I’m gonna look up a couple of different ones, but man a person could go broke trying to control these things. Thanks for the info.
1 Like
Tell me about it
I’ve tried many things but at this point just going to keep them off the green and in the rough soil and after watering reapply some DE (I put perlite first to help with water wicking into DE) around the base of the stem making sure all ways are covered in dry DE. If it gets wet they will walk up it.
I’m not using any tie downs as they would walk up those too. Haven’t had to spray leaves for about a month. I’ll dispose of the soil after the grow instead of recycling it for another round.
They seem to be more active right after (takes a little time after watering) watering plants. They taper off as soil dries at least from what I’ve noticed.
As long as you can keep them off of the leaves / stems and don’t use tie downs and just do some good bending and use some hanging decorations to help with bends to open up things like using tie down. Won’t be as effective but it saves a ton of time not having to keep spraying the attacking mites coming up from the soil.
I’m sure my yields will be lower but oh well.
I’ve almost ordered some predatory mites and still might as I would love to end them all and get off the freaking merry go round of mites.
5 Likes
Love the use of the weights. Well done. I’ll let you know ho the mites work. My hope and they are advertised to “go” after them meaning they won’t stay on the plants they will go where the mites are. I sure hope this works. I just want a solution that’s not spray based. Almost time for the Charlie Brown Christmas. I’m old and still watch that one.
4 Likes
I bombed the room a couple of weeks ago and added some predatory mites and I am mite free to this point. I might be purchasing some other mites that are supposed to maintain the garden. We’ll see though. Oh yeah, I also added some plants that insects don’t like. Citronella, basil, rosemary, sage and I"ll add lemon grass in a week or two.
1 Like
So after adding the predatory mites have you had anymore issues since the initial success…what where the type of mites?
I just applied Neoseiulus (= Amblyseius) fallacis - 1,000 count 5 days ago as I somehow (pretty sure from my worm bin) got mites in both tents now instead of just the one. Wasn’t as big a deal to me this go but could have done without them. Since applying the killer mites Fallacis from ARBICO Organics I’m not seeing the veg mites much at all so I’m pretty happy with the results to date.
I also purchased some NemAttack™ - Sf Beneficial Nematodes - 5 Million that control harmful nematodes, fungus gnat larvae and many other larvae types. I’ve been applying since Friday as well almost daily and my gnats are also about gone. Healthy critters help for a healthy living soil.
Then today the rest of my order came which was the Stratiolaelaps scimitus (Hypoaspis miles) - 12,500. these are more soil feeders and will also take out the pest larvae of gnats, caterpillars etc.
All told was $106 but if they work well and I am thinking they will it’s well worth the money especially compared to what I have purchased so far battling them. Would have been cheaper to have gone the predator mite route in the beginning.
Just wish it was summer here as the 12,500 mites today were a little overkill for the coverage I needed and could have released them outside in the garden.
Letting nature do its thing seems to be the way to go.
Anyway was curious if your still mite free from your release awhile ago.
1 Like
Now I’m a Spider Mite Farmer. Meat eaters that is…
I used about 3/4 of them on my plants/soil and then made up 5 incubators for rearing my own moving forward. Hopefully I’ll get it right and will always have them reproducing.
Also watered in 3 types of beneficial nematodes.
Guess I’ll see if there’s a YouTube video on rearing those too.
I’ll update as to how the meat eating mite raising goes.
Basically now I just need to check them weekly and make sure the lower cotton pads are moist for their water and add some pine pollen for food. If this works I’ll just be continuing releasing some and making up new Petri dishes as needed.
The video above used unscented candles for the wax but I had bees wax so I used that. She also used plastic mesh screen but I had some metal mesh screen (the kind for screen doors etc) but it didn’t work as well. Out of the 10 I did maybe 3 looks right and another couple were ok the rest not so much.
IPM
2 Likes
I saw a video on the preditor mite breading. Ita now on my to do liat, which is long 
It looks easy enough. Good luck with you mites, I’m sure you’ll get them breeding. Let us know if you find out how to breed the nematodes. I wonder how long the nematodes last. I’ve used them in the past in my indoor living soil. Dont know if any are still running around in there or not. Every spring and sometimes in the fall, I spread nematodes in the yard to help with those friggin Japanese beetles. I also use them for flea and tic control in the yard. 
3 Likes
I read about them 15 years ago before applying to my yard and I remember reading that they would survive the winter underground although at lower total population but would rebound come warmer weather.
I would think they would do OK in a living soil as long as they have a food source to eat.
Not sure if they would go into a type of hibernation like outside in pots.
3 Likes
Read this post about spider mites at harvest and thought I would share.
More know ledge
I know this is an older thread but still relevant.
Lady bugs. Used and abused them.
Spray the lady’s with soda pop, not sugar free, to cause their wings to temporarily stick and prevent them flying. This makes them walk around eating and unable to fly into hot stuff like lights.
I let 10K 
loose one time, unsprayed and free to roam, and to my absolute horror the flew straight into HPS bulbs and died en masses. It was horrible. I felt like a mass murderer. Peace .
Icarus flew to close
And oldie but a goodie
I used lady bugs a couple times and they really aren’t suited for tent operations. Released them in stages but they still all eventually died. Won’t use them again unless outside
Still have carcasses on the light fins
1 Like