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* Rid the growroom and it's vicinity of any other plants, or treat every plant in the house.
* Don?t go near your grow area if you have been outside and have touched other plants, always wash and change first.
* If you haven't got an adjustable pump up pressure sprayer/mister, get one-- a must for all growers-- use a medium fine spray with a strong pressure and spray both sides of every leaf, hold the pot up with one hand and spray the undersides from the bottom up, then spray the outer surfaces (I give the outside of the pot, the soil surface and the grow room's walls a spray as well).
* Spray with a specialized mite spray in the recommended dosages. There are several products available from any garden centre, the active ingredient to look for is "DICOFOL", it kills mites, and you'll never see one for 3 months end of story. One hit is all that is needed, I've never had a need to re-spray-- this stuff has residual killing ability.
In Australia there are two mite sprays that contain dicofol that I've used-- Hortico's red spider miticide and Garden King's red spider miticide, both are one hit wonders.
* Forget those garlic/tobacco/chilli etc sprays and other store bought "general purpose" insect sprays-- they never seem to win the war against mites or require multiple applications (I?ve never used neem oil or insecticide soaps).
They state on the mite spray bottles that with dicofol sprays you can eat treated vegetables 7 days after spraying-- as this poison is only used once (late veg or early flowering is as late as I would spray or would need to) and with 50 -70 days between spraying and sampling, there should be no health issues.
I don't spray outdoor plants with mites; I let nature take its course. Around the same time each year I'm attacked by the same type of insect, caterpillars, grasshoppers, mites etc. Conditions become ideal, they multiply, they have their time and then with a change in conditions and with the help of predators they are gone.
Fast growing happy plants with the help of natural predators will resist mites and the plants will outgrow any damage, if you spray poisons you may kill their predators as well, upsetting the balance of nature, causing re-infestations if conditions are right, any way, it's too hard to spray trees outdoors-- if the wind changes, you might get a face full of spray, and who can reach this high!!!!! ha!
Editor's note:
Horticulture soaps (Such as "Safers insecticidal soap), pyrethrins and neem have limited killing effect, although if plants are dipped, the killing % reaches 90%+. Multiple applications will be required.
Eco Green 2011
