycle. For example, the two spotted spider mite (probably the most common) has a 5 to 20 day life cycle at an optimal or peak at 80 deg. F, and the eggs hatch in about 3 days after being laid. So you want to spray 2 to 3 times at about 5 to 7 day intervals to catch the adults, larvae and various stages before they lay more eggs and cycle again. Early spraying is critical, as mites can and do multiply lighting fast and do a lot of damage.

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More on mites…

You can also use raw unrefined neem oil for bad infestations with mites, but that is tricky to mix. Raw neem oil is very viscous and it does not mix well with water. Raw neem has azadirachtin in it, a rather slow but effective miticide. Azadirachtin breaks down in about 4 months at room temp in raw neem, so you want to only buy fresh neem and only what you can use in that amount of time. Or keep it in the refrigerator at 40 degrees and it will last longer. Raw neem also has several other compounds that are effective for mites and insects, as well as oils. To mix raw neem oil, add it to a sticker/spreader first and mix them well, and then add them to a pint of hot water and mix well. It will have the consistency of chocolate milk. Then you can add that mix to cold water in a sprayer tank and shake it as you go, as some oil will tend to float on top of the mix. Like abamectin, aza is photosensitive and the half life of aza is pretty short under any kind of light (a few days at most, less under UV outdoors), so you want to spray at night or just before lights out indoors. Raw neem has a strong smell, but I do not find it offensive. Some people on some other MJ sites are on an anti-azadirachtin campaign, claiming it is the root of all evil. However, can find no support for their claims, and there has only been one reported hospital case of Neem oil exposure after someone drank a cup of it thinking it was an exotic salad oil. He lived.

Personally? I use refined Neem oil as a preventative for mites and PM. I start when they are clones or seedlings under lights, and continue on a regular spraying cycle after they are moved out to the greenhouses. I have other plants that are hosts for mites on my property and gardens, so I assume that they will be exposed to mites. If I see the tell tale signs of mites (usually fine spray-paint like speckles on the leaves, the sign of spider mites), or die-back at the tops of stems (the sign of broad mites) I upgrade the spray regime depending on when I see them. Early on I will use Avid and/or Aza, and follow up with the sugar/H2O2, and later with just the sugar/H2O2. Next year I will likely cycle in sugar and H2O2 into the preventative refined neem spraying once a month to try to prevent any mites altogether. I also spray my greenhouse walls with bleach and Talstar. Talstar is a very effective mite spray with 100% knock-down on contact. No, it is not organic, but it is 100% effective. And I do NOT spray my plants with it. It is a safe all around home spray for fleas, bedbugs, mites, and other insects.

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I have some neem oil and a wetting agent mixed that ill spray everything with tonight. Tomorrow I’ll use the H202 and sugar. I’m spraying everything as a preventative. I hit it all with spinosad yesterday.

I hope I can save my workshop from these. Thanks @BigSur, from what I understand I want to spray as often as possible. The odd thing is these guys don’t look like spider mites. From images on Google, they look more like dust mites to me. But that does t make sense, why would those be on my plants.

Hmm grain mites! Looks exactly like that and I did add malted barley several times to my plants. Maybe that’s the source!

You do not really need to spray as often as possible. You need to spray as soon as possible, and then every 3-5-7 days, depending on the heat factor, the type of mites, and the spray being used. Dust mites would not be on MJ plants. Dust mites live on skin cells of humans and animals. And dust mites look VERY similar to spider mites and they are about the same size. Barely visible specks to the unaided eye. I use a 30x scope to hunt for mites. There are many species of spider mites (and dust mites) as well. You may also be seeing young adults, or you may be seeing mite larvae. Spider mites also have two stages of nymphs before becoming adults that may be throwing you off thinking they are something else. Look for the large round clear eggs. They are usually scattered between the mites on the undersides of the leaves.

Grain mites? Never looked at them, but they eat grain and flour, and not leaves. They will also bite humans. Little nasty f’ers. Grain mites are about half the size of spider mites. Bay leaves are supposed to be good for getting rid of grain mites. I have a Turkish bay tree here and it had spider mites this summer… I think that is where one of my early blooming MJ plants got spider mites from. I nuked it with the sugar/H2O2 spray and ag oil a few times and they are gone now. Ag oil can also be used for mites, come to think of it. Ag oil is a thin mineral oil, also considered organic and some is even food grade.

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Thanks again for the tips. I did a neem oil spray tonight before lights out. Tomorrow ill do the H202 and sugar spray. I may also do a ginger/garlic/habeñero root drench next watering, have to be careful with that, I have committed microbe genocide using too much of that. :skull_crossbones:

I haven’t seen any eggs, unless I am mistaking them for bulbous trichomes.

I think I’m over reacting a bit, thank you though, your replies are reassuring. :pray: I may be able to rest well tonight knowing I have a plan of attack and I cought it early.

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Salutations ReikoX,

Sorry about The Borg… Obviously this was durable trauma which actually proves to be textually transmissible even 5 years after the crisis!!

:wink:

The thing is my initial plan only aimed at finding myself some nice serenity-promoting hobby, hence i was less than resilient when rescue scenarios became necessary: the mites were anxiogenic enough!

Which just killed my whole cultivation hobby for some while:

:expressionless:

…until the next spring, as i recall… :herb:

But even after a relatively long period of reflexion fueled by readings on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Systemic Acquired Resistance (SAR) my renewed hopes didn’t resist for long… This “hobby” had become one overwhelming challenge which felt like too much aggravation to a weakened man anyway.

These experiences seduced me after flooding me with a sense of beatitude at some point, i used to admire a couple plants on my windowsill for hours as the sunlight enhanced their natural beauty, which also boosted their rewarding fragrance while i sniffed them from my rocking chair!

That alone gave me memories i still cherish today when i revisit photo sessions of the past. So i realize in retrospective that i wasn’t helping by sharing my own panic. Please pardon me about that!

:pensive:

Old reminescences of related warfare resurfaced which i should have refrained. Keep in mind these were only experiences meant to be fun and peaceful, nothing like real-size cultivation sessions as those we expect to observe in here. Consequently here’s my mea culpa: don’t give up too soon when there’s support available; the rewards are too great ultimately, as this may transform you for a lifetime!!

The cannabis plant forces our eyes to open onto the infinitesimal then also the planetary. Its smell makes us feel alive, the noble molecules prove priceless when you know for a fact that this is cannabis the way it grows in nature (m’well, almost!), which can boost appreciation tenfold!!

:sunglasses:

Courage! It’s all worth it, especially if you’re in a position to handle it. And if i may add input again, i’ll suggest taking lots of photographs to assist your naked eye, because what’s hiding there can induce a most pleasant addiction of the mind. As a matter of fact i’ll have to say i never perceived vegetal life like this before - and yet i happen to have been raised on a farm!

It’s pure magic. Enjoy the ride! :+1:

Good day, have fun!! :peace:

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