Or soil that was used in an outside grow? Which is what I did and now paying for it. I have to say the lady bugs have done a great job getting it under control, but I need to be smarter going forward and I appreciate everyone weighing in on the problem.
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and than they get a resistance to whatever you are using
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DE 4 LYFE!!! Using it on fungus gnats atm. Bottom feeding with BTI nitrient water and a layer of DE on top.
Can see it on the topsoil. Little buggers are almost gone!!! Saw maybe 2 or so over the last week.
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lol! I might as well go ahead and say my public service announcement:
Please donāt use banned substances on your weed. ā Iām talking to anyone whoās thinking of doing it.
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hit the plants with a hose
physically knock them off.
spinosad killed mites for me, some say it doesnāt work on mites. Must be type of mite
Spray green cleaner or similar at lights off
Also, donāt get mites in the first place.
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@George1961 We give our dog dewormer/flea medication. He ingests the chemical, every couple months. Itās iverMECTINā¦same family of drugs. Am I and millions of others poisoning our dogs and cats, George?
Abamectin is produced by bacteria. It is a natural product produced by Streptomyces avermitilis.
Therefore, itās organic and āall naturalā, just like spinosad, except it actually works on mites.
@JoeCrowe Banned by who? You canāt even get it in Canada; doubtful you have any experience with it. I can buy a truckload of this stuff in the USA and all I need is a credit card and somewhere to ship it to.
Every single time with the same 3-4 clowns. pEsTiCiDeS bAd, vErNal.
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Micronized sulfur can be sprayed in veg to kill mites.
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It is a lot less chance they came from the soil. Mites can lay in winter dormat, but they usually do that with leaves and sticks.
Add DE to your soil. Good for the plants, bad for soft body insects. They are not something that travels in the soil. Their life cycle is only 14 days.
If you have them bad, you need to change sprays every week regardless of organic or synthetic. By the 3rd generation, which takes about a week, they are immune to it.
Just make sure you are using a miticide. Not all pest killers, kill all pests.
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Here is a pretty easy fix, cover your medium.with steel wool. Adults get shredded trying to get to medium and new borns get shredded trying to emerg. Steel wool is a non toxic metal so a bit of rust wont hurt your plants and will actually add some iron to your medium.
Edit: Sorry folks, I saw someone mention fungus gnats here, that is what this fix is for. Steel wool to fix fungus gnats, not Spider Mites.
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heh heh thatās hilarious! Enjoy!
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I was just at home depot getting something else and because of this thread I picked up 4lb bag of DE it was around $8 I couldnāt pass it up.
My two biggest fears growing my own stuff indoors are bugs and mold/rot.
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Ehā¦kinda weak. Frankly Iām more insulted you drew me looking like Guy Fieri.
@Oheeeoh DE doesnāt actually kill bugs. Iāve tried it. Sounds nice in theory:
āit cuts their exoskeleton/absorbs their waxy cuticle and they dieā but in practice, itās completely ineffective.
DE is so cheap itās almost freeā¦if it actually worked, everyone in the world would use it. Pests destroy hundreds of billions of dollars in crops every year. Farmers, ag researchers, scientists, and nursery/greenhouse operators arenāt stupid.
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heh heh itās just a cartoon character I draw, I always draw the same guy and girl for some reason. I swear Iām actually good at it, if you put a pen and paper in front of me. Kind of like a death version of āthe far sideā. You secretly know I have to make that public service announcement or else Iām not doing my job. Itās nothing against anyone personally.
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DE is useless when it gets wet, thatās why you must water from the bottom to keep it dry. Works well for fungus gnats on the top of the soil, as a foliar spray, it feeds the plant and also kills bugs once moisture is evaporated ā¦ 
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I use wettqble sulfur by hi yield for foiler spray works pretty goodā¦plant therapy is the best but way to pricey
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I watched it kill thrips in real time under magnification.
It most definitely does work.
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Tried to use it to kill fleas in an apartment. It looked like it had snowed insideā¦Iām talking so much DE you couldnāt see the flooringā¦oh my god what a mess to clean up. It did nothing. Did nothing for outdoor tomato plants. Cimexa sucks too, none of the desiccating products Iāve used work. I have read some papers showing good results in lab, but personal experience is Iāve wasted a lot of time and effort with desiccant products