Hemp Russet Mites

[slain]

Hey everyone, after battling with something that took me a while to work out I wanted to post a side by side on the damage that russet mites can do so that hopefully it might help someone else.

This is the first time I’ve ever encountered the little fkrs, and
It took me a while to work out what was going on, as they are so tiny that they are invisible to the naked eye.
When they start to damage the plant it initially looks like some kind of nutrient or ph issue .
So you spend some time trying to sort that and getting nowhere before the penny drops.
Of all the pest critters I’ve had, these are the most destructive and difficult to get rid of,
Spinosad and neem won’t touch them, or at the very most only slightly knock them back for a while. I found lime
sulfur the most effective, but even then it’s not a complete solution and they will return.
The only seemingly completely effective treatment seems to be a combination of permethrin and fenoxycarb,
something I am loathe to put on my plants, I’m likely yank these out tbh.

Healthy plant:

Previously Infested plant:

Bronzing of the stems:

Characteristic leaf curl.

The giveaway feature for russet mites is that the leaves curl up on the upper side nearly the petioles. They also take on a really glossy clawed look eventually, and the stem loses hairy green appearance and takes on a bronzish colour and becomes very brittle.

I hope this helps someone

[funkyfunk]

Didn’t know about that specific mite. “Thanks”, another one to haunt my nightmares

Did you try the all-in-one recipe?

[slain]

@funkyfunk

Thanks”, another one to haunt my nightmares

No problem! Well this one is a real doozy man. Way worse than spider mites, and much harder to eradicate.
One of the issues for me currently is that these plants are in a four tub dwc setup; so same clones, same everything, but only two of the plants have been effected. Can’t quite wrap my head around that, but it made diagnosing it a bit of a challenge. I need to get a high magnification scope as a loupe is not sufficient to see them. They are so tiny that they hitch a ride on the legs of fungus gnats! A parasite on a parasite. Charming.

If my plants were in pots, I’d mix up bucket of something and completely dunk the plant. I would be surprised and pleased if ‘one and done’ kills these little fkrs as I’ve had to go pretty industrial on my mother plants, but I will have to give it a go.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that they love to feast on flower calyx’s so the buds never develop. What a crap tenant lol.

[blackcarp]

my experiences and thought on mites: they suck ass. period.

they come in in a myriad of ways, supermarket veggies, appearantly other insects O.o (didnt know that omg scary af), wind, other plants, vacuum cleaner, really anything… prolly even riding on raindrops wearing rubber masks with the face of ronald reagon.

-one can hardly kill em off completely because the eggs are so sturdy and survive about anything, except maybe ozone or somin with fire.

-we used olive oil as a spray to suffocate live ones, babies survived and buds became disgusting af

-i used cold showers to simulate heavy rainfall, removed most of the visible damage and dead leaves, plants get stressed much and need a week to regain orientation, buds loose potential, but plants look healthy afterwards, then mites slowly return (needs good ventilation or mold risk)

-i dont want chems because we intend to digest those buds in some form

-certian, very fruity smelling plants are much more heavily infested usually. my tiny dense budded haze for example is loved by mites, but they dont jump on the woody Black DOG as eagerly.

-i tried growin jalapenos nearby, and those got completely killed by mites before harvest each time, but those times i had very little on the weed.

-check the underside of your leaves regulary. thats where i can visually see them first usually.

-i might consider to use hunter mites, but might still end up with dead carcasses in your buds

[funkyfunk]

I have good luck getting rid of them usually by raising the humidity levels a bit (they like dry weather), and regular IPM (neem, all-in-one) to break their reproduction cycle (every 2-3 days for 2-3 weeks). And good in depth regular showering of the plants. That works for mine, but there are so many mite cultivars that it might not be enough for others

[Vagabond_Windy]

Sorry that you experienced this issue but very much appreciate the fact that you would post up this information to help others.

[slain]

@Vagabond_Windy

Sorry that you experienced this issue but very much appreciate the fact that you would post up this information to help others

Most welcome man! I had to do a lot of googling myself, and time is critical, once the plants are severely damaged, they don’t really ever recover, so btt I had worked out what was going on, it’s was too late. But hey, you live and learn

That textured kinda striped pattern the leaves develop is apparently what are called ‘russets’ and where it the mites get their name.

Also I forgot to mention to peeps; you can only really use lime sulfur on plants in veg, you don’t want to be inhaling sulfur dioxide from burning sulfur that’s for sure.

How’s this for a terrifying image. lol.

[VAhomegrown]

Predator mites ftw

Russet Hemp Mite Control

[Toker1]

Bad memories myself.
I dunno if they are similar to Broad mites
Damage looks a lot a like, but Broad mites make you wish you had spider mites.
Only thing I found was throw everything away and start again.
Little fakers even got in my clones .

[slain]

@Toker1

Bad memories myself.
I dunno if they are similar to Broad mites

Yeah I haven’t had broad mites yet, but from everything I’ve read and heard they are very similar. Similar kind destruction and difficulty to get rid of.
I think you are right, I’ll probably just end up trashing them and fully sterilize my grow space before I start again. If only I could still get methyl bromide gas here; that would probably be my approach when the tent is empty as it is a potent sterilizer but has no residue. Just don’t ever breathe the stuff lol.

I do seem to have been able to clear up my mother plants with permethrin/fenoxycarb, basically one of those insect bombs, and then putting them outside for a while. But no way do I want to do that on anything smokable so I’m thinking I might just have to cut my losses and put it down to experience🙏

[Calcium_Enriched1996]

I think I’ve been fighting these little buggers and my two moms and are looking pretty beat up because of it. I’ve been trying to use spinosad and sulfur.

[slain]

I found spinosad next to useless on them, I also tried spintoram, neem and pyrethrum. They all knock them back a bit, but their lifecycle is only about 7 days or something so it’s a constant processes. Lime sulfur works well for knockdown and keeps
them at bay for the longest of anything I’ve tried, but it’s not a total solution, and also because it can produce hydrogen sulfide when mixing with acids, it’s not available everywhere. Wettable micronized sulfur is supposed to be the best, but is only useful in early veg or everything ends up tasting and smelling like matches.
Pulling them out and burning them in a fire seems the best option atm lol

For your mother plants, you might be able to to a bit more industrial and try one of those flea/insect bombs in your grow space; that seems to have cleaned them out on mine.

[Rocket]

Russet mites aren’t that bad; I find that they’re much easier to get rid of than those two spotted assholes.

[slain]

As in 2 spotted spider mites? See I’ve found those pretty easy to control in comparison, maybe the heat and humidity in the tent makes a big difference? Idk.

What have you used to control them? Next round I’m thinking I’ll get some predator mites to try to stay on top of them if they turn up. No use once you have a heavy infestation though unfortunately.

[Calcium_Enriched1996]

The two moms are on either side. The plants in the middle are newer and I want to clone them but I’ve been fighting to keep the mites off them too. The white stuff is sulfur residue because I sprayed recently.

This is the one I really don’t want to lose.

This mom will probably left out to die.

For the longest time I thought I had nutrient deficiencies. Then I thought it was lesser pests like white flies and thrips. But then the mite damage started showing. Dang bastards… I really want to get my next grow going soon.

[Rocket]

KILLING SPIDER MITES & APHIDS DEAD. www.liquidirt.com for how to keep plants healthy.

Pro tip: If you do decide to spray them, make sure you run a hand up through each brach while spraying. Doing this will cause the soap mix to pool up in your hand and panitrate deeper into the branch.

[Rocket]

Wash off the sulfur before using the soap mix.

[Rocket]

Also, it helps to defoliate the plants so there’s less crevices where mites could hide in.

[slain]

@Calcium_Enriched1996

For the longest time I thought I had nutrient deficiencies

Yep me too and ph issues. And because I had only two plants effected in a 4 tub rdwc at first I was like wtf is even going on here?

I looked under the leaves with a loupe, and couldn’t see anything moving, but little did I know at that time , the little tiny fkrs were there in the thousands sucking the life out of the plant. Took me a cheap microscope to finally spot them.
Yeah gas them would be my approach for your mothers and anything you really want to keep, just those cheap household flea/insect bombs with a small fan in there to get it under the leaves as well. Permethrin and Fenoxycarb are what you want as they have low toxicity for mammals and a reasonably short half life, so it won’t be an issue for plants that are not gonna be smoked.
I would always prefer a natural solution, but at the end of the day only if they work lol

Permethrin kills adult and juvenile mites and the Fenoxycarb prevents the mites from developing into maturity so they don’t go on the lay lots of eggs, so breaks the cycle.

@Rocket

Wash off the sulfur before using the soap mix.

Yes. Definitely, and don’t use any oil based products with sulfur it burns the plant like hellfire. I found that out the hard way lol.

[Calcium_Enriched1996]

I tried a few defolitations but I always feel like the plants are on the brink of recovery and ready for more clones but it just never happens. So frustrating.

Does soap react badly with sulfur? I tried mixing Dr Bronners Sals Suds with some sulfur cause I figured it wouldn’t hurt cause it’s not an oil.